Originally Posted by
Tennen
They specifically say "less crowding" in the email. They also mention "balanced groups and better recognition" on their
Introducing Better Boarding page. They can't have it both ways.
In order to have less crowding and balanced groups, they need to spread the passengers over more groups. My suggested order simply provides a name to the
new group they've already added for 1Ks. (Ok, so I've also reshuffled things to what
I think is more balanced...
) My proposal also meets the better recognition part of their mantra - F/J (over most elites in Y), 1Ks (over Plats), Golds (over Silvers), and Silvers (over $95 cc holders). The one good thing that UA did was to move Golds ahead of cc holders, but they really should do more and treat those $3k Silvers better; it seems AA at least gets that part right.
We always joke about UA copying Delta or AA, but in this case it would have been a lot more rational just to use AA's
9-group process. The only difference (besides loyalty names) is that F pax are in group 1 rather than the equivalent of group 3, which arguably is more appropriate (as being argued here). Putting aside whether Plat and Gold should be lumped in a single group (AA does it; UA now does it; as a Plat I wished it were separate), all elites and F pax (and special needs/benefits) come before the credit card folks, who come before the non CC folks.