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 17, 2018, 8:51 pm
#2131
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: TOA
Programs: HH Diamond, Marriott LTPP/Platinum Premier, Hyatt Lame-ist, UA !K
Posts: 20,061
Chase, are you listening? (I doubt UA is.) I spend $450 per year on the Club Card. I've done this ever since United annonuced that Premier Silvers were too entitled and I stopped earning status. If you turn Group 2 boarding into a free-for-all with everyone who got a free Explorer card last week, it will downgrade my Club card and I'll consider switching back to the Citi Executive AAdvantage card. Which means I'll move some of my flying back to AA (in case you're actually listening, UA).
David
Oct 17, 2018, 8:56 pm
#2132
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
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Oct 17, 2018, 10:44 pm
#2133
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Seoul
Programs: None anymore
Posts: 983
Actually, this is not really true - on the SQ flight where I was in coach, passengers brought on no less or more carry-on bags of a similar size that I see every time I fly UA, and the FA's were not running around re-arranging bins or bags any less or more than on UA (where I see FAs cleaning messily loaded bins) because people seemed to know what to do when they came on board and did so quickly. In fact, I rarely see much of a bag discrepancy between the US and the Asian countries I travel to, I believe the US 'kitchen sink' theory is a myth compared with Asia, but perhaps Europe is different?
Honestly, I blame slow boarding on draconian baggage policies.
Oct 17, 2018, 10:56 pm
#2134
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 2,531
(2) Explorer card already has Group 2 boarding, has for many years.
(3) This recent change made Group 2 smaller.
Oct 17, 2018, 11:54 pm
#2135
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Honolulu Harbor
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 15,029
Not sure I could justify spending $450/year on the Club Card if my UA didn’t even get me to Silver. $95 for an Explorer card will still get you Group 2 boarding.
Oct 18, 2018, 12:08 am
#2136
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: SFO
Programs: Marriott Ti/LTP
Posts: 1,329
SJC-ord was a mess with probably a dozen 1k that either came through the group 1 line or squeezed in from the unbounded group 2 lane. Ord-sjc was awesome with only 3 and a side area to stand in,
Oct 18, 2018, 12:23 am
#2137
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
What is so hard to learn from NRT GAs? Are U.S. GAs inherently dumber than Japanese GAs??
Oct 18, 2018, 1:32 am
#2138
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Seoul
Programs: None anymore
Posts: 983
Yes! A separate 1K line is needed for all over-ocean and hub-to-hub flights. I hope UA is listening.It also makes sense to include F/J passengers in the line to mitigate the complaints of F/J ticket holders who are < 1K.
What is so hard to learn from NRT GAs? Are U.S. GAs inherently dumber than Japanese GAs??
What is so hard to learn from NRT GAs? Are U.S. GAs inherently dumber than Japanese GAs??
Oct 18, 2018, 6:25 am
#2139
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,115
And the gates are big and designed for big widebody international flights. Flew out of Brazil and they had a line for 1Ks, which was easy to do since there was a giant unused queued out line for “special services” just sitting there. Plus, this type of flight is all that these GAs do, unlike a domestic based GA who has to bounce back and forth between big widebodies and small domestic planes with all sorts of different gate configurations.
if the company makes it easy on the GAs with ample space and uniform plane types (ie big international stations), it’s much easier for them to do their jobs. I don’t think it’s fair to just boil this down to “trying”. UA didn’t bother to “try” to test this process after all.
if the company makes it easy on the GAs with ample space and uniform plane types (ie big international stations), it’s much easier for them to do their jobs. I don’t think it’s fair to just boil this down to “trying”. UA didn’t bother to “try” to test this process after all.
Oct 18, 2018, 6:28 am
#2140
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Posts: 15,866
Oct 18, 2018, 6:37 am
#2141
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
Programs: United 1K, JAL Sapphire, SPG Lifetime Platinum, National Executive Elite, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 42,231
And the gates are big and designed for big widebody international flights. Flew out of Brazil and they had a line for 1Ks, which was easy to do since there was a giant unused queued out line for “special services” just sitting there. Plus, this type of flight is all that these GAs do, unlike a domestic based GA who has to bounce back and forth between big widebodies and small domestic planes with all sorts of different gate configurations.
if the company makes it easy on the GAs with ample space and uniform plane types (ie big international stations), it’s much easier for them to do their jobs. I don’t think it’s fair to just boil this down to “trying”. UA didn’t bother to “try” to test this process after all.
Oct 18, 2018, 7:38 am
#2142
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: NYC: UA 1K, DL Platinum, AAirpass, Avis PC
Posts: 4,599
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29171611-post126.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29171266-post123.html
We don't know what other iterations may have been tested before or since as the Flyertalk reporting sample size isn't significant.
Oct 18, 2018, 8:12 am
#2143
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Seoul
Programs: None anymore
Posts: 983
And the gates are big and designed for big widebody international flights. Flew out of Brazil and they had a line for 1Ks, which was easy to do since there was a giant unused queued out line for “special services” just sitting there. Plus, this type of flight is all that these GAs do, unlike a domestic based GA who has to bounce back and forth between big widebodies and small domestic planes with all sorts of different gate configurations.
if the company makes it easy on the GAs with ample space and uniform plane types (ie big international stations), it’s much easier for them to do their jobs. I don’t think it’s fair to just boil this down to “trying”. UA didn’t bother to “try” to test this process after all.
I have to disagree - it's not the space, it's the mindset. A good employee who takes pride in what they are doing and how it reflects on them, would still utilize the space they are working with to make sure the boarding process was orderly, smooth and compliant. Employees who don't really give a hoot, are just not going to care. The work ethic in Japan vs the USA can't really be compared, it's like comparing an apple to a wrench.
Let's still use the NRT example. There are multiple gate agents present, you have agents walking through the lines proactively fixing any issues that arise, answering questions, herding people, etc. Compare it to SFO with a similar sized gate area and you know what I have never once in my life seen a gate agent leave the desk to talk to anyone, organize any line, or in general try and make the process more efficient.
It's a mindset.
Oct 18, 2018, 8:18 am
#2144
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
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Oct 18, 2018, 5:18 pm
#2145
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Seoul
Programs: None anymore
Posts: 983
Yes, there are more agents and I'll admit I usually don't pay close attention but from memory I would say that while there are more agents, there aren't THAT much more to where it's a huge difference. 2-3 behind the desk, 1-2 roaming the lines. From what I remember at SFO it's a minimum of 4 behind the desk. I could be misremembering though.