Kacee

I've seen many boarding situations where you wouldn't be able to do it without pushing through the line.

Plane-is-home

Of there is no other space line 5 is always the easiest way

manstein58

yup. Hang out in 5 and move ahead when they. Call GS. No one is inconvenienced

altbg

I wouldn't exactly call this people being inconvenienced when they line up when they are not supposed to and also have no common sense in where to properly line up. (I mean people lining up in general by the way)

diburning

Interesting. Gates B25 and B26 at BOS still uses the self boarding gates. I'm not sure if they took them out and put them back in, or if they never removed them. I'm watching them board with those gates right now as I'm typing this. They didn't use the gates for everyone though, just Premier Access/Zone 1. I'm not sure if this is a one-off thing.

JVPhoto

I have to say boarding at KSA, PNI & TKK were incredible. =)

Tony300S

Since when does elderly (over 80 or so) with otherwise no problem walking or boarding translate into "Customers with Disabilities"? Just been noticing this throughout flights out of EWR, ORD, IAH.

If you have a cane, walker or of course in a wheelchair etc I'm cool with that, fits the category, but if you're old yet capable whats the disability? Never seen any denied or questioned. Something to look forward to I guess in 45 years.

SFO 1K

Not all disabilities are spotted with the human eye and require assistive devices. Cut the older folks some slack. My mom had back surgery and suffers extreme pain in her legs but walks without an aid. An extra minute before everyone pushes her along or makes her stand in the jet bridge due to crowding can go a long way toward reducing discomfort.

You may find yourself injured one day and suddenly appreciate the gesture, too.

greg99

And how many times has this actually meaningfully increased the time you had to spend in line?

This should go into the category of least important things to complain about. They're 80 years old!?!!

Do you ask for doctor notes before you'll move for the elderly or pregnant on a bus or train, too?

dorisrpas

Not all disabilities are obvious.

My mom has severe macular degeneration, a common age-related eye disease which progresses to blindness. Because she has some peripheral vision she looks like she can see fine. And while she can see enough to walk, she is extra careful on unfamiliar, uneven surfaces. Like jet bridges.

While I get there are old folks who game the system as well as their young counterparts, for the most part I think they deserve our understanding and patience in this regard.

goalie

Moderator note:

While the boarding of persons with disabilities is a part of United's boarding process, the discussion as to what constitutes a disability is not as that is up to the passenger(s) who have/claim to have a disability and the gate agent(s) to decide. If you would like to discuss traveling with disabilities, there is an entire forum devoted to disability travel here

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/disability-travel-224/

goalie
UA Forum Co-Moderator

goodeats21

2 crappy boarding experiences last week.

1st was a crew showing up late for the flight, so the Gate Agent took it upon themselves to "quick board"...which meant calling all pre-board groups plus groups 1&2, all at the same time.
News Flash - that doesn't decrease boarding time. It just creates a log jam and causes confusion.

2nd was showing up at the gate 10 minutes prior to boarding time and finding them already on group 3. No weather or other obvious issues. So we all got to sit on the plane extra long while the last passengers were boarded at regular close-out time. And no bin space above my area.

Oh, and we actually pushed late - from what I could tell waiting on ramp staff to finish bags.

lincolnjkc

I had a gate agent in ORD a couple weeks ago invite "our Global Services and 1K Premier Customers" to pre-board followed by those with disabilities, then Group 1.

I've also noticed an increasing number of gate agents who are "speeding through" the "Currently Boarding" boarding groups as displayed on the GIDS, e.g. they'll be calling for preboards, and the GIDS is displaying boarding groups 1-4 or 1-5 (in one case "FINAL BOARDING") before they've even gotten to GS -- which then creates confusion as someone in Group 3 pushes through because the "screen says" they're boarding.

[My guess for that is rather than "properly" boarding preboards or dealing with the gate reader alarms the GAs are just setting the current boarding group to be whatever the preboard had without thinking of the consequences]

gobluetwo

[Note: nothing that hasn't been already said, but a recent example which cements this in my mind]

Ok, so I'm more convinced that credit card holders with priority boarding need to be a separate group from any and all elite flyers.

I was on ORD-ATL on which most elites on board were upgraded. I'm Gold and was upgraded, so any of the 5 people left on the upgrade list were likely no better than group 2. However, Group 2 was still probably 25+ deep. You can reasonably assume there were around 15-20 credit card holders on the flight.

It doesn't seem right that someone who pays $95 for a credit card should have the same benefits and priority as someone who flies potentially anywhere from 30-89 segments / 25k-74k miles per year and can spend $3k+ of airfare on UA (for instance, I've already spent over $6k this year on 31k PQM / 37 PQS, but have the same priority as my mother-in-law who flies 1-2x per year).

Call for elites in whatever order, then priority for credit card holders and whoever bought the premier access package, then general boarding. That should still drive the behavior they want (get our credit cards!) while still maintaining a difference between those who fly frequently and those who do not.

halls120

While you're right, UA doesn't care that they are diluting the benefit afforded to more frequent fliers. Which is why many FFs are no longer pursuing status on UA to the degree they once did.