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 28, 2018, 9:25 am
#1906
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Portland, OR, USA
Programs: UA 1K 3 Million/ex-many year GS, AA PLT/2 Mil, AS MVPG, HH Dia, Starwood Life Plat, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,401
Arg no! Have as many groups as you want but only 2 lines. It is the lines that cause the crowding by encouraging people to - surprise - line up. PMUA had 2 lines. Red Carpet and other. I agree F should go ahead of Plat/Gold. In the old UA system it was 1K/F on the Red Carpet (later GS preboard got added). Gold (the Exec Prem) in other line. Everyone else seated. (There was no 75K tier then). I think there are 2 issues with the new system now. One is fairness - F should not have to be behind Golds in BG1. There is a very practical reason for this in addition to the fairness in that if an F bag needs to go in coach at least it should go in the front of coach and the more folks you have boarded ahead of F the more likely it is that that bag winds up a ways back. The other issue is logistical in that at some stations there are enough 1Ks that the idea of a preboard gets messy. They would have been better off using the priority line for 1K/F to start and putting BG1 in the other line to start.
Sep 28, 2018, 10:38 am
#1907
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: where lions are led by donkeys...
Programs: Lifetime Gold, Global Entry, Hertz PC, and my wallet
Posts: 20,356
Have you ever supervised front-line staff? What about 10,000+ staff across 500+ locations in 10+ time zones, with many different languages, including staff of a dozen or so subcontracting companies?
Not making excuses for UA -- they should do better -- but I think people on this board underestimate the difficulty of the task. It's been 10 days since the roll-out. Give it some time.
Not making excuses for UA -- they should do better -- but I think people on this board underestimate the difficulty of the task. It's been 10 days since the roll-out. Give it some time.
Sep 28, 2018, 10:55 am
#1908
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: New Jersey
Programs: UA MM 1K, AA MM Gold, Marriott LT Platinum
Posts: 3,236
Makes me think about the yellow handle wraps for 1K's. It was at least a year before I saw the early-gate-check-bag return process work consistently at EWR.
Sep 28, 2018, 11:01 am
#1909
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 11,488
Just boarder my flight from IAH to SAT, went well as it should GA follow the script, however someone told me that something has Change, and that now 1K´s will be boarding after global services instead of after families, i think it will be few weeks before all this gets sort it out!
- disabilities, military, global, families, 1K
- disabilities, military, global, 1K, families
Sep 28, 2018, 2:39 pm
#1910
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,115
It might have flushed/sorted out variables like this:
I think the point was that GSunitedloyal has heard from one gate agent that the new, current order of
- disabilities, military, global, families, 1K
- disabilities, military, global, 1K, families
Sep 28, 2018, 3:44 pm
#1911
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in CUZCO, PERU
Posts: 58,639
I can almost guarantee that some of those "paid F" tickets cost less than some tickets bought by Y passengers on the same flight. Maybe the solution is to have 10 boarding groups ranked by annual spend alternating with another 10 groups ranked by ticket cost for that flight. There... that would solve everything.
Makes GREAT sense for UA's bottom line! Forget about what have you done for me lately, make it what did you do for me TODAY!?
Who's with me!?!?!?
(not holding my breath)
Sep 28, 2018, 3:53 pm
#1912
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Honolulu Harbor
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 15,037
You still don't get it. United's actions are to reward the flyers that have recently provided, and who UA thinks will continue to provide, the most money to United. It is that simple. United thinks its bottom line is bolstered by passengers who have demonstrated a tendency to buy a lot of tickets and who are likely to continue to do so. Someone who buys a ticket for TODAY is hardly more valuable than one who has bough and who will buy tickets for MULTIPLE DAYS. $15,000 is g.t. $5000.
Sep 28, 2018, 4:08 pm
#1913
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Lahaina, HI & Los Angeles, CA
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 2,403
Next stop.....eliminate FF program in its entirety.
Sep 28, 2018, 4:40 pm
#1914
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in CUZCO, PERU
Posts: 58,639
Credit where it is due: flight today ORD-MDT in PAID first (yeah, that’s what I said! 
) on a 319. Got to the gate 5 minutes before boarding and this was the line:
With the 8-seat FC cabin I was assuming my bag would end up over row 10 or so.
When i I boarded and turned the corner the FA was chastising a coach passenger and making him take his bag out of the overhead bin above my seat (2b) and back to row 8 and put it up there.
This FA will get an attaboy cert and a mention to UA customer (lack of) service.
) on a 319. Got to the gate 5 minutes before boarding and this was the line:With the 8-seat FC cabin I was assuming my bag would end up over row 10 or so.
When i I boarded and turned the corner the FA was chastising a coach passenger and making him take his bag out of the overhead bin above my seat (2b) and back to row 8 and put it up there.
This FA will get an attaboy cert and a mention to UA customer (lack of) service.
Sep 28, 2018, 9:42 pm
#1916
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: BWI/DCA/IAD
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Titan., Hilton Diamond, Hertz Pres
Posts: 143
I’m most surprised by the devaluing of Platinum. If they want to thin the 1K ranks through $15K, I understand, but keep an incentive for people to fly UA beyond 50K/60/$6K. For the domestic road warrior flying 80-100 segments a year, the peace of BG1 is paramount. 2 RPUs, a couple more RDMs, and moving from 8 to 3 on the UG list with 1 open FC seat is not worth the extra segments or the advanced search for W fares.
It’s Platinum for me next year and then Gold from there forward.
It’s Platinum for me next year and then Gold from there forward.
Sep 29, 2018, 6:17 am
#1917
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,660
If this was a common practice on UA I wouldn’t care where I was in the boarding process. I’d stay in the UC until the last minute.
Sep 29, 2018, 12:18 pm
#1918
Join Date: Jun 2018
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 32
Had a number of flights this week and for the most part, had decent experiences with all.
NRT - dedicated preboard line with GS grouping in their normal area.
KIX - Like NRT, had a dedicated preboard line that worked incredibly well.
ORD - 3/4 properly called. The one time they didn't call, I boarded at the end of BG1 and my bag ended up 8 rows behind my seat.
HKG - Did not experience but heard several calls following the new process pretty well.
SFO - GA read from the script and gave plenty of time for each group to make their way. Just way too many 1ks, Several BG1 in E+ had to put their bags in E.
TPA - Little time between calls made preboarding very hectic.
Would work far better if they implemented the dedicated PB line or at least a carpet on the side of BG1 at all airports.
NRT - dedicated preboard line with GS grouping in their normal area.
KIX - Like NRT, had a dedicated preboard line that worked incredibly well.
ORD - 3/4 properly called. The one time they didn't call, I boarded at the end of BG1 and my bag ended up 8 rows behind my seat.
HKG - Did not experience but heard several calls following the new process pretty well.
SFO - GA read from the script and gave plenty of time for each group to make their way. Just way too many 1ks, Several BG1 in E+ had to put their bags in E.
TPA - Little time between calls made preboarding very hectic.
Would work far better if they implemented the dedicated PB line or at least a carpet on the side of BG1 at all airports.
Sep 29, 2018, 12:40 pm
#1919
Original Member, Ambassador: External Miles and Points Resources
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Digital Nomad Wandering the Earth - Currently in CUZCO, PERU
Posts: 58,639
Had a number of flights this week and for the most part, had decent experiences with all.
NRT - dedicated preboard line with GS grouping in their normal area.
KIX - Like NRT, had a dedicated preboard line that worked incredibly well.
ORD - 3/4 properly called. The one time they didn't call, I boarded at the end of BG1 and my bag ended up 8 rows behind my seat.
HKG - Did not experience but heard several calls following the new process pretty well.
SFO - GA read from the script and gave plenty of time for each group to make their way. Just way too many 1ks, Several BG1 in E+ had to put their bags in E.
TPA - Little time between calls made preboarding very hectic.
Would work far better if they implemented the dedicated PB line or at least a carpet on the side of BG1 at all airports.
NRT - dedicated preboard line with GS grouping in their normal area.
KIX - Like NRT, had a dedicated preboard line that worked incredibly well.
ORD - 3/4 properly called. The one time they didn't call, I boarded at the end of BG1 and my bag ended up 8 rows behind my seat.
HKG - Did not experience but heard several calls following the new process pretty well.
SFO - GA read from the script and gave plenty of time for each group to make their way. Just way too many 1ks, Several BG1 in E+ had to put their bags in E.
TPA - Little time between calls made preboarding very hectic.
Would work far better if they implemented the dedicated PB line or at least a carpet on the side of BG1 at all airports.
Sep 29, 2018, 1:14 pm
#1920
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: IAD
Programs: UA 1K & 2MM, MR Titanium
Posts: 460
Made me feel special as a 1K today on UA 107 MUC-IAD when they called 1Ks right after UGS and military for genuine pre-boarding that avoided a very congested gate area and long group 1 line. Well done United!