Is Delta Pulling its Cheapest Fares from Google Flights, Other Sites?

Over the last 24 hours, virtually all of Delta’s basic economy fares have disappeared from Google Flights and other popular flight search engines like KAYAK. But on Delta’s own website – and online travel agencies (OTA) like Expedia – the airline’s cheapest, restrictive fares are still alive and well.

What started as a strange quirk on a few domestic routes on Wednesday had snowballed into a nearly worldwide blackout by Thursday, making it nearly impossible to find and book Delta basic economy tickets while using one of the world’s most popular travel search engines. 

Whether this is a glitch or a major change rolling out in how Delta lists and sells tickets via third-party sites remains to be seen. But the fact that this phenomenon has steadily spread – and that Delta basic economy fares have disappeared on multiple platforms while remaining bookable on several others – suggests it could be intentional.

A representative from Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Delta spokesperson said they were looking into the issue. 

From simple domestic nonstop roundtrips to connecting itineraries to long-haul international, basic economy has vanished on Delta flights when searching via Google Flights and other sites. On this roundtrip flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Denver (DEN), for example, Google Flights originally displays a fare of $137 – a tried-and-true basic economy price point.

But after clicking through the departing and return flights, Google notes that “the price you saw on the previous page has changed” and only lists a pricier, $207 main cabin fare. Basic economy is nowhere to be found. 

Search that same route on Delta.com and voila: There’s that $137 basic economy option. 

Same goes for big international searches, like Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo-Haneda (HND). You’ll only see the higher, $945 main cabin fare – despite the initial promise of a $705 ticket. On this route and countless others, the popular travel search site KAYAK only sees Delta’s main cabin prices, too.

Yet tap the same route in straight on Delta’s site, and you’ll see the cheaper basic economy option. You can find it on Expedia, too.

This same pattern plays out again and again and again on hundreds of searches. As of publication, we’re only seeing Delta basic economy pop up on both Google Flights and KAYAK on one-way searches. 

It all begs the question: What’s going on here? I’ll be honest, I can’t answer that for sure. But I can think of a handful of possibilities:

• This may very well just be a technical glitch – an error that gets fixed within a matter of days, maybe even hours
• Is Delta laying the groundwork for its new unbundled fares, something airline executives said was in the works starting sometime next year?
• Maybe it’s related to how Delta will comply with new federal rules for displaying extra fees? With fees for picking a seat and canceling flights, basic economy will be the most problematic for Delta
• Or is Delta revamping how it lists and advertises its fares across the internet – picking some winners and losers in the process? 

Delta wouldn’t be the first to make a drastic change in how it distributes its fares as airlines big and small try to funnel more travelers into the most profitable booking platforms. 

In a shocking reversal earlier this year, Southwest went the other direction and began listing fares on Google Flights for the first time before eventually expanding to KAYAK, too. And American Airlines wound up ousting its second-in-command earlier this year after its controversial implementation of new fare distribution technology backfired.

Part of that plan? Excluding American basic economy fares from several third-party sites.

Whatever’s going on, I can’t imagine Delta basic economy will be absent from Google Flights and KAYAK forever. But it could be the precursor to some major changes in how travelers search for and book flights with Delta. 

This is a developing news story, check back for updates.