exerda

And some people are very effective at convincing themselves that there's not an issue.

Believe us; there is an issue. Maybe not on the routes you fly regularly, but plenty of us have seen flights which used to board in 15 minutes run to 40 after the changes to the boarding process--and regularly so, not an aberration here or there.

mnmme

I don't understand the question/problem?

If the plane leaves on time why does it matter if it takes 20 minutes or and 1hr and 20 min. to board?

Fredd

It matters if one has to arrive at the gate for boarding that much earlier.

aacharya

You hit the nail on the head. That particular FTer likes to note items that aren't correct simply as they're not happy that UA is dbaCO. CO in fact moved back to the UA procedure (Zone).

chasbondy was accurate this time. It's the pax with their bags so heavy they can't lift them.

mnmme

So this isn't about how long it takes to board, it's about when I need to leave the lounge to make sure the kettles haven't taken all the overhead bin space?

aacharya

Pretty much. Though if you're in E+, many kettles won't be there. I find nowadays I prefer to sit early and play on my phone while others board if I have carry-ons.

halls120

No, they moved back to a modified zone procedure. The reason the PMUA process worked so well is that the carpet was reserved for GS/F/C/1K throughout the boarding process. That no longer is the case, and opening the carpet to all "elites" is in part why the process has been so F'ed up since the pre-June process was abandoned.

Fredd

Glad I could help you to understand at least one aspect of the question/problem (as others have also pointed out).

aacharya

All the carpet did was allow the 20-30 folks in those categories to board whenever they want.

So yes, those GS/F/C/1Ks saw no issues, but the other kettles did I imagine. Factor in the change in baggage fees post-merger and a bad economy.

UA even w/o CO would've changed their boarding times to adjust, or would have padded flight times.

EsquireFlyer

PMCO always took this long to board a 757. Maybe it was the lack of zone boarding, or just a feature of SHARES?

star_world

This old process had nothing to do with speeding up boarding - in fact it by definition should slow it down, since with the current process the GAs can service two queues simultaneously for a longer part of the boarding process. You've had an issue with this for a long time now but it doesn't make any more sense than it did the first time you tried to explain it.

Can you enlighten us on how this could possibly be related to SHARES? The level of paranoia around here knows no limits apparently.

kb1992

Can you enlighten us on how you pretend there is no issue when so many people, gate agents and pax included, see prolonged boarding time using inferior PMO procedure?

UA-NYC

This ignores the fact that CO has a posted 45 minute time for a 753 (vs. 30 for UA on a 752) and a 35 minute time on the 737s vs. 30 for the Airbii

I tend to arrive early for CO flights actually because many times I've showed up at T-45 (for 753s) and they've already boarded all of F

And of course it allowed every 1P/*G to line up as well, in the other lane. It worked quite well.

There was zero indication that UA w/o CO was going to allow for more padding in boarding - don't forget they had the trend of being the #1 on time airline too for a couple years

star_world

The issues I've seen (on both sides) have been related to GAs having zero ability to change to a new process, and instead reverting to a confused mess. When the process is followed I don't see a material difference between the two. People are making a huge issue out of relatively little, IMO.

It doesn't ignore it at all - that's got nothing to do with the point I was making above - read it again.

Legacy UA is the only airline I've flown that rigidly stuck to published boarding times - to the extent that it was published as a countdown at the gate. This had nothing to do with a customer friendly policy, it was a contractual issue for the FAs who wouldn't accept pax being boarded before that time.

This wasn't an issue on PMCO where boarding could start as soon as the FAs were ready. So you would often see a 737 start boarding at T-45, be completed at T-20 and doors closed and pushed back at T-10. That's not a major issue as far as I'm concerned. The only complaint I can see is that you could lose out on overhead space if you show up 30 min before departure.

Right. Everyone in one huge line, empty line next to it. Now that there are two GAs boarding each flight, that's incredibly inefficient. Glad to see they've made an improvement here ^

halls120

When the carpet was reserved for those 20-30 to board - on the IAD-SFO route, that could approach 40 - it reduced the number of elites trying to board at the commencement of the process. IOW, it lessened the logjam we have now at the commencement of almost every elite-heavy flight.

Yes, but how many UA gates have one BP reader for each line? The fact is that boarding became a massive CF when UA abandoned the pre-June process. It improved slightly when they went back to zones, but countless posts attest to the view that the current process isn't working as efficiently as the pre-June 2011 process. If it isn't the carpet change, what is it?

Next time you are at DCA, go watch the difference between AA boarding a flight, and UA boarding a flight. Rugby scrum at UA, efficiency at AA.