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United's Current Boarding Process (with Wiki) [Revised, May 2013]

Old May 21, 2013, 10:43 am
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Last edit by: aacharya
Source: https://hub.united.com/en-us/News/Co...g-process.aspx

Pre-Boarding
  • Customers with Disabilities
  • Global Services
  • Uniformed Military Personnel
  • Families with Children Age Two and Under

Premier Access Boarding
  • Group 1: Premier 1K, Premier Platinum, BusinessFirst, and First.
  • Group 2: Premier Gold, Star Gold, Premier Silver*, MileagePlus Presidential Plus, Club, Explorer and Awards, purchased Premier Access

*A Star Alliance Silver who is not a Premier Silver is not eligible for Premier Access boarding.

General boarding (Window Seats, then Middle Seats, then Aisle)
  • Group 3 - Window Seats
  • Group 4 - Middle Seats (Aisle Seats on UA Express)
  • Group 5 - Aisle Seats

Note: If you’re traveling with a companion and one of you has a higher boarding status, you both may board with the earlier group.

Note: Self Boarding Gates are being tested at the following gates...
  • IAH - Gate C25/C26 - See Post 2960, Includes YouTube video from CO777DAL
  • IAH - Gate E4 - Old test from pmCO days, See Thread Here
  • BOS - Self boarding gates are now back in *LIMITED* use at least at gates B25 and B26


sUA Boarding Times by Aircraft (AFA)
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United's Current Boarding Process (with Wiki) [Revised, May 2013]

Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:43 pm
  #16  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SFO South Bay
Programs: UA 2MM
Posts: 3,052
As a GS, I guess I am personally fine. But I really do feel very sorry for Premier Gold customers. This includes pre-merger UA Million Milers who once were right behind 1K, and are now mixed with credit card holders!

What a HUGE let down for Premier Gold members!!

Why would ANYONE fly UA to get to Gold, when you can just pay $99 for a credit card and get the same thing!?!? Gold appears dead.


p.s. I fly out from LAX to IAH 12:30am on Jan 10, so will get to see this first hand. I will take pics!!
blueman2 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:46 pm
  #17  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: DEN/OGG
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 1,482
And no announcement on United.com our the Hub site.
So chaos will even be bigger.
Plane-is-home is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:47 pm
  #18  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: ORD
Programs: AA, UA Plat, HH Gold, Marriott Amb
Posts: 416
Originally Posted by pinerd
Ugh just made Gold this year. I should've skipped my MRs and been happy with my Explorer card.
Have to agree with that. If I get both cards and am Gold, can I get Boarding Group 1.5?
mmayer is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:52 pm
  #19  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 7
Think we need the following boarding process:

Pre-boarding - military/veterans, family with kids under 2 years old & people with disabilities/those who need extra time to board

Group 1 - GS & GlobalFirst

Group 2 - 1K & BusinessFirst

Group 3 - Platinum & Gold

Group 4 - Silver, Credit Card Holders & E+

Group 5 to 7 - General Boarding

This needs to be enforced strictly like what they do in PEK.

GlobalFirst seems to lose its "exclusivity" because of having to board with the rest of Group 1 which in PEK on UA850, probably spans at least 50 people.
ironic23 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:53 pm
  #20  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Colorado
Programs: United MM (formerly 1K), Marriott Lifetime Gold
Posts: 551
yet another downgrade for 1ks

yet another reason not to fly 100K miles this year, when 75K gets you in the same boarding zone.
FlyingNut724 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:54 pm
  #21  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: LGA/JFK/EWR
Programs: UA 1K1.75MM, Hyatt Globalist, abandoned Marriott LTT (RIP SPG), Hertz PC
Posts: 21,165
Odds on when we finally revert all the way back to the (superior) PMUA process?
UA-NYC is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:55 pm
  #22  
Used to be MBS PremExec
 
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Saginaw, MI (MBS)
Programs: UA 1K 1.9MM, Marriott Titanium w/Lifetime Plat, Hilton LIfetime ♢, National Exec, Amex Plat
Posts: 5,720
So they're taking the biggest bottleneck (Group 1), and making it even bigger!?!?! I'm not hating on Plats--they deserve benefits too, but Group 1 on anything larger than an A320 is a complete Charlie Foxtrot as it is...

And I really feel for the Golds here...Wow, fly up to 74,999 miles/year and you board the same time as someone who has a credit card.

I think this is a big step backwards...And it's only going to compound when people think, "Group 2...I'll be in the second group to board, I'll just start lining up early."

This new plan makes an already-bad process even more annoying and customer-unfriendly...Unless they are restricting the blue carpet to Group 1 only. (At least in the 99%+ gates systemwide that don't have the new 'trial' lanes.)

Last edited by MBS MillionMiler; Jan 7, 2013 at 7:10 pm
MBS MillionMiler is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:56 pm
  #23  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: SFO South Bay
Programs: UA 2MM
Posts: 3,052
Originally Posted by ironic23
Think we need the following boarding process:

Pre-boarding - military/veterans, family with kids under 2 years old & people with disabilities/those who need extra time to board

Group 1 - GS & GlobalFirst

Group 2 - 1K & BusinessFirst

Group 3 - Platinum & Gold

Group 4 - Silver, Credit Card Holders & E+

Group 5 to 7 - General Boarding

This needs to be enforced strictly like what they do in PEK.

GlobalFirst seems to lose its "exclusivity" because of having to board with the rest of Group 1 which in PEK on UA850, probably spans at least 50 people.
This would have my vote!!!! I mean, come on!! If you want to be exclusive in terms of boarding groups, then be in groups 5-7. Out of a plane of 130 people, probably less than 20% will be in those groups!!
blueman2 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:58 pm
  #24  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Colorado
Programs: United MM (formerly 1K), Marriott Lifetime Gold
Posts: 551
Originally Posted by UA-NYC
Odds on when we finally revert all the way back to the (superior) PMUA process?
When they realize how many people are flying less because of their stupid changes to the original superior process.

EDIT: When they realize they are losing more money from people flying less than the money brought in from the credit card .

Last edited by FlyingNut724; Jan 7, 2013 at 7:03 pm
FlyingNut724 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 6:59 pm
  #25  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: DEN
Programs: AA EXP, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,563
What a downgrade for Golds.


Originally Posted by jackal

How about programming the GIDS screens to show the current boarding group? Alaska does that at their gates in such a simple display that it's impossible to misunderstand:
This is good for gates that have the screens. Many gates don't have them.
bse118 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 7:00 pm
  #26  
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: TPE
Programs: UA Gold, HA Premier, Hertz #1 Gold PC, SBUX Gold
Posts: 603
This is horrid. De-values status even further for golds and silvers with the credit cards. How in any way is this an improvement? I absolutely sympathize with golds who twice as much as I do, but even as a silver I still find this despicable becase a kettle with a credit card who does not fly nearly as much as I do can still theoretically board before me. Under the current system as a silver I was group 3 and the credit card folks seemed to be group 4; that was much easier to handle over this "improvement."
gradsflyer is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 7:08 pm
  #27  
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Colorado
Programs: United MM (formerly 1K), Marriott Lifetime Gold
Posts: 551
Originally Posted by jackal
Interesting. I'm unsure how this will make the boarding experience better (it sounds like it'll make it worse), but I'll withhold judgment until I see it in action on Sunday.
Agreed. This is now going to be two huge scrums for position so that people can get their bags on board.
FlyingNut724 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 7:08 pm
  #28  
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: MDT / BWI / IAD
Programs: UA Plat 1MM
Posts: 477
Thumbs down

Last week - with the 7 group process - UA895 (ORD-HKG) was already a mess for Group 1. As a 1K in J cabin, at least 50 people ahead of me. I can take that ... By why add even more to that group??? And, as others have posted, that's really not right for GF and GS.
Modern 49er is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 7:09 pm
  #29  
Suspended
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
It's stupid because none of it would be necessary if UA enforced the carry-on rules (otherwise who cares if you're last to board) and because UA won't enforce this boarding scheme any more than it has anything in the past.
Often1 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2013, 7:11 pm
  #30  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Programs: United Mileage Plus Premier
Posts: 775
In my mind fewer groups of more people is not going to do anything to resolve the mess. As it is now, the boarding areas are often crowded and crazy as groups are called. With larger groups trying to board it is just going to be even crazier. I know I really don't know too much about this because I am just a lowly Silver now--with 20+ years as an Elite/PM. Things like PA announcements you can actually hear, boarding areas big enough to handle the crowd and enforcing the groups all of the time will go a lot farther than this "new plan". On a recent EWR to PBI trip we used a gate designed for an RJ, 12 seats in the waiting area and 150 passengers. Brilliant.....
gene2632 is offline  

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