COEWR2587

Anyone have pics of the gates with "premium duel bypass lanes"

buckeyefanflyer

Bigger does not mean Better I guess. That is why I hate all these mergers because all the things that fall through the cracks. Alot of employees not on the same page with regard to all the rules. I see that survey where UA came in dead last.

I miss Work Hard, Fly Right

c502cid

LOL! Yes.

anc-ord772

Agree

Agree

Agree

PV_Premier

i would definitely go for a 'premium duel' if it meant i got to board sooner than the person i beat .

i would imagine that they look a lot like the gates they were toying around with on long haul aircraft at ORD that had 5 possible lanes that under the previous system were designated BG1,2-4,5,6,7 except now the 2-4 sign just says "2".

Critic

Holy geez! (Not really what I want to say, but profanity isn't allowed on this forum.)

Am I crazy, or did this new setup knock out half of the gate area seating at 73/73A?

edcho

Haha. I almost mistook it as a check-in area the first time I saw it.

InHouseCounsel

In my work experience we see that a lot of behavior in a situation depends upon how things start out, and the tone set from the beginning of a process. For the boarding process, it seems that a lot of how it goes depends on what happens with the first group (and I realize there are a lot of folks pushing in who are not group 1 but push in anyway). When you add the problem that there is zero incentive to hold back, and a lot of incentive to elbow your way in because of things like the overhead situation, of course it will be a mess.

One big problem with the boarding process since the merger is that having "pre board" then group 1 causes problems from the start. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of enforcement, but the solution in most work situations is not to order more enforcement, but to create a process that works in real world situations without having to resort to police state-like behavior. In the long run, organizations can never consistently police things-they need to rely on a process that self regulates.

Here is what I typically see at the airport now: Even if the crowd is relatively well behaved and everyone sits or stands back, as soon as ANYONE starts to gather near the ropes, EVERYONE starts massing. We can speculate why people feel compelled to do this, any maybe solving the overhead bid issue would help, but the reality now is that this happens, regardless of the underlying cause. It is just crowd mentality.

So how to you fix it? Enforcement helps, but with large crowds, what works better is to have a system that encourages self policing and better behavior. The old United boarding process did this, Under the old system, it was absolutely clear that the first and only group on the red carpet was 1st, GS, 1k, so they all lined up, and the next group could line up on the other side (or at least the Premier Execs could). There was some massing, but at least some certainly from the start. If you want to see a great example of this type of solution carried to a very effective extreme, board a WN flight. It simply works- people see the signs, and figure it out, and line up. of course, WN also allows free checked bags, removing a big part of the incentive to need all the bin space.

Under the current process, you still have a lot of milling and massing because, technically NO ONE is supposed to line up- you have to wait for "pre boarding" on the "elite" carpet. Group 1, meanwhile, feels compelled to line up, but not in an orderly way, since they are not supposed to be in the chute yet, so they clog the entry, sort of half in/half out of the chute.

And yes, other factors exacerbate the problem. At many airport, it is impossible to hear the announcements, there are not enough seats, they call groups too close together, the groups numbers versus names like "priority" and "premiere" totally confuses people. Just yesterday at BOS, I was standing behind a very loud passenger arguing that yes he could board now, because he had "priority boarding".

The new process does nothing to address this "from the start" problem, unless you also have a dedicated "pre board" line.

Overall, having few groups can certainly provide more certainly and better boarding process, but not the way UA has chosen to do it.

rankourabu

does this mean each brand of gate lice now gets their own holding pen?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

GS: "Everyone's in my way!"
1Ks: "Why do Plats get to board with me?"
Plats: "Gee, I get to board with 1Ks now!"
Golds: "Why do Silvers and CC holders get to board with me?"
Silvers: "Why do CC holders get to board with me?"
CC Holders: "How come I don't get to board with GS?"
GMs: "What's going on?"

TommyC80

Giving my grandma, who has the united explorer card (and 2,048 lifetime miles with UA) the same boarding group as me is absolutely asinine.

Who comes up with this?

(Note: I am dropping to gold next month)

Madone59

I think this has been said but CC holders should not be grouped with any elites, not even silvers! Even a *S - which most around here pass in a month or two - is something earned plain and simple.

Those with CC's should be the first non-elites on the plane, and if they want to board sooner they should fly more.


My $.02!

SFOFastAir

Well said sir ^^

TommyC80

Yep - could not agree more. Fly 50k miles or pay 85 bucks a year and you get group 2? Everyone sitting on the steering committee that agreed to this plan should be fired.

Plane-is-home

Add to it:
GA: screw this - now boarding GS, groups 1 to 5