New Boarding Process

Did I not read today, that do to overwhelming complaints, UA will go back to zones and CO will keep rows when boarding for the present time?

You did. Happens later this week.

I assumed the boarding process change would go into effect today and was looking forward to seeing if it was any different in ATL. They actually used the just-retired CO-esque process. They did active uniformed military; GS/1K/F/PP; all elites and families with children at the same time (ugh); then I don't know b/c I boarded the plane at that point. So yeah, not great. The nice thing, again, though is that there were no gate lice hanging out in the boarding lanes, although there were a few near the boarding lanes. I hope the no gate lice thing continues, at least.

I have flights tomorrow and Friday, so we'll see if anything has changed at ORD and CLE.

I printed out my boarding pass for my UA flight tomorrow, and since I am crediting this mixed metal itinerary to CO, my boarding pass read STAR GOLD. There is no mention of Platinum anywhere. This is the first time I am flying UA with my CO # since they switched the boarding a few weeks ago. Since Platinums are now able to board with 1K's, I expect to have to flash my Platinum card or get turned away.

I am soooooo glad they are returning to zones!

GA's seem to handle the military in several different ways. In the last four legs I have heard, "military", "military in uniform", "active duty military", and "military in uniform or on orders", but did not actually see any of them board. About 2 weeks ago IAD-SFO on a 767, I did not hear the announcement but saw about 10 young buzz-cut guy in civilian clothing board first. Also some GA's call them to the carpet, some around to the side behind the special needs pax. A couple have included them with GS, F, 1K.

Yep. That's a big part of the problem. GAs not being consistent.

Glad to hear we are back to zones for boarding. I would think it would be very easy to assign zone numbers according to rows if that is how they want to do the boarding. It would make more sense to create initial zone numbers for window seats toward the rear followed by rear aisles and window seats further front progressively in order to keep the aisles clear for a smoothing boarding process.

Flew ALB-ORD-DEN yesterday, saw zones on both segments (alb-ord was RJ700). This also means people sitting in 22E are trying to sneak into the 1K group again.

It seems active military is being lumped in with 1K/F/GS. I think this is the better plan. I have no problem with military boarding first, and they're usually sitting in a different part of the plane than I am anyway, but having a completely separate boarding group just makes things more complicated.

Boarding military with F and high elites would be a good AAlternative...if you know what I mean.

I don't know, I kind of like military going first before everyone else. 3 of my 4 flights last week lacked gate lice. Could be attributed to people realizing they aren't first on board anymore and keeping the lane clear for the possible military passenger. At least, that's what I like to think. ORD-CLE on Thur was just a mess, but that had more to do with the massive delays and standbys due to the storms Wed night/Thur morning.

So glad they changed the process back!

The new CO boarding process has uniformed military and GS boarding first, then First Class/IK/Platium, followed by Gold/Silver/*Gold, all Elite Access. Families with children 4 and under, extra time and economy boarding back to front. I've heard UA using the phrase "Seating Area"- this might be the new replacement to Zones.

wish i read your post before getting turned away by the gate agent without my Plat card in hand. it was not a fun experience

UA has used "Seating Area" for many years before the (apparently short-lived) switch to Zones.

So do we now have to show our Plat cards to get early boarding? That's quite a throwback to many years ago.

I wasn't paying too much attention, but I'm pretty sure the gate agents have been announcing

• uniformed military
• GS/1K/F/C/Pres Plat
• 1P/Plat/Gold/*G
• Seating area 1, which is 2P/Silver/*S and families (sometimes split out right after seating area 1)
• Seating areas 2-4

So basically saying that PP goes in the first group, Plat with the 1P, Gold and *G folks. I might be mistaken, though.

I didn't get the chance: The GA never even bothered to call Platinum. She called Military/1K/GS. The next call was for 1P/*G, so I boarded with this group. However, if the GA's follow the new procedure, any CO Platinum who is crediting to OP will have *G on their boarding pass. Until UA fixes this, how else would a GA know that you are a CO Platinum, unless you show your card? I wouldn't blame the GA. It's the fault of UA's system for not recognizing our CO Platinum status on our boarding passes. I thought that the boarding passes used to print out CO Platinum, but I could be wrong about this.

I've been crediting my int'l C-class flights to CO and my UA BP's show "CO*G", including my return from CDG a couple days ago. No indication of actual CO status on the BP. As a 1P, no impact to me with regard to boarding.

Hi Everyone, I wanted to give you a heads up on a change that you’ll soon see to the boarding process when traveling on flights operated by our Continental subsidiary. These changes will set the stage for us to move to a common process in March. Here are some highlights of what to expect:

1. “Boarding Groups” will appear on each boarding pass. With the exception of Global Services and Presidential Platinum Elite customers, all customers will be invited to board by the Boarding Group on their boarding pass.
2. Some customers will be invited to pre-board. We’ll invite customers with disabilities, as well as Global Services, Presidential Platinum Elite and uniformed military personnel to board first.
3. There will be eight Boarding Groups. After pre-boarding, we’ll continue to board by group number which includes the following:
   
   
   • Boarding Group 1: Premium cabin, 1K and Platinum Elite customers
   • Boarding Group 2: Gold Elite, Premier Executive and Star Alliance Gold
   • Boarding Group 3: Silver Elite, Premier and Star Alliance Silver
   • Boarding Group 4: Presidential Plus cardmembers
   • Boarding Group 5: Mileage Plus Explorer and OnePass Plus cardmembers
   • Boarding Groups 6-8: General boarding
     Note: between Groups 5 and 6 we’ll invite families traveling with children under four

Until we’re on a single system in March, the boarding process on flights operated by our United and Continental subsidiaries will remain different. For example, Boarding Group 4 on each carrier represents a different set of customers. Changes to flights operated by our Continental subsidiary will begin later this month.

Shannon Kelly
Director, Customer Insights
United Airlines

Shannon,

Thanks for numbering all of the groups! The previous United system of numbering only the non-elite groups confused a lot of non-elite passengers; I regularly saw people with a "1" on their boarding pass try to board with the Global Services/1K/premium cabin boarding. Numbering even the elites really does make it simple for everyone, and simplifies announcements for when there are multiple elite levels included on some of the elite boarding groups.

Nice job - can't wait to see it in action soon.

Thanks for the update Shannon. Now we just need to have the GA's go through training so that they learn to speak clearly and slow enough for everyone to understand what they are blurting out. Will make life easier for them as well as the passengers.

Thanks for the update, Shannon. It's nice that something is being done to improve the current boarding process (usually a complete mess), but I have to admit, I am skeptical. Eight boarding groups (10 if you count GS + military and families with children under 4) is a pretty insane number!

It would help if the announcements are simple and focused on the number, without reading all the various elite statuses and credit card stuff. Yeah, I know there are some elites who really want to hear their status read out loud, but just keeping it to the number would make the announcements short and to the point.

There's also the issue the 2/3's of the passengers that fall in the last 3 boarding groups will also get the perception their business is not appreciated by United and seek out a more "friendly" airline in their mind for their future travel needs. Thats why so many non-elites I know choose Continental over United in the past.