Boarding by Elite Level
 

I haven't seen this one before, but on flight IAH to LAX this evening, Plat's were boarded prior to the rest of the elites (bunch of elites, only one upgrade). Never seen this before, is this a sign of things to come or just an isolated incident??? Not that I would mind . . . .

The topic has been discussed a number of times before. It occurs most frequently when the flight is heavy with elites. In the 90s, I saw it happen most frequently on BOS/EWR. Boarding by elite level happens, but it's not a common occurrence.

I would love to see this become common!

Is this more alignment with UA? (red carpet boarding for 1K, Global Services, First and Biz)

As CF indicated, I too have only seen this on Elite heavy boardings. I've personally seen it most CLE-IAH.

Have only seen it once.
Was a Friday afternoon IAH-CLE flight.

GA actually "bounced" a gold elite trying to board with the plats.
"Sorry sir, but we're only boarding Platinum elites at this time."

I used to see it on EWR-DCA & DCA-EWR all the time.

I wish I'd see this more often on elite-heavy flights. Thankfully the days of, "We've got too many elites so we're boarding only by row number," appear to be gone.

+1.

This question was raised a year or so ago. An employee (maybe sfogate??) said that they are *supposed to* board by elite level when the flight is >X% full of elites. It's been a while, but x=30 or 50 sticks in my mind.

^

As a plat, I think boarding by level would be great--especially on the big planes. Flights from EWR to Asia have so many Silver, Gold and Plats that if you don't move fast you could easily be 40 deep in line. I don't see the need on the smaller planes.

A majority of my EWR-ORD flights in the past couple of years have had this happen, particularly at peak times. Even as a gold, I still had no trouble snagging an exit row and finding overhead space on the 735.

I find just the opposite to be true. The large aircraft (767, 777) have plenty of overhead space and there is always space for my bag regardless of when I board. The bins on the smaller aircraft, on the other hand, always fill up.

Not me. I think it makes sense for an elite heavy flight, but it otherwise unnecessarily complicates the boarding process and slightly dilutes the value of lower tier elite levels.