fwfdan

OK so I purchased a US domestic first class trip - four legs. The reservation said "Sky Priority" as did the boarding passes, but the zone listed on the boarding pass said "PREM". First three legs, no issue boarded as Sky Priority. Then hit Atlanta on the last leg. There were four lines, Sky Priority, Preboard, Premium and Zone 1. The gate agents patrolled the line and sent us from the Sky Priority line to the Premium line and said we were not sky priority. I asked why it said it on my boarding pass, but she said it had to be in the zone box. She did the same to at least one other person. The agent scanning boarding passes agreed with her (or at least would not contradict her.)

KevinSFO

Premium should be better than Sky Priority. It boards earlier and is just for First/Business class and Diamond medallions. These days, it seems that half the main cabin can be Sky Priority.

davetravels

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Premium should be First Class and Diamond Medallions ONLY, and should board before SkyPriority.

Often1

Although it's a distinction without a meaning on a typical narrow-body boarding at the front. Y passengers walk through F to the rear so they aren't holding up any F pax anyway. Strikes me as just slowing down overall boarding time (which is way too long on DL already) and not doing anything for the F pax.

fwfdan

That is NOT how they were doing it in Atlanta... I think in the other airports there were only two lines, Sky Priority and "everyone else"

jimrpa

Think of Delta's boarding process like lifeboats on the Titanic

Titanic: Women & Children
Delta: Pre-Boards
Titanic: Astors, Morgans, DuPonts, Firestones, and their personal staffs
Delta: First Class/Delta One and Diamond Medallions
Titanic: Second Class
Delta: Sky Priority
Titanic: Third Class
Delta: Zone 1 and Partner airline elites, American Express credit card holders and other miscellaneous
Titanic: the lifeboats are full! Here are life jackets!
Delta: we are out of overhead bin space and will be checking all remaining carry-ons that can't fit underneath the seat in front of you!
Titanic: Steerage, grabbing anything that floats
Delta: Zone 2
Titanic: crew goes down with the ship
Delta: clears shrewd medallions into FC 😄

MikeyZBT

Four lines? Where in Atlanta do we have four lines to get into? It's usually just Sky Priority and non-Sky Priority, right?

AgentCooper

They've been playing around with this at some of the gates in the B terminal... B7 comes to mind.

fwfdan

It was B1 and they had monitors hanging from the ceiling. The "Sky Priority" was the first line, then Preboard, then Premium and then Zone 1 (figured that changed to different zones as they progressed through the zones. I don't usually fly Delta so don't know if that is normal or not....

davetravels

So, you actually got BETTER than SkyPriority, which is where an F pax should have boarded - with "PREM".

fwfdan

It does seem that way, but they boarded in the order of Preboards, Sky Priority, Premium, Zone 1... It was actually a bit of a confused boarding process.

I did find this http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...-priority.html so I am sure they either made a mistake or they just did not care

Zorak

That may be the order in which the monitors appear left-to-right but I assure you PREM boards before SKY.

At most other airports there are only two boarding *lanes*, with one side that says "SkyPriority" with the carpet, but that just affects which lane you walk through, and not the boarding order.

davetravels

It should have been . . . .

Preboards

Prem

SkyPriority

Etc . . .

Yada, Yada

fwfdan

Thanks all...

MSPeconomist

Yes, but SkyPriority is an entire package of benefits, including an elite check in area, elite security, and priority tags for checked bags. So OP had PREM boarding which is better than SKY, but still the rest of the SkyPriority benefits.