Thank you, I think if new United wants to keep its Premier Program being great, they need to cut ties with the United Mileage Credit Card. If so many people want to pay to be first on the plane and then it results in everyone being able to be first on the plane, that is a problem, then the cost to be first on needs to go up.

If CO decides they want to grant Elite privileges to more and more people they will have to break up boarding into more groups. It was already verging on ludicrous w/o adding kettles using their MileagePlus CCs. Silvers and MileagePlus card bearers should be in a group boarded just before the the last few that are left w/o privileges.

As a matter of fact - I think CO ought to go to status "zone" boarding. Zone 1 for 1st/GS, Zone 2 for Plat/Gold, Zone 3 for Silvers/MileagePlus/Brats, Zone 4 for everyone else. Zones could be printed on boarding passes along w/ Elite Access (if applicable). Boarding could be called by Zone, not status, reducing confusion by everyone and ensuring consistency system-wide.

Plus, a very loud buzzer needs to go off when someone tries to board out of turn and his/her ticket is scanned (just before being put into a penalty holding area for last-to-boards). Only one such experience would be enough to serve notice to the boarding area and that individual.

You my friend should be running this airline.

I love how the repeat solution being proposed is to eliminate anything below elite status x from early boarding, where x equals the author's status. Even funnier is the fact that the OP just got to UA's lowest tier and is complaining about this.

No ill will intended, but he is part of the problem he's complaining about. The solution requires that he be put in a trailing boarding group, but still ahead of the half-dozen or so that somehow have managed to avoid gaining Elite Access.

If they drop the Silver level, everything should be fine.^

The key issue is CO GAs don't know a thing about boarding. Really.

So when CO merged with UA, they are overwhelmed by the massive elite forces from the UA and fail to react accordingly.

And it is one of the reasons why SMI/J was forced to listen to us and switch back the old way.

Do you know what it means in UA? A Type A voucher

(FWIW, priority boarding is a PUBLISHED benefit.)

I will say more like 2.5K.

Silvers are NOT the problem. Lack of an orderly boarding process is the problem.

I didn't used to care either way about the boarding process (scrum vs. hierarchy), but after flying pmUA & pmCO the last 2 years, I've definitely come around to the pmUA-way of thinking. As a 2P/Silver, I have no issue with letting Plats/Golds go ahead of me, as long as I still get to board before the general boarding by row, and as long as I have an assigned seat. I fully agree that the CO eliteScrum is an impractical way to board an aircraft.

(All that said, do we really need ANOTHER thread on the boarding privileges/process?)

Bullpucky. The key issue is that pmCO didn't have a hierarchy for elite boarding, so once Uniformed Military & F were boarded, all other elites were free to board. (There were exceptions in some hubs where elites were boarded by status, but that's the exception rather than the rule.) When UCH changed the policy re: Premier Access (bringing the eliteScrum to pmUA flights), it didn't change anything about how pmCO flights were boarded.

And as far as the policy rollback - a quick scan of the other boarding process threads on this board will show that there's a big issue with consistency boarding pmUA flights post-rollback - no two stations appear to be using the same boarding order. Again, this would have no affect on pmCO, since they went from the scrum to the scrum, then back to the scrum.

The boarding order needs to be standardized across both subsidiaries and enforced by station managers. Maybe we'll see this after the 2012 MP program becomes active, since the number of elite levels will drop back to 4, but there's no reason why they can't go back to something similar to pmUA's process in the interim.

Slightly OT, but if you think CO's boarding process sucks, LH's makes it look organized. IAH-FRA on a 747-400, I was in F and the GA announces the boarding of First, Business Class, and *G at the same time without any breaks. Mass cattle call considering F & BF are well over 60 seats on a 747 not including *G that is in Y. Totally disorganized.

And if the buzzer doesn't dissuade them and they try it again , then hit 'em with a taser.....

Nothing like a little shock therapy to drive the message home...

I am only 20 years old and a full time student and am just glad that I could attain the rank so young. I am all for eliminating a status that doesn't offer very much if that solution gives the best result. Secondly, I opted out of boarding early on the flight because there were some many people in line and I rarely travel with a carry-on. I would just like the ranks to have more value, make it worth working for, not being gotten from shortcuts.

^^

Sarcasm or not, it's true!

CO staffs 5 GAs at a gate.

To FRA from EWR:

Only *one* GA manning the *single* turnstile/scanner/whatever. 3 are at the desk, furiously typing away, not interacting with *any* pax, so what are they doing there, really?

The other remaining one is simply there for what appears to be emotional support for the single GA at the actual entry point near the aerobrige, and flits around...

To BOM from EWR: Mass chaos.

No pre-check of pax's visa documents when checking-in, then at the last minute when boarding they have to *stamp* everyone's BPs after inspecting for visas, and I freak out, volunteering to fly on LH's flight to FRA, as the flight is now being delayed by 1 hour at least.

The line to get your BP stamped was at least a kilometer long. (same situation as the FRA flight, but this time the 3 characters were reportedly checking the visas at the desk there.

When I went through for visa verification at the end, the GA didn't even properly check the dates on the visa! What's up with that??

Also, this defeats the purpose of elite boarding, unless they *also* have an elite visa checking line!

It might look disorganized, but it takes a fraction of the time that it takes to board a CO 777, in the cases I mentioned above. LH's 744 boarding at FRA and BOM have 2 aerobridges into the a/c. Cannot remember the LH EWR 744 aerobridge boarding situation, as I am now always taking the later night flights...which are airbuses out of Terminal B.

At least LH is professional enough to check visas at check-in, so that we don't have to queue at the gate to have it done like CO!

I've been on KA flights HKG-SHA where >50% of the people have priority boarding.

Not really - Once I was boarded last among elites - I was on EUA F and UA*G.