There was a time when “low cost” meant a €9.99 ticket, with everything else more or less included, out of habit or simply because no one thought to charge separately. That time is over.
Today, low cost is a laboratory of micro-services, subscriptions, “all you can fly” passes, regulatory transparency (driven by governments), and at the same time, hyper-granular pricing that shifts perceived value from simply “flying from A to B” to an experience built piece by piece. In other words: the product hasn’t been cheapened, it’s been dismantled; and now it’s being reassembled, but in a selective, dynamic, and personalized way.
From the “naked ticket” to the modular product (and back again)
Unbundling began as a surgical operation of subtraction: out with the large suitcase, out with free seat selection, out with flexibility. The principle was clear: you pay only for what you use, without subsidizing the services of those who don’t need them. This initially revolutionary model turned the flight purchase experience into a mosaic of options to be selected one by one, but it also created growing frustration when the final price ended up far higher than the one first advertised. Today, however, the pendulum is swinging back toward a more intelligent and “curated” form of re-bundling: packages like Breeze’s “Nice, Nicer, Nicest” in the U.S. stitch back pieces of comfort and simplicity for those who don’t want to play Tetris with add-ons; or “Go/Pay less” and “Flex” formulas from many U.S. ULCCs, which seek to balance clarity and affordability.
The core idea is simple but powerful: keep the modular structure, so valuable for revenue management, while offering the customer intuitive shortcuts to reduce the anxiety of an endless checkout screen. This is not a return to “all inclusive,” but an effort to make personalization meaningful, avoiding the feeling of being trapped between a thousand micro-decisions.
Behind the scenes, carriers are implementing advanced NDC logic and algorithmic personalization: the same “fare families” can be displayed differently depending on who you are, how often you fly, when you book, or even the device you’re using. A frequent flyer will see different options than someone who flies once a year, and “bundle” offers can even change dynamically during the booking process.
In this way, the “value of a flight” is no longer just the base ticket price, it becomes the sum of micro-decisions: seat selection, the number and size of bags, priority levels, insurance, sustainability options. Everything is broken down into components the customer can assemble themselves, or, increasingly, have automatically assembled based on saved preferences.
It’s a response both to the squeeze on base fares, which no longer allow for large margins, and to the growing regulatory and political noise against so-called drip pricing, increasingly under scrutiny for its opacity.
Subscriptions, passes, clubs: low cost looks to Netflix (and the supermarket next door)
Where once there was only the one-off ticket, now there are subscription models:
- Frontier GoWild! Pass: “Fly as much as you want” if you accept extreme restrictions and flexibility. The airline equivalent of unlimited last-minute travel, turning unsold seats into predictable monetization (cash up front) and securing loyalty from those who fly constantly or can adapt.
- Wizz Air – All You Can Fly: a European version of the “unlimited” concept, but with clear boundaries (taxes, surcharges, availability, etc.). Launched and sold out quickly, proof that for a segment of travelers, “paying for access” is worth more than buying single tickets.
- Volotea – Megavolotea / Megavolotea Plus: not “unlimited flights,” but structured discounts on fares and extras, extended to travel companions. A “light” loyalty model: no miles to accumulate, just immediate, tangible savings, with a predictable annual fee.
- Wizz Privilege Pass, Spirit Saver$ Club, Frontier Discount Den: clubs promising the lowest fares, discounts on bags and seats, early access to promotions—shifting part of the margin from single flights to memberships.
- Ryanair Prime (brand new): a subscription offering early access to flash deals, free reserved seating, included insurance. This formalizes something Ryanair historically avoided: a “program” promising recurring value to frequent flyers.
- AirAsia Super/Unlimited Pass: an Asian model tied to a “superapp” ecosystem. It generated excitement… and criticism: “unlimited” sells, but strict conditions can erode trust if the perceived promise falls short.
What’s the real shift?
The flight is no longer purely transactional, but relational: airlines seek predictable revenue, behavioral data, and psychological lock-in (“I’ve already paid for the club, I should use it”).
Frequent customers, in turn, offload decision complexity into an annual fee: “Pay me once, and I’ll discount everything else.”
It’s a very “retail” reinterpretation of low cost.
Transparency (mandatory) vs. “base price minus all extras”: the global war on drip pricing
Europe has regulated this for years: Article 23 of Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 requires that from the outset the displayed price include all “inevitable and foreseeable” charges; options must be opt-in. The Court of Justice has reaffirmed this several times (since Air Berlin). But “inevitable and foreseeable” leaves huge interpretive gaps: is a large cabin bag “inevitable”? It depends on who you are, how you travel, and your comfort threshold. So the game remains open.
In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 comes into force on April 6, 2025, with an explicit ban on drip pricing: the direction is clear, airlines will have to show the “real” total upfront. Consumer groups like BEUC, Test-Achats, Consumentenbond, US PIRG, and FlyersRights have spent months denouncing carts that quadruple the initial price once luggage and seat selection are added.
In the U.S., the Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a final rule in April 2024 to make ancillary fees (bags, changes, etc.) upfront. But in January 2025, the rule was blocked by a Court of Appeals and sent back to the DOT for procedural flaws. We are in a “stop & go” regulatory phase, leaving airlines free to keep pushing unbundling, but under a very bright political spotlight.
The result? Globally, three philosophies coexist:
- “Final price, few surprises” (e.g., carriers including at least a large cabin bag and basic seat selection, or Southwest in the U.S. with free checked bags despite not being a classic ULCC): here, the value is simplicity.
- “Ultra-low base price, everything else separate”: here, the value is extreme customer control over budget (with the risk of perceived frustration).
- “Low base price + smart bundles + clubs/subscriptions”: the value lies in a learning curve that, once mastered, brings real benefits (discounts, priority, flexibility) to those who fly often or are willing to read the fine print.
Regulation is gradually nudging the second category toward the third: unbundling will remain, but with clearer interfaces and “membership” discounts that make customers feel in control, not trapped.
