razzaba

Agreed that they do have more pre-boards and such before “group 1” - I guess my point was that it seemed more... orderly.

But if it were reversed and I were on AA, I would view it as a benefit that I could board earlier as an EXP regardless of whether or not I’m in F.

gateH15

It’s more orderly because UA trained its passengers to line up in 5 groups. They had this process for years before current boarding process.
tje only thing I like from UA that they actually do enforce boarding groups.

jordyn

How is Delta worse? They preboard families, but then use clearly defined groups after that, the first of which is First Class and Diamonds.

GlobalMatt

Solution: You provide a BIN NUMBER much like there is a SEAT NUMBER. This is displayed on the boarding pass. Stickers are printed out that correspond to the same number on the boarding pass that are applied to luggage if airlines want to take it that far. Said BIN NUMBERS/BINS/BIN SPACE is assigned to the bin directly above you. Not in front of you, not behind you. Immediately above you. (I'm sure there will be people that argue this, but you know what I'm saying. Don't try to pick it apart with semantics). You put your bag in said bin. Violators have their bags removed from the flight if/when caught, and are offered the option to deplane with their bags for not following a rule much like "stay in line" that most humans experience in Kindergarten.

Just like how Southwest applies a "boarding number" and humans are capable of following instructions, this can easily be applied to baggage, there's no excuse from a technology, logistics, etc standpoint for airlines not to do this. This avoids pax/pax conflict, pax/cabin crew conflict, and pax/airline conflict. Here is your number, here is your bin. It's black and white.

I'll also agree with another poster here where you can just walk up to the GA and volunteer to have your bag checked to avoid bag fees. If you're honestly flying with a ton of luggage, you pay for it. Simple. If you don't want to pay for it, don't fly with it, or take an alternative means of transport.

People no longer freak at the boarding process. No longer crowd gates, and behave better than kindergartners. Now...more importantly...what do we do with people that like to bring stinky food aboard?

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Ultimately some of these ideas like bin numbers would only complicate things. Bottom line the only thing that management is looking at are flights going out on time assuming the inbound is on time. If they are you won't see much happening even if it's an ordeal for employees and flyers alike.

Consistency in announcing the boarding procedure and enforcing the boarding procedure, as well some vigilance over bag size would help. Charging for carry ons at a lower fee than checked bags would really help.

What of course would resolve the issues if people followed simple instructions and didn't approach the boarding lane until their Group number was called. That's not gonna happen.

hbtr

Interesting idea. I think it would work great - if the overhead bins actually had sufficient space. But if you arrive at your seat and “your” bin is full - what then? Are you supposed to start asking people if their bags are in the correct bin, or whether they put two items up there instead of one? Are you just out of luck?

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

It seems to me the old way from years ago boarding by row number starting with F, elite classes and then beginning with the last rows was the most efficient means to board. However, that was before selling of individual seats and MCE, and of course baggage fees encouraging flyers to bring their second larger bag onboard. Today those buying MCE and seats towards the front of the plane would be last to board and last to find bag space. Alas this seems to be the now normal.

wjj

After 4MM on AA as a EXP and CK (now a lowly LTPL), I am traveling mostly UA now (just flying AA to burn miles). The UA boarding process is much better than the chaotic process at AA. Two things are obvious to me. Both airlines use two lines, but when AA signs show Groups 1-4 in one line (and 5-9 in the other), people just rush the line thinking that anyone in Group 1-4 can board at any time once boarding begins. There are always Group 4 passengers clogging the front of the line, but if they are not frequent flyers, they may not know that they are doing anything wrong. The sign says 1-4. UA on the other hand, has one line for Group 1 and another for Group 2. No confusion. If your BP is 3-5, then you wait. The other difference is that people start lining up in the chutes at UA 20 minutes before boarding begins, but there are few if any gate crashers holding Group 3-5 boarding passes. Once boarding begins and the pre-boards are finished (and UA does have more pre-boards including 1K), the process moves smoothly and the plane `is usually ready to go 15 minutes before scheduled departure. Plenty of time for PDBs! On AA, few people line up and there is just a mob that you have to push through at the beginning of each chute. Just a mess. The only place where I have seen AA do something similar is at NRT, and those planes board very quickly. But there are agents checking BPs when you are lined up in the chutes and they boot out those who should not be there. Can't see that happening in the US. Up until a year or two ago, UA had 5 chutes, one for each Boarding Group. I think that was even better and they should go back to that process. Nine groups is just too many on AA.

cmtlatitudes

This is the one and only reason United has gone to the bottom of the big three for me. I only buy paid First/Business (buy, not upgrade with their tens of dollars) - my own hard earned and saved money - not company paid business travel. The last couple of times boarded United this is the exact situation I've encountered. When there's 8 F seats, and 30-40 people boarding ahead of me, I am not a happy camper.

United's hard and soft products are preferable to me in many cases. But their new boarding process has become a deterrent to flying them. Paying $1000's of dollars for the privilege of boarding behind a quarter of the flight, and worrying whether my carry-on is going to be anywhere near my seat, is becoming more and more distasteful for me each flight I take with United. My stomach starts knotting up days before the flight, just thinking about the boarding process might be like.

I have one remaining United residual ticket to use. Following that, I'm actually not certain I'll continue to use them at all, even to a handful of very convenient non-stop high-season destinations. A connecting flight on American or Delta is becomingly more palatable to me than boarding a United flight. 100% due to the changes in United's boarding policies.

GlobalMatt

The idea is that bins are assigned much like seats are. No more bins = no more room for bags, and the ticketed passenger is notified at time of booking if there are no more bins, or notified at check-in or at the gate in the event of bins be "overbooked." Then offer pax option to check their bag for free, or take a different flight if they must be with their bag.

Again, not a perfect system, but I think it's at least a step in the right direction, and kinks would be worked out overtime. Unfortunately I don't really see the airlines doing this as it would create a need for increased IT infrastructure (cost) and likely cut into their bottom line with bag fee rev. It may however increase boarding efficiency since everyone will know exactly where their bags go, but I don't even know how they'd be able to quantify that.

LINDEGR

WOW! Is it really that problematic if your bag is not immediately above you??

LINDEGR

I see this as a recipe for chaos! Not to mention breaking up all of the overheads into separate bins will by definition yield less total space for passengers to stow bags. This seems like all changes for the worse....

jtc246

Any time I have a bag of any size at all, I generally just check it now. Playing the game for overhead bin space became too random, and I decided I didn't want the hassle. But that's just me, I understand the frustrations.

MarkOK

I just don't get all of this overhead baggage drama! Assigned bins sound like waaay more effort than it is worth. I think the MCExtra overhead bins are already too much (FA's can't effectively police them, and most of the time they don't need to because elites in those rows fill them up and then some before boarding group 5 is even called. Othertimes, their the only bins with space when the last passengers get on and it makes way more sense to put those last bags there than to spend time printing bag tags and checking them).

Every flight, there are rows with no overhead bags and rows where everyone has overhead bags. When I fly with my family, very likely we have zero carry ons that go up top -- if we are checking 1 bag we might as well check all 3. The only sensible thing to do is let people hoist their bag where they may -- most follow the rules (rules of AA such as 1 bag, and rules of etiquette alike) and will put their bag above their seat, and those arriving a bit later may have to put theirs a few rows forward or back. Big whup.

AA can simply just gate check bags from group 9 on full flights like they mostly already do.

I am sorry that some of you get anxiety about overhead bin space, I'd hate to think what other every day little problems you all clutch pearls over.

If we really want to board faster, we just need more people to check bags (.), be familiar with the layout of the plane (where seat numbers are, etc), and then we might even look at some of the minor things (like precious PDB service -- sort of odd imo to stop boarding for 5 minutes just so people can get their whisky in a plastic cup to sip during boarding).

GlobalMatt

What is your suggestion then? How would this be a recipe for chaos if you have assigned bin space? Is it not currently chaos?