This US Gold (and star alliance gold) has a lovely Continental boarding pass with Zone 5 clearly printed along with their priority code from last November. Was told that early boarding was no longer a benefit of * Gold by PMCO staff in Boston, asked again and it was repeated in Houston.

Haven't flown with the new United since March due to change in company policy, but it wouldn't entirely surprise me if there was some movement on the US side to counter this "change you will like".