Originally Posted by
MDtR-Chicago
Got to try out the new system of lines at SFO last month. It was pretty dysfunctional.
I walked up right as Group 2 was called. Except, since there is a single group 2-4 lane, when the GA called Group 2 no one knew what to do. Then it turned into a Southwest-esque scene of people in the line comparing boarding passes trying to figure out who should go first.
In the end, a BIS Gold lines up the same as a no-fee-first-year credit card holder. Never in my life have I felt so over-entitled. Sure glad UA is putting me in my place.
EDIT: Or apparently a BIS Platinum, too. Incredible.
I haven't had the [mis]fortune of seeing the revised process in action, but the issue of BG 2-3-4 sharing one line while groups 5, 6 and 7 are all broken out into their own lines does baffle me. Presumably the theory is that, on widebody aircraft, most of the cabin will consist of non-status passengers, but as
MDtR-Chicago points out above, that doesn't always bear out in practice. If the gate agents had the authority to modify the setup to suit the elite load (breaking BG 2-3-4 into their own lines and recombining BG 5-6-7 into a 'general boarding' line), the system could work, but that leads to the same sort of inconsistency we're seeing now.
I've said before, and I'll say again, that the keys to getting any boarding process to work are information and enforcement. The passengers waiting in the gate area should be getting constant updates and instruction (either by live GAs or recordings), and the GA at the podium scanning BPs needs to enforce the boarding order.
I'll even go one further - if someone tries to jump the line and board with an earlier group (assuming they're not accompanying a passenger in a higher BG, that is), they get sent to the back of boarding group 7; a second attempt to jump the line earns an IDB (akin to a drunk passenger being refused boarding). It'll never happen, of course, but...