This evening I was flying on a quick flight from Houston to New Orleans and over half the plane was elite access, talk about inefficient boarding and lack of a privilege, I only just reached Premier status, but I think United needs to look over the qualifications for these privileges because they are servering less and less of a purpose.

A few years, I was flying CO EWR-LAX. There were so many elites that the gate agent decided it would be more efficient to board the non-elites first (of which I was one).

That was quite a sight, boarding, while all the elites stood around, huffing and puffing...

Mind you, CO never had a boarding protocol akin to UA's system, they just boarded all elites together and then kettles by row...

It boggles my mind, really. If the reports are true only some 15% of United flyers are elite but it certainly feels like a lot higher %!

SFO-based so that definitely does skew the numbers, but still.....

Elites fly more, though (by definition). So, if the average elite flies 40K miles in a year, and the average GM flies 10K, then about 40% of the passengers on an average flight are going to be elite.

Reminds me of clearing security for a connection at NRT, where there were 4 lines and 3 of them were Premier-only. It seemed excessively cruel to non-elites, until you consider that around 50% of United's connecting passengers through NRT are elite, so if only 2/4 of the lines were Premier, they wouldn't move any faster.

Check your math 10k V 40k is 4 x 15% = 60%

10K is high I think. More like under 5K I'd bet.

Well, as has also been pointed out,

...my numbers have been pulled from thin air. I mean, heck, 91% of statistics are made up on the spot.

However, checking one's math is always a good idea. When I check my math (using the original made-up numbers of 10K per GM and 40K per elite), I find that if we have N flyers, and 15% of them are elite, then 85% of them are non-elite. So we have a total of (0.15 x 40K x N = 6000N) passenger-miles flown by elites, and (0.85 x 10K x N = 8500N) passenger-miles flown by non-elites. So the total number of passenger-miles flown is 14500N, of which a fraction


are flown by elites.

Which is sort of a long way of saying that, tragically, it's not that easy, because you have to renormalize the distribution.

Not only that, but those are just averages, so that, on a given flight, on a given route, it is possible to have something more like 90% elites...or not

So you're proposing to eliminate 2P, including you?

If you checked bags, why stand in line anyways?

Congratulations. You have joined the ranks of those entitled to elite boarding privileges. One attains this elevated status on the new UA by buying it, getting the right credit card, being the nominated spouse or significant other of a Million Mile flyer, or even by actually flying (Did I miss any?). Just pretend you're boarding at the Lake Wobegon Airport.

Silvers are the problem. On the elite-heavy flights, Silvers need to be boarded after the other elites. That'll reduce the rush by half in most cases.

And MileagePlus Explorer credit card holders.

(I'm fine with boarding people who pay for Premier Access ahead of everyone else.)

My take is that if you are not GS you shouldn't be allowed on the plane at all.

Still can an issue on a very elite heavy flight (like an EWR-SFO/LAX flight where everyone looks like an elite member). I'm pretty sure many of them are more than silvers.

I like this solution, but I think if you are PPlat and GS you should be allowed to guest another passenger onto the plane in lieu of a second carryon. As long as they fit in the overhead compartment.

This will ensure that high elites can obtain E+ aisle seats even if booking at the last minute, even up to 2 hours after the flight has departed.

However, I worry that if this is implemented, 1K members will complain that they cannot find room for their carryon items because the overhead compartments are full of 2Ps carried on board by GSs, so maybe it needs some further thought.