Boarding Priority and Elite's
 

As a frequent flyer with Elite status, I enjoy being able to board the aircraft after FC. A few years back I was on a flight for whatever reason, Elites were not given pririty boarding. Not sure what airport it was. Have not experienced this for awhile until last Friday night. On my flight from IAH-SEA,
it was completelty full and running late as the cleaning crew took over 1/2 hour to have the aircraft cleaned.
When boarding was called, First Class, Active Military, Anyone with special needs use the Elite line. After that, the agent said because the aircraft was running late and the aircraft was full, we hope the Elites will underatand we will board the aircraft from the rear first. Due to the situation of running late, we are suspending the policy of Elite Access for this flight. Alot of moaning from certain passengers who were not happy. As a Gold, I kept my mouth shut. I only had a small carry-on, and had a exit row isle seat.
I know the they like flights to keep on schedule, but this was an outbound hub flight, not like any passengers had tight connections. It was also the last flight out to SEA of the night. Anyone else seen a flight that by-passed Elite Access boarding.

Yes I have, twice. EWR-ORD and IND-EWR. Both because of weather. Told long in advance it was going to happen. First then general boarding for everyone. Pushed back 10 minutes after boarding started both times w/ full 73G both times. Airborn in 15 minutes on teh IND-EWR flight so we were in the air before ATC could tell us to return to the gate because of traffic at EWR.

I had this happen from BNA on a long weather delay. The GA started saying "anyone with EliteAccess, platinum, gold...never mind all rows may board at this time." The flight was an RJ so for fifty people it did not matter all that much. Apparently AVP does not even know what elite is. No carpet, no EA boarding, nothing. They do fly exclusively Q200s and I had just been flying for several hours so I did not mind much.

OTOH I had an eight hour delay back in the day when EWR-ABQ existed and at 3 am the GA still made sure to do EA boarding, which was nice. In cases of extreme weather they could do F then have any elites line up on the blue carpet and simultaneous have the rest of the mob lines up on the non-elite line and just close off the regular line until the few elites clear the boarding area.

Great, something to look forward to for the merger :rolleyes:

You mean red carpet boarding Nazis?? I'm not. I rather have the occasional EA mishap than the petty UA red doormat drama!

I've had several small outstations board everyone together. I never mind though, since it's small planes. CLE used to do this, too, on the B1900's. Again, it was never a concern of mine since they don't have overhead space anyway.

Never seen elite boarding denied. Although it certainly does take longer to board flights when you allow different groups to board at different times. If they were running late, it is faster if they just board from the rear to the front. The extra time for this process is normally built into the timeline. CO is probably trying to get their on-time performance back up into the Top 3 of the DOT list so I can see why they would do this. It was nice that you kept your mouth shut. It'd be nice if everyone including non-Elites would just shut up, board the aircraft, hurry quickly into their seat, and pack their stuff in the overheads neatly so that people behind them don't get screwed. That's the real key to an on-time departure.

I agree with your sentiments on many upcoming issues with the merger, but just to play devil's advocate here, I've had this happen many times on UAX. Can't think of a time when it's happened on mainline, though.

Slightly OT, but the worst experience I've had along these lines was on USX about 6 months ago... not only was elite boarding ignored; we were specifically told by the GA to ignore our seating assignments on our BPs and just board the plane "Southwest-style" (yes, the GA's exact words). This occurred because (again, this was all in the GA's words; she announced the following over the PA @ CLT, I kid you not) the flight was oversold, and she'd taken 5 or 6 VDBs from people with seat assignments, and didn't want to take the time to assign seats to the rest of the confirmed pax on the plane without seat assignments. That lead to some VERY interesting situations once on-board the completely full CRJ... I felt quite sorry for the poor FA working the flight that day.

"After our first class cabin is boarded we will board our OnePass Platinum elites, followed by Gold and then Silver elites. Once this is completed we will board from the rear of the aircraft."

Have experienced this twice flying out of IAH.

i've had this happen once from LGA-IAH. i don't think the GA intentionally did it... or maybe she did. but after FC and military the GA just kinda started boarding from the back and never said anything about elites. i just walked up and boarded, she didn't say anything.

what UA drama is this? i've actually never really flown UA as an elite before (and the last time i flew UA was back in the 90's) and have no idea what UA's up to lately...

I'd like to see them use the plasma screens to flash up in order which groups are boarding. It would help....a little.


I'd also like the the EliteAccess logo (and ideally the Elite level) displayed far more prominently on the tickets - maybe some kind of watermark?

[QUOTE=buckeyefanflyer;14612813]As a frequent flyer with Elite status, I enjoy being able to board the aircraft after FC.

To quote co.com:
EliteAccess Boarding Privileges: Elite members are among the first to board and may use the EliteAccess lane to board immediately any time after the pre-boarding announcement.

Why wait for FC to board ? Pre-boarding does not include FC or BF.

To quote P+:
Boarding at any time through special lines.

Should say it all, but not until you inform the GA in most cases with the exception of MAN & CDG, IME

[QUOTE=conconed;14619103]I haven't memorized the GA's announcement, but I believe FC and military are pre-boarded - something like "Before we begin our general boarding, I'd like to invite passengers in our FC cabin (or active duty military) to preboard ..."

On every CO flight, you will be told otherwise. FC pre-boards, and then elite members can board at any time after that through the EA line.

EWR-IAH (and, i'm told, IAH-SEA) sometimes skips elite boarding, due to travel schedules. At beginning and end of week, this flight can be 90% elite; elite boarding would be worse than row by row.

A few times at backwater hubs at odd hours they've overlooked calling elite boarding; I just walk to the blue carpet while they're boarding from the rear. Only had to say "elite access" once; generally they figure it out. When this has happened...looking at all the Kettles it was very safe assumption that I was probably the only elite on the flight.
(Let all the kettles go first on an RJ? With their three oversized carryons and extra jackets? ha!)

Worst "no elite boarding" experience: One time at Narita, the gate crew had almost no english and was very confused in general (I think it was a substitute crew). After first class, they called "ladies and gentlemen...we board now!"
I think that was a 747, and the NRT-LAX run (which is FULL of disney tourists and snifflly noses...avoid this route).
God what a mess that was.