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}
Oct 3, 2018, 1:57 pm
#1996
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: DEN
Programs: UA-GS; WN A-list;Hyatt - CC; Hertz - PC
Posts: 644
My reviews so far on this fiasco.
DEN/LAX - Total disaster as 1k's were called with GS, and barely any time after those needing assistance were called. It bottlenecked and people started pushing.
LAX/SFO - E175 and it still sucked since most everyone seemed to be a GS or 1k.
SFO/DEN - Just now. Again, total clusterF! I used to relax a little to make sure I got my overhead bin space. But really at SFO watching at least 30 people come forward of the 1K or GS variety was awful. They have to make more of a point to separate 1K and GS at major hub to hub flights. The best part was about 30 seconds after the bottlenexk starts in the back up line. She says, and Group 1. I am getting the feeling that we are all going to suffer through this boarding as they have simply been told, get everyone on the damn plane! I was lucky on this flight to get somewhere to put my bags, but I am going to have to go back to the days of gate licing just to get bag up top.
Bad boarding process UAL!
DEN/LAX - Total disaster as 1k's were called with GS, and barely any time after those needing assistance were called. It bottlenecked and people started pushing.
LAX/SFO - E175 and it still sucked since most everyone seemed to be a GS or 1k.
SFO/DEN - Just now. Again, total clusterF! I used to relax a little to make sure I got my overhead bin space. But really at SFO watching at least 30 people come forward of the 1K or GS variety was awful. They have to make more of a point to separate 1K and GS at major hub to hub flights. The best part was about 30 seconds after the bottlenexk starts in the back up line. She says, and Group 1. I am getting the feeling that we are all going to suffer through this boarding as they have simply been told, get everyone on the damn plane! I was lucky on this flight to get somewhere to put my bags, but I am going to have to go back to the days of gate licing just to get bag up top.
Bad boarding process UAL!
Oct 3, 2018, 2:13 pm
#1997
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Cleveland, OH
Programs: UA-GS 1MM), Hertz Pres Circle, Starriott Titanium)
Posts: 1,966
I've had the unusual opportunity to stay home for a while. Tomorrow will be my first flight since the new boarding order took effect. I go CLE-EWR-BOM. It will be interesting to see how things go. I'm almost certain EWR will manage to mess things up.
Oct 3, 2018, 2:31 pm
#1998
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: CLE, DCA, and 30k feet
Programs: Honors LT Diamond; United 1K; Hertz PC
Posts: 4,168
The guy who was the GM for the "Cleveland Metro" for United (and was s loved without exception by everyone on the front line I talked to in CLE) is now a director at EWR... Hasn't been there for long but I already get the sense of a turning tide. Met him and his colleague in EWR a month ago and I don't have anywhere near the sense of impending dread I did before... Good luck though ;-)
Oct 3, 2018, 2:33 pm
#1999
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: San Francisco, CA (SFO)
Programs: UA 1K, UA .53 MM, Marriott Gold, Nexus, GE, TSA Pre, Hertz PC
Posts: 581
As others have echoed, moving 1K's to a nonexistent pre-boarding lane makes the boarding area even more of a mess as people are now congregating on both sides of the boarding lanes, anticipating their group to be called.
Oct 3, 2018, 3:01 pm
#2000
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Programs: UA 1K 1MMer & LT UC (when flying UA); Hyatt Credit Cardist; HHonors Diamond; Marriott Gold via UA 1K
Posts: 6,956
I'm pretty sure that what drowelf means is that s/he brings 2 underseat-compliant personal items only on board, but both of those items don't fit into the underseat space in Y -- which is obstructed. I only take soft bags which can be squished into the underseat space. This isn't an issue for window and middle seats, since there are no obstructions. This is also why domestic F aisle seats often put their personal item in the middle slot instead of the slot directly under their seat.
Oct 3, 2018, 7:30 pm
#2001
FlyerTalk Evangelist & Ambassador: China
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: DEN
Programs: DL DM/MM, UA 1K, AA Exp, HH Dia, WOH Glob, IHG Plat, Marriott Gold, NA EE, Hertz PC
Posts: 17,423
After a little time with this new policy I really like it. Maybe my flights are 1K light but I enjoy not trying to beat the lice to the group 1 line and can leisurely hang out in the open space.
Oct 3, 2018, 9:01 pm
#2002
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: UA LT GS | UA LT Club | Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 1,250
Me too. HKG-SFO this morning. The GA nailed the order, paused between groups, while a 2nd agent walked around with a laminated sign instructing 1Ks to walk around the G1 line, into the pre-boarding area.
0 Disability
0 Kids
1 GS
0 Military
15 1Ks (50/50 J/E+)
Group 3-5 obediently sat
Flight only had 100 in the main cabin on a 77W, so very light, but nevertheless, smooth as silk.
0 Disability
0 Kids
1 GS
0 Military
15 1Ks (50/50 J/E+)
Group 3-5 obediently sat
Flight only had 100 in the main cabin on a 77W, so very light, but nevertheless, smooth as silk.
Oct 3, 2018, 10:57 pm
#2003
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: DYKWIA, But I'm a "Diamond Guest" UA 1K/2MM
Posts: 2,258
Me too. HKG-SFO this morning. The GA nailed the order, paused between groups, while a 2nd agent walked around with a laminated sign instructing 1Ks to walk around the G1 line, into the pre-boarding area.
0 Disability
0 Kids
1 GS
0 Military
15 1Ks (50/50 J/E+)
Group 3-5 obediently sat
Flight only had 100 in the main cabin on a 77W, so very light, but nevertheless, smooth as silk.
0 Disability
0 Kids
1 GS
0 Military
15 1Ks (50/50 J/E+)
Group 3-5 obediently sat
Flight only had 100 in the main cabin on a 77W, so very light, but nevertheless, smooth as silk.
But that's not the order. People with kids come after GS now. Military goes before GS. So it sound like the GA got it all wrong.
Oct 4, 2018, 3:40 am
#2004
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Cleveland, OH
Programs: UA-GS 1MM), Hertz Pres Circle, Starriott Titanium)
Posts: 1,966
Just boarded CLE-EWR, my first flight since the new order. They got it right! They preboarded disabled, then called for military. Then GS.
As I was walking down the jetway I heard call for families then 1K. All with a reasonable pause.
As I was walking down the jetway I heard call for families then 1K. All with a reasonable pause.
Oct 4, 2018, 6:00 am
#2005
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.9MM
Posts: 6,362
My observations so far:
Before Sep 18, when it was unclear where each boarding line terminated exactly, I used to get a lot of:
"Excuse me, is this Group 1?"
Nowadays, because the pre-boarding area is mostly undefined, there is a lot of up-and-down checking out of the scattered people:
"Hmm, yeah, she looks like she's used to flying a lot. I bet she is 1K."
and
"Yep: shorts, tanned, baseball cap. He's definitely got that GS 'look'."
So you can tell where all the GS and 1K are hanging out, and you just congregate there too.
Before Sep 18, when it was unclear where each boarding line terminated exactly, I used to get a lot of:
"Excuse me, is this Group 1?"
Nowadays, because the pre-boarding area is mostly undefined, there is a lot of up-and-down checking out of the scattered people:
"Hmm, yeah, she looks like she's used to flying a lot. I bet she is 1K."
and
"Yep: shorts, tanned, baseball cap. He's definitely got that GS 'look'."
So you can tell where all the GS and 1K are hanging out, and you just congregate there too.
Oct 4, 2018, 7:09 am
#2006
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: DEN
Programs: UA MM Plat; AA MM Gold; HHonors Diamond
Posts: 15,866
Oct 4, 2018, 8:03 am
#2007
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: where lions are led by donkeys...
Programs: Lifetime Gold, Global Entry, Hertz PC, and my wallet
Posts: 20,350
It will be interesting to see how it is implemented at LHR because there was a GS lane - so does this now become the GS/1K lane now I wonder.
Oct 4, 2018, 9:41 am
#2009
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: MFR
Programs: UA 1K 1.9MM, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,885
Worked great at DFW this morning - they made an announcement 10 minutes beforehand explaining the new procedure. Plenty of pauses between pre-board groups and families were boarded LAST after 1Ks. I like it.
Oct 4, 2018, 11:17 am
#2010
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Lahaina, HI & Los Angeles, CA
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 2,403
Which unfortunately is incorrect. Families with children two and under are supposed to board before 1k's.