Jan 19, 2017, 11:05 pm
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Source: United Boarding Process
We encourage you to make yourself comfortable while you wait for your group to be called, and we’ll let you know when we’re ready for you to board. Late arriving customers in Groups 1 and 2 are welcome to continue boarding through the blue lane at any time.
* Customers who have purchased a Basic Economy ticket will be in the last boarding group, except for Premier members, Chase Cardmembers of qualifying cards and Star Alliance Gold members, who will still receive their priority boarding.
================================================== ==============================
Pre Sept 2018 process
Pre-Boarding
General boarding (Window Seats, then Middle Seats, then Aisle)
Customers who have purchased a Basic Economy ticket will be in the last boarding group, with the exception of Premier members, Chase Cardmembers of qualifying cards and Star Alliance Gold members, who will still receive their priority boarding.
Note: If you’re traveling with a companion and one of you has a higher boarding status, you both may board with the earlier group.
Note: Self Boarding Gates are being tested at the following gates...
sUA Boarding Times by Aircraft (AFA)
Previous thread: United's Current Boarding Process (with Wiki) [Revised, May 2013]
New changes (effective 18 Sept 2018)
You will see some new boarding lane signs in the gate area that will guide you through the boarding process. There will now be two lanes that are color coded : to begin, Group 1 will board through the blue lane and Group 2 will board through the green lane. The remaining Groups 3-5 will then board through the green lane when called, and Groups 1 and 2 can continue to board through the blue lane .We encourage you to make yourself comfortable while you wait for your group to be called, and we’ll let you know when we’re ready for you to board. Late arriving customers in Groups 1 and 2 are welcome to continue boarding through the blue lane at any time.
Boarding groups
Pre-boarding
- Unaccompanied minors
- Customers with disabilities
- Active members of the military
- United Global Services® members
- Families traveling with children age 2 and younger
- Premier® 1K® members
Group 1
- Premier Platinum members
- Premier Gold members
- Star Alliance™ Gold members
- Customers seated in premium cabins: United Polaris®, United First® and United Business®
Group 2
- Premier Silver members
- Star Alliance Silver members
- Customers who have purchased Premier Access® or Priority Boarding
- United℠ Explorer, Club, Presidential Plus℠ and Awards Cardmembers
Groups 3 – 5
- Economy Plus®
- United Economy®
- Basic Economy*
* Customers who have purchased a Basic Economy ticket will be in the last boarding group, except for Premier members, Chase Cardmembers of qualifying cards and Star Alliance Gold members, who will still receive their priority boarding.
Pre Sept 2018 process
Pre-Boarding
- Unaccompanied minors
- Customers with disabilities
- Uniformed members of the U.S. military
- Families traveling with children age two and younger
- United Global Services® members
- Group 1: Premier 1K, Premier Platinum, Business/Polaris Business, and First/Polaris First.
- Group 2: Premier Gold, Star Gold, Premier Silver, Star Silver, MileagePlus Presidential Plus, Club, Explorer and Awards, purchased Premier Access
General boarding (Window Seats, then Middle Seats, then Aisle)
- Group 3 - Window Seats
- Group 4 - Middle & Aisle Seats (Aisle Seats on UA Express)
- Group 5 - Basic Economy
Customers who have purchased a Basic Economy ticket will be in the last boarding group, with the exception of Premier members, Chase Cardmembers of qualifying cards and Star Alliance Gold members, who will still receive their priority boarding.
Note: If you’re traveling with a companion and one of you has a higher boarding status, you both may board with the earlier group.
Note: Self Boarding Gates are being tested at the following gates...
- IAH - Gate C25/C26 - See Post 2960, Includes YouTube video from CO777DAL
- IAH - Gate E4 - Old test from pmCO days, See Thread Here
- BOS - Self boarding gates are now back in *LIMITED* use at least at gates B25 and B26
sUA Boarding Times by Aircraft (AFA)
Previous thread: United's Current Boarding Process (with Wiki) [Revised, May 2013]
United's Current Boarding Process (with Wiki) [2016-forward]{Archive}
Sep 19, 2018, 9:53 pm
#1516
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
Often, people value different things - if this is so valuable, certainly there are other airlines that will let you pre-board ahead of the top elites.
Sep 19, 2018, 9:54 pm
#1517
Join Date: Mar 2005
Programs: fwp blood diamond, dykwia uranium
Posts: 7,252
assuming 100,000 1k are us residents. which i doubt. i know of someone who got 1k off $2000 pqd. still loyal to the ua ff program but mostly flying overseas on oal.
Sep 19, 2018, 10:23 pm
#1518
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: New York / Hawaii
Programs: UA Global Services, HH Diamond
Posts: 5,178
I will miss GA's jumbling up the boarding announcement to welcome "uniformed Global Service members." 
Sep 19, 2018, 10:26 pm
#1519
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Chicago
Programs: UA GS 1MM, CM PP
Posts: 689
Ha. Really? Yes, they have the ability to know who is boarding the plane, but IME many do not care to take notice and tailor their boarding process accordingly. This is based on years of missed split-second windows for GS pre-boarding. I still have little faith that this pre-boarding will be properly structured and executed in the long term.
Sep 19, 2018, 11:26 pm
#1520
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
I don't know if it 100,000 1K's or 200,000 or 50,000. But for every $2000 PQD person there is likely someone like me, who balances them out as a $30,000 PQD person - lots of PQD ( to me, not to UA), but not enough love for GS
Sep 19, 2018, 11:31 pm
#1521
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,470
At the end of the day, the fact that UA has chosen to give 1Ks boarding priority over occasional F purchasers probably tells us something about which group of passengers is more profitable to them.
Sep 19, 2018, 11:58 pm
#1522
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
I agree - here is what UA does know via analytics - they know exactly who is boarding at what time. Regardless which side if the aisle you are on with this issue - UA has the data - and the data justified this benefit or was part of a bigger strategy to make the loyal fliers even more loyal.
Sep 20, 2018, 1:20 am
#1523
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: SFO, TPE, HNL
Programs: UA GS 4MM, RCC life member (paid), Marriott Lifetime Titanium, Hyatt Globalist, CLEAR
Posts: 1,824
Domestically, my trip SFO-IAD 08Jun18 UA408 on a 777-200 there were more than 10 GS boarding. On my return 10Jun18 UA2274 on a smaller plane (737-900s?) there were at least 8.GS. The average ratio of 1Ks is 4X GS. Similar size happened last month on 777-200 both ways when 12 GS boarded in SFO.
Last edited by PanAmWT; Sep 20, 2018 at 1:34 am
Sep 20, 2018, 3:15 am
#1524
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: where lions are led by donkeys...
Programs: Lifetime Gold, Global Entry, Hertz PC, and my wallet
Posts: 20,347
Yep. It would be interesting to see the distribution. But it's considerably easier to make 1K with $30k in spend than it is with $2k in spend
At the end of the day, the fact that UA has chosen to give 1Ks boarding priority over occasional F purchasers probably tells us something about which group of passengers is more profitable to them.
At the end of the day, the fact that UA has chosen to give 1Ks boarding priority over occasional F purchasers probably tells us something about which group of passengers is more profitable to them.
Sep 20, 2018, 3:24 am
#1525
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 1,115
You had a point if one or the other was treated consistently better, but that's just not the case. In fact, service treatment has become even more inconsistent now.
And please, let's all stop pretending how valuable we are to UA, it sounds very much DYKWIA. Every customer is valuable and every customer deserves a consistently good level of service that is appropriate for the class of service he is booked in.
Last edited by mozilla; Sep 20, 2018 at 4:12 am
Sep 20, 2018, 5:08 am
#1526
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: SEA, WAS, PEK
Programs: UA 3K UGS 3MM
Posts: 2,176
I agree - here is what UA does know via analytics - they know exactly who is boarding at what time. Regardless which side if the aisle you are on with this issue - UA has the data - and the data justified this benefit or was part of a bigger strategy to make the loyal fliers even more loyal.
If many decisions post-merger were indeed made based on data, I doubt the same decisions would have been made.
Sep 20, 2018, 5:37 am
#1527
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: London
Programs: United 1K 2 Million Miles, BA Silver, Marriott Platinum Elite, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 370
Shambles at LHR ok UA17 to EWR this morning, no pre boarding for 1k passengers and groups 1/2 all mixed together.
Sep 20, 2018, 8:16 am
#1528
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: NYC, FLL
Programs: UA PP 1MM, Marriott Bonvoy LTTE, BA Gold
Posts: 6,324
Ok, EWR-FLL last night: brilliant! Gate Agent described the new boarding process slowly and clearly 3 times. He went to the "1" queue and asked if there were any 1K's and for them to exit the line and stand in front of the gate. There were about 5 of us there. 1 GS, 4 1K's. I was 3rd to board.
Boarding was civil, organized, and not rushed. A great experience (and great employee)! There weren't any disabled or families with 2yo's, admittedly.
(Alas, on board, I was overlooked for a PDB and couldn't be bothered asking for one).
Boarding was civil, organized, and not rushed. A great experience (and great employee)! There weren't any disabled or families with 2yo's, admittedly.
(Alas, on board, I was overlooked for a PDB and couldn't be bothered asking for one).
Sep 20, 2018, 8:19 am
#1529
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: LAX
Programs: UA MM | BA Silver
Posts: 7,193
Sep 20, 2018, 8:26 am
#1530
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,470
You mean removal of non-rev class? I have no absolutely zero doubt that this was not even a close call based on the numbers - specifically, the revenue per square foot of real estate the GF cabins were generating.
We can debate whether UA killed the product by a thousand cuts, but the fact is those seats were not selling, and were going largely to awards and non-revs.
We can debate whether UA killed the product by a thousand cuts, but the fact is those seats were not selling, and were going largely to awards and non-revs.