emcampbe

Think this belongs in its own thread, but mods, feel free to move to the more general boarding thread if you think its appropriate.

Traveling out of CVG this weekend, and pre-boarding with an infant (yes, under 2). Noticed that when the agent scanned both mine and my wife's boarding passes, the scanner beeped, and the message on the scanner read something to the effect that we were in group 2 and boarding earlier then that. Agent had to click something on his computer to allow us to be boarded.

Never seen this before. Also worth noting that I didn't see this on any of the other 3 boardings on this trip (PDX and ORD, twice - we pre-boarded with infant on all 4 flights). So wondering if this new, is being rolled out slowly, or is something of an option that agents can enable (or not).

Just curious. And noting the boarding abuses we have all seen (for years), I actually don't have any issues with this if it is being rolled out.

Baze

These started rolling out over a year ago, but not a very fast rollout.

mekk

I have seen this "feature" sporadically over the past year or so. If I had to guess, I would say it is enabled by the gate agent since I have recently seen families with children under 2 pre-boarding (knowing they are in later groups) and not tripping the alert.

That being said, even when I have seen the alert go off for legitimate early-boarders the GA has not always enforced that they wait their turn. Selfishly, I have to admit it has been somewhat satisfying in those instances where the offender has been called out...

emcampbe

You'd think they could program it so those who legitimately have early boarding access wouldn't set off the alert. Might be more difficult in some cases (I.e. Disabled folks who may not need to tell UA) but certainly should be easy, if, say, there is someone under 2 on the record. When the alert went off, we were still all on the same record, and infant a lap child. Seems like that should be easy.

gobluetwo

What seems more likely is that the system is programmed to not alert during early boarding for military, disabled, and families with children 2 and under. Then starting with GS boarding, it limits by boarding group/status.

Yesterday at ORD, the GA was actively sending early boarders aside, including the *G guy who was aghast that he wasn't part of group 1 and kept insisting he board early. She was very nice about and handled his mini-tantrum very well.

MattR23

This makes the most sense. Presumably the warning can be disabled entirely during pre-boarding.

As an aside, this system has probably been implemented in order to enforce boarding groups without the need for the gate agent to look at boarding passes since so many use their phones as boarding passes and scan themselves.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

More likely to enable use of self-boarding gates.

Plane-is-home

After 30 or so segments where GAs either ignored the new process or at least called GS ahead of the families I finally got the real deal today with UA649 at gate 20 in Denver today.
They called for preboarding,
First group of nine walks up. One handicapped kid. None has a passport ready. GA should have a) not boarded 8 with 1 and b) made them step to the side when they had to dig thru their luggage for passport.
Next family had a kid under two but no passports either. Then they proceeded to board more families all with children in the 4-6 year age range. Then they called GS, military, and group 1 all in one sentence. 12 minutes added for me. Door was supposed to close 7:05pm but was closed 7:14.


Best Regards
Michael
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bmwe92fan

Since the other thread about the change about children and boarding was never re-opened I'm posting this here...

I have seen this recently getting worse and worse - and as summer gets closer it's really starting to get out of hand - here's a picture from ORD on a flight to upstate NY - high B gates - today. I couldn't even get in the picture all of the junk families just dumped in front of the plane - so much so the wheelchairs couldn't even get by...

This was NOT a good change at all - at least IMHO....

televisor

Really, 2 prams and a baby seat/bassinet thing counts as bad? I assume you carry all your kids in your arms all the time? (I'm too young for kids so I don't have any personal experience, but I can imagine a pram being useful, especially when travelling and dealing with tickets/IDs/bags/etc.)

At least these are clearly very young children, i.e. likely to be under 2, if they need this kind of equipment.

Admittedly I don't understand why the wheelchairs didn't board first, and one of those items is placed in a stupid position, but calling it "junk" is ridiculous. Plus shouldn't there be someone at the end of the bridge to collect those items, thus solving the problem of the prams being in the way?

greg99

Actually, I think this picture is Exhibit A for why families with young children should board early. Would you like to be the one stuck behind them as they pull their babies out of the car seats and fold the strollers? Or alternatively, would you like to have hem hold up departure while they do all of that at the end of boarding and then bump their way down the aisle of a full aircraft and make people get up so they can access their seats?

Shame on the GA for boarding GS so soon after the pre boarding, but that's yet another example of poor execution of what is not inherently a bad idea.

Eryeal

Funny I was going to say the same thing - reading his text before seeing the picture, I expected to see a dozen infant seats and strollers strewn about haphazardly. Then I saw like 2 infant seats and something else. And then he says he couldn't even fit all the "junk" in the picture - meanwhile the picture is 85% of the handicapped passenger. Talk about overreaction - sheesh.

bmwe92fan

The entire jetway area before the plane was blocked and so sorry my camera just couldn't get it all in - there was a line of people all the way up the jetway who had all been waiting quite some time for the families to fold up their strollers, baby seats, and everything else associated with families (I know I have 6 kids) - and the GA DID wait quite some time before GS and group 1 boarded.... The problem is the process - and the fact that there is no one to help these people (FA's won't come off plane and no ground people help them). Next time I'll take a video and post that so we can debate the real issues not what may or may not be in the pictures - I wouldn't have posted if it wasn't a real issue - it wasn't just a few baby seats...

Global321

I had the opposite impression. Why hold up boarding for 5 families that could board mid/end? At that point, the Jetway is backed up any way. Plenty of time for them to do what they need to do.

AA has stopped pre-boarding families and there does not seem to be a hit to on time departures.

Clearly the older person should be pre-boarded. Would you want to be the wheelchair bound person behind able bodied people with small children?

gobluetwo

Perhaps they should reorder the boarding process.

Start with GS; then military in uniform (or with ID, as I heard it recently at SNA);
then those needing extra assistance (e.g., wheelchairs, walkers, disabilities, etc.);
then families with children under 2 (technically, it's 2 and under, but under 2 just makes so much more sense);
then the regular boarding process.

You'd think that the GS (even the ones who think the world revolves around them) and military folks can move quickly enough to not impact those needing extra time, including infants. Wait until the jetway is clear, then board with group 1.