With Basic Economy now a norm across most airlines, offering a cheaper seat but without many of the standard amenities including seat selection and baggage checking (and in some cases carry-ons, either), a number of airlines are now trying out a business class seat unbundled from the amenities.
First offered last year by Emirates and Qatar, which began offering the seat and the inflight service and checked bags, but no priority services, lounge access or even seat selection. Now Finnair is offering ‘Business Light,’ which follows the same pattern, except it also strips off the checked bags and a few more items. A small Japanese airline, ZipAir, has a similar offering.
At Finnair, the discount varies; The Points Guy website analyzed some examples, including a Helsinki to London fare that was about 20%, or €65 cheaper, and a Helsinki to JFK fare that was about 11% (€125) lower. Many of the amenities could be added back for a fee, such as WiFi or checked bags or changes. But, they could push the fare back up to regular.
It will be interesting to see what the market for this option turns out to be, and whether it will need steeper discounts to succeed. With business travel low for the past year, and chunks of it likely to never return in the era of Zoom, there may be an incentive for airlines to coax economy flyers to take a bigger step forward than mere premium economy.
