Originally Posted by
UA Insider
Hi everyone,
As we committed last fall, we have been looking closely at every aspect of our customers’ travel experience to see where we can improve and eliminate points of stress. Customers and employees pointed to the boarding process, just as many of you have, as an area where they wanted to see improvements; many shared that the boarding process for all customers would be smoother if we could accommodate families with infants earlier, as they often need more time to board.
All of us have experienced being the customer in the jet bridge tending to an infant, a diaper bag and a stroller – or to being the person in line to board behind that customer. Resuming pre-boarding for families with infants should provide a smoother process for everyone.
As a result, look for early boarding for families with children aged two and under beginning Monday, February 15, 2016. The new boarding process will be, in order: People with disabilities, active-duty members of the military in uniform, families with small children, and Global Services, followed by boarding groups 1-5.
Thank you,
-UA Insider
Sorry, but this is just plain inane. This is addressing a PROBLEM THAT DOES NOT EXIST. FlyerTalk is a pretty good place to find out what annoys flyers. Show me a thread where the current boarding process relative to small children points to a problem. There's a thread about the boarding process in general, but the main complaint is group size, not children slowing the process. The dispersing of families within the boarding groups works.
This announcement will just open the boarding process to considerable abuse and will not change the time to board one iota. It will just annoy 95% of the passengers. Brilliant. This is just plain stupid. How does United manage to take a step forward (free food item to 1Ks) and then fill it's own pants with something as dumb as this? Seriously? You want something to address? Read FT. I really think sometimes UA is just plain clueless.
"Resuming pre-boarding for families with infants should provide a smoother process for everyone." - this is just plain false. I hope everybody enjoys watching the abuse, lack of enforcement, the extra time GAs have to dedicate to another boarding group, waiting for the families to get to the gate. clogged boarding ramp as all the families take their time getting settled (instead of being dispersed). UA has no clue relative to process.
If this lapse of judgment is not rectified, we will indeed have a thread dedicated to the misguided, abused, and annoying policy. It will start day 1. I hope UA Insider takes the comments on this thread to re-assess. I will have much more faith in UA's current judgment if the idea is withdrawn.