Delta is rebranding Basic Economy and all of its fare classes. What does it all mean?

Delta Air Lines has uncorked a rebranding of all of its fare types — upending the Basic Economy/Main Cabin/Comfort Plus/etc. order that has dominated the big U.S. airlines for the last decade or so.

The new ticket types can be booked now for trips starting in October, and includes up to a whopping 11 customized fares. Each ticket will consist of one “product” and one “experience.” I think most of us used to call them “classes.”

Let’s try to make sense of it.

For the “product” aspect, Delta is simplifying the names of the basic seating offerings on its planes. The availability of these seat types varies according to aircraft and route.

You’ll notice Basic Economy is missing, because Basic Economy was always just a standard Main Cabin seat with few perks (more on that below).

Once you’ve chosen your seating product, it gets more complicated. The next step is to choose your “experience.”

The “Basic” experience means few perks for the lowest price within the product. So, no seat selection, no changes allowed, no upgrades, no SkyMile earning.

That sounds like Basic Economy because it is. Basic Economy will now be known as Delta Main Basic, basically. For now, Basic is only available in Delta Main, but that could change in the future (see below).

The “Classic” experience refers to services that we might have once taken for granted in air travel, such as seat selection, earning miles and being able to change your ticket. The old Main Cabin ticket will be known as Delta Main Classic.

The “Extra” experience is a new wrinkle. Tickets booked with this experience are fully refundable, with changes allowed. They earn bonus miles, have a higher boarding priority, and have a higher priority for Medallion upgrades.

The new Delta products and experiences mean that there are up to eleven distinct fare combinations available. They are:

I pretended to book some Delta flights to Detroit and Tokyo for October, and can confirm: The options are there, depending on the seat types on the flight. The Tokyo flight had nine of the 11 fare options, excluding Delta First Classic and Delta First Extra.

We can speculate, but the ultimate answer is, of course, money.

First off, the new scheme reminds me of shopping for flights on some European airlines. In the so-called “fare families” model, within each traditional seating area like main cabin or business class you get multiple levels of perks to choose from. This results in a dizzying number of fare options — great if you like choice, but also potentially confusing.

Secondly, some travel bloggers have been suggesting that Delta wants to “unbundle” its premium fares, giving you the option to forgo some perks that we traditionally expect in the front of the plane. So someday in the future, will we see fares like “Delta Comfort Basic,” “Delta First Basic” and even “Delta One Basic”?

Some passengers might see that as a degradation of premium seating; others might welcome the chance to sit in Delta First or Delta One for less money.

Finally, Delta is introducing the new “Extra” experience as a way upselling you from plain old “Classic” Main or Comfort seats (and so on) with additional goodies such as refundability and a better chance of being upgraded.

Which, of course, is yet another opportunity to spend more money with Delta.