Originally Posted by
tarheelnj
They do pre-board, but from what I've seen, the GA's take "pre-boarding" literally. You have to be on the blue carpet at the moment the GA announces pre-boarding for disabled, military, and GS's, because you have about a 5-10 second window before they start with Group 1. At that point pre-boarding is over and you're now part of groups 1 through whatever the currently active boarding group is at the back of that line.
I saw something like this last Saturday (3/31). I was on UA900 SFO-FRA. All of a sudden -- without any annoucement -- some folks began boarding. I asked whether this was GS pre-boarding. The gate people ignored the question, but one of the people boarding said that it was pre-boarding for UA pilots and personnel only. I then said in a fairly loud voice "all these people are UA pilots?".
If there is pre-boarding, there should be an announcement. Is that too much to expect?
I do want to say that this is a bit of a nit, i know. Overall, I'm happy with UA and GS. They did have a terrible March due to system conversion, but the worst is behind us.
They did handle it well yesterday when my flight went mechanical. At least well for GS. Hundreds of others where handled like cattle, but I was quietly transferred to a nice first class seat on UA927 three hours later and they transferred my bag as well. The bag was one of the first ones off the plane in SFO. This is what keeps me on UA.