Boarding announcement changes
 

Does anyone know when they started changing the boarding announcement. I was on a full fare F flight tonight and had the bulkhead. I had a tight connection and ran to the gate to make sure I had a place for my bags.

Announced military and global services (ok)

First class (people start moving over to let me by and I swear 3 seconds later they start announcing 1k, star alliance gold etc.etc etc.

This is happening quite often, many times first class is being lumped in with the rest of priority access. Is this a new policy? I don't mind if it's an upgrade but when I pay full fare it is nice to board first.

Well depends on which set of changes and the degree to which the announced policies are actually implemented

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-merged.html

The GAs can't really discriminate full-fare paying passengers vs. upgraded passengers or those on reward tickets at least for boarding purposes. Sure if you purchase enough full-fare tickets, you will get PP or GS and then you will be boarding before anyone else.

I am not sure if they can tell who paid full fare, who did Y/B up's and who is using an upgrade instrument

I have noticed the GA's seem to be doing a much better job IMO over the last 30-45 days. They seem to be following the announcement protocol and I have even witnessed them "enforcing" it at the scanners. I was boarding a 757 at ORD as a 1k and the GA turned 2 pax around that were in front of me because they we not GS/1K or confirmed F.. Then about 2 days later on another route after the announcements and the usual bum rush the GA came back onto the intercom and stated "there are only 21 GS/1K pax on this flight the rest of you please stand back so we don't delay the boarding process"..When I got to the scanner I told her thank you and she smiled and said she has wanted to that for a long time...

My point is first should board first. Announcing first and other elites together is not right. I am nit suggesting breaking out upgrades vs. Full fare just let first class board first. Every other airline does and CO used to.

I understand yes First Class passengers pay alot more money then Y but there is another side to this. If the goal is to try and get the aircraft boarded
as quick as possible so the flight leaves on time, on a aircraft like a 737 operating full I have exprienced some F passengers taking foreever to gettheir bags put away blocking Y passengers from getting to their seat. jetway is all backed up. Then if they do the drink service before take-off to F passengers this is slows the boarding process. Not an issue on a 777 or 767.

I've never seen an issue in domestic F with clumping full F and upgrades together. In the one case where we ran out of overhead bin space on a UA 757, the flight attendant opened up the closet and started stashing rollaboards in it for people, so I'm hard pressed to believe that there's a substantial impairment in experience by letting full F comingle with upgraders. (Gasp, I've probably sat in F on a $60 ticket next to people who paid $1k!)

The 757 is frequently boarded from 2L avoiding this problem as well.

Why are people commenting on separating paid F from upgrades? That's not what the OP said at all. To answer the question asked, the new boarding order is military first (pointless, IMO), then, in one group, F, GS, PPlat, Plat and 1K. After that is *Gold, Gold, etc.

It hasn't really made a huge difference to the level of chaos at the gate in my experience - although the concept of gate lice has become a constant source of amusement for me since I started flying more UA metal :D - but on elite-heavy routes it can get a bit swamped at the beginning.

I think the agents are getting a bit overwhelmed with the huge number of status levels they're supposed to call in sequence. I've noticed many of them with cheatsheets and lots of other ones getting a bit befuddled. I'm perfectly willing to cut them some slack until the merger process is done. That said, I slightly hate that *every elite/elite for a day* now boards on the blue carpet, and this is coming from a 1P that used to be denied the red carpet. Before then I knew where to stand so that I'd be in the right place at the right time.

Not sure how much PMUA flying you've done - but it's much, much worse now with the latest & greatest boarding order. UA had a perfectly fine boardnig order before, not so much now. Half the plane now boards through the carpet, which inevitably leads to major gate lice.

Plenty (significantly more than you, from your profile), and I disagree. The gate lice were there long ago.

Half the plane may be elite / F on some flights (most flights nowhere near that) but the only people who are really negatively affected are F / 1K who arrive late at the gate. They could be stuck behind other elites where they would not have been previously.

Anyway - there's a long, long thread about this elsewhere for those seeking a taste of the dramatic - no need to re-hash it here :)

Even if you've flown more PMUA than me (don't dispute it, doesn't really matter) you are in a very, very small minority who doesn't see a change for the worse from before relative to the old PMUA boarding order.

Whereas ~1/8 the plane would previously board through the carpet, it can now be ~1/2 (thus, much less exclusive and more crowded). Before, 1Ps could be first through the regular lane (and thus hang out there); now, they have no choice but to crowd around as well to come through after the first big group.

On any hub-hub route, or any hug-major outpost (LGA, SEA, BOS, etc.), it's an issue.