Air Canada Looks to Streamline Boarding Process with New 5-Zone System
Ian MacDonald November 19, 2014
Air Canada hopes a new five-zone system will streamline the boarding process across its network.
Air Canada plans to adopt a new boarding policy in early December. The Montreal-based carrier will introduce a five-zone boarding system for flights operated by Air Canada, Air Canada rouge and Air Canada Express in an effort to streamline the boarding process across its entire network.
Zone 1 will offer priority boarding for Business Class passengers and frequent flyers holding Super Elite 100K status.
Zone 2 will offer priority boarding for Premium Economy and Latitude flyers, as well as frequent flyers holding Elite 75K, Elite 50K, Elite 35K or Star Alliance Gold status. Passengers with select TD and CIBC credit cards will also be eligible for priority boarding in this zone.
Zones 3, 4 and 5 will provide general boarding for the economy section of the aircraft.
When booked on the same reservation and checking in at the same time, travel companions of Super Elite 100K, Elite 75K, Elite 35K , Star Alliance Gold flyers and holders of certain credit cards will receive the same priority boarding zone.
Passengers that require wheelchair assistance will board the aircraft first, while anyone traveling with children under the age of 6 will be permitted to board ahead of general boarding.
The policy change comes in response to several issues Air Canada identified with its current boarding process. The airline currently has a multitude of passenger classifications, and on many flights between business hubs, it is not uncommon to have 60 or 70 customers who qualify for priority boarding, which serves as somewhat of an irritant to the airline’s most elite frequent flyers.
[Photo: Air Canada]
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First on -last on I don't care! My seat is going to be there Front ,back or middle. but maybe not the over head space Cut the carry-ons.
sdsearch, I'm pretty sure that *S gets no special boarding privileges on UA - just Premier Silver, not non-UA *S
It doesn't sound all THAT different. It sounds like they're going out of their way for a bunch of whiners.
So Star Alliance Silver get nothing with AC (could be in zone 5)??? Or is that an omission in the list? On UA, Silver does get the same boarding as credit card holdeers, at least!