LIZ- welcome to FT, good to have another crew member around. Just to add on to what you mentioned: it is important to remember that the problem of y class elites being held up by F class pax is moot on the 757 and on the 777/744 where 2 doors are used.
I disagree with Bizjet, as I think it would be bad for any airline to pre-board their Y class elites before their F class elites ( who, as mentioned in another post, make up a large portion of the FC cabin)
If UA really wanted to speed up boarding, they could adopt a SR type deal where there is no elite pre-boarding, coach first then C (in this case F) pax. This would be an obvious loss of an elite perk, but I think UA should protect the benefits of its F passengers before they take care of Y elites.


All in all, it just comes down to who you value more, an F class general member or a Y class elite. A good compromise can be reached if only star golds were allowed to preboard and 2P's were forced to wait.