Lori_Q

Yes, this seems to be the case. Gate agents on all three of my completely-full flights last week made regular announcements about carry-ons being checked for free for boarding groups 1-4, and group 5 passengers being allowed one carry-on only.

Maybe one of the positive results of BE is that there will be fewer delays due to the last-minute checking of carry-ons. The agents can make announcements, then spot potential problems when BE customers line up in Group 5.

JBord

Bolding mine.

I agree with you that UA should stick to the rules, for the experiential reasons. But I don't think UA cares if people buy BE or not. At worst, it's probably revenue-neutral, at least in whole if not by each BE fare sold.

My concern is that a plane made up of 90% regular fare passengers is going to be delayed as they work through individual issues, or as you noted, people thinking they have a right to E+ in the future. Hopefully they have some type of process and algorithm in mind as BE becomes more prevalent.

DENviaLAX

Just had an interesting second hand account on a flight to ORD. Passenger on BE fare has carry on that GA has him put in the sizer to make sure it's small enough to fit under his seat. Turns out it's a little bit too big, so GA informs him she's going to have to charge him to gate check it. In response the guy starts taking out clothes from the bag and puts them on. In the end he was wearing several shirts and a couple pairs of shorts, bag fit the sizer, and he got on the plane looking like the Michelin Man. All's well that ends well, I suppose.

goalie

Something tells me we will be seeing more of that - and especially on the snowbird routes

wrp96

Well at least he was creative instead of causing a scene.

dordal

I'm in the exact same boat. If a flight SFO-SEA is $X on AS/VX and $X+15 on UA for equivalent services ( witness any number of examples, for example July 4, 2017 the ~9pm departure @ $94 AS or UA-BE, $109 UA-Y), I'm going with AS. MVPG there is roughly equivalent to UA*G, so no way I'm paying $15 more to go with UA.

Shortsighted, esp. in competitive markets, unless everybody does it. I'm thinking AS won't, and neither will SWA.

Already doing a lot more AS flying this year, so for me the ship has sailed, but we'll see how many others they lose.

xtremeski2001

Flown on United most my life, but not frequent enough to ever maintain any real status with them. First time flying United with my wife and children in tow (3 children under the age of 3). 2 of 3 children were ticketed (one lap child).

Flying from EWR to MCO, we arrived at the gate with a double stroller and car seat. When attempting to gate check the car seat and stroller the gate agent offered to clear our row so we could have it to ourselves and use the car seat. We had 4 tickets and it was a 737 so this meant moving the others next to us elsewhere on the plane.

The customer were moved up to Economy Plus and we were given the whole row to ourselves. We never asked for anything so we were taken aback and very happy with the gate agent. Really made us feel good about United, which is commensurate with my previous experiences with the airline.

On the way back from MCO to EWR I asked the gate agent about it to see if the same scenario could be extended to us again and she looked at me like I had 3 heads

So thank you EWR United Gate Agent!

JBord

First of all, that's awesome. Second, I'm glad I wasn't sitting next to him. I wonder if he took a couple layers off and stuffed them under the seat once he was seated? Kind of like the silliness of having someone stuff a purse into another bag to get down to 2 when you know they're going to take it out 5 minutes later anyway (but I get it, it's the rule).

Kmxu

My son would probably do the same thing. He once took Spirit flight without carryon bag. Cheers.

emcampbe

I actually think this could be handled mostly automatically through OLCI or kiosk's...like 80 - 90%. Just takes a little programming.

For Regular fare passengers: Create an algorithim for a comp. E+ selection if needed based on BE load and number of available seats in E- - offer could be based on *G status or if one is in a high enough fare class (maybe Y, B, M, E, U...or maybe even program flexibility based on number of BE passengers and number of available seats for them), offer them the normal E+ buy up. If they decline, give them a message, something like "due to overbooking in the regular economy cabin, you have been selected to receive a seat in economy + for no additional charge" - they can either select from available seats in E+, or decline and keep in their existing seat. Maybe skip the buy up, maybe not. Repeat as necessary for other customers that meet the offer requirements.

For BE passengers: If there are enough seats at the time of check in for their entire party - they get BPs with the seats...if not, they get a "see agent at gate for seat assignment" or whatever it says today, and then agent handles at gate.

I realize its not going to work 100% of the time, but could work to not overload the GA with seat requests while handling the matter. The programming shouldn't be that hard, but would of course, require software to 'guesstimate" - but these days, can be done fairly accurately.

COSPILOT

I had the pleasure of seeing this in person today in PHX. GA made multiple announcements that group 5 would not be allowed anything but one personal item. Boarding looked orderly from start to finish on a completely full airplane. I got to watch, as I was on standby and was the very last person to board. To my surprise, there was plenty of bin space. If this is the side benefit of BE fares, I guess I will take it as a positive.

LAX UA 1K

Could you tell how many people were in Group 5?

COSPILOT

Only a guess, but roughly 25-30? On a A320 if it matters.

Doc Savage

I flew yesterday out of SFO.

My scheduler got suckered by the new "Basic Economy" on UA and booked that, unfortunately last minute, so I got screwed on EQDs and EQSs. I'd mentioned it to her a few months ago, but she ended up forgetting to schedule my flight until 2 days prior, and I didn't catch it within the 24 hour window.

UA is really going out of their way to make basic economy pax feel like merde. Plastered all over the tickets, signs at the gate, the absolute worst seat on the plane, threatening to charge for even carry on bags. Luckily just talked to a GA and fixed these.

There's no charge for a carryon rollaboard for Premier status, but a $50 charge if you bring it to the gate otherwise. $25 for a checked rollaboard.

I was initially assigned, literally, the worst seat on the plane, last row stuck in the window seat (2X2 seating).

Boarding group was assigned appropriately per my status, so not stuck at the end of boarding.

It looks like UA is going out of their way to make BE pax feel like 3rd or 4th class citizens.

Terrible look for the airline.

StuckinITH

Even with my basic french, I would have preferred if you had finished your sentence with "the word of Cambronne". But I do totally understand your feeling.

Lucky for me, my wife is the one that does my airline and hotel reservations. And then my place of employment reimburses me. At the beginning of my career, I had my administrative assistant doing the reservations and always ended up in middle seats at the back of the plane and in hotels not convenient for my destination.