kale73

I suspect that the majority of Premier Gold Elite® members also hold a credit card.

But when does the disabled active military GS® member traveling with a child under two board?

Often those bags belong to crew members. But ^ anyhow!

But where will it stop? I've never fully understood the military pre-board. Why not offer the same "benefit" to police, firefighters, and ambulance drivers? And why only "active duty" military? Do we no longer respect our veterans?

In my observations, many people travel with too much stuff. (donning asbestos suit now)

IAH-OIL-TRASH

username

I wonder what is next. Make 1Ks and Golds harder to achieve?

moneesh

I flew from SNA to DEN today. I approached the gate before the flight and asked the agent if they'd be using a new boarding process. She was very nice, took out an official memo and showed it to me, explaining that everyone systemwide would use the process starting today, Sept 18th. She laughed and said, "it's going to be a fun few weeks training you guys".

She suggested that since I was a 1K, that I stand near the side of the gate and wait to be called, after families with small children. Since it was a Tuesday and somewhat light for FFers, I waited with a group of a few others. On a Monday morning, the group would probably be five times as large.

When they started pre-boarding, 3 GS boarded, some folks who needed extra time, then a family, then when they called 1K, 5 other 1K's leaped forward in front of me as I casually walked to pre board. Two were rude and cut in front of the other three 1K's and it was a rush to the scanner. This process is going to take some time to work out the kinks. I wish my fellow 1K's would relax and board calmly.

This also happened to be my flight where I reached 2M lifetime UA miles. I didn't know what to expect, if anything. Luckily my upgrade cleared, the FC cabin service was great. When we started preparing for landing, the FA approached me, asked me my name and said, "I don't know if you realize it, but with this flight, you've flown 2M miles with us, that's crazy." I guess with UA that's what you get for 2M lifetime miles, oh well, at least they remembered.

canadiancow

As yes. FIrst of all, it's a non-issue, because F pax are all 1K.

Second, the ones that are not 1K are on $69 fares.

Great logic.

The issue is much less that 1K now boards first and much more that *G can now board first.

This is what people don't seem to understand.

I pay for a premium experience. I don't want to stand around in line.

When I have sufficient baggage to need bin space, I could leave the UC right at or before boarding time, get to the gate right when the group 1 lane is getting close to empty, and board. Previously, that meant I boarded (at the latest) after 1K, Platinum, and F. Now it means I either have to get there earlier enough to secure a place in line, standing around, or I also have to wait until *G has boarded.

Buying F used to ensure I could get bin space without camping out in line. That perk is gone.

And I'm surprised at the people who say they've never been forced to gate-check in F. I fly UA much less than most people in this thread, and yet I was once turned away on ORD-SFO at the aircraft door because there was absolutely no room left for bags, and I'd have to check mine. I walked back up to the podium, told them I was not going to check my bag, and to offload me and move me to the next flight (which I knew was about an hour later). This was after a mechanical delay on my inbound caused me to arrive halfway through group 5 boarding, so not the same scenario as I describe above, but they can certainly run out of bin space for F pax on narrow-bodies. And yes, I had reasons to not separate from that bag, beyond the normal risk of damage, loss, delay, or waiting 45 minutes at the other end.

PanAmWT

Last month I flew SFO-IAD-SFO both on 777-200. At both airports there were around 8-12 GS. In SFO I walk around the lines by walking through an adjacent empty gate to our gate for pre-boarding. At IAD several of us were cutoff by the long and winding BG1 line so it was not possible to move to closer to the gate, so we boarded a the end of BG1.

Now with 1K joining the pre-boarding, the elite population eligible for preboarding will probably be x 5 (ratio of GS:1K ~ 1:4), it will be interesting to see 40 GS/1Ks trying to move closer to the gate. Joined by some infrequent flyers who wonder why this large group of passengers are congregated near the gate entrance. The situation will be especially challenging on TPAC flights out of SFO where many foreign tourists stay close to the gate regardless.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

canadiancow

The specific sentence you quoted doesn't say anything about the new boarding process affecting it. It disputed a claim that F pax never have to gate-check.

However, lots of people just grab the first bin they can when they walk on. If your bag's in front of you, deplaning is easy. If it's behind you, you're going to be off last. As such, lots of people, especially those who are all going to be in E+, where the overheads quickly fill, will slowly start taking one row ahead of the curtain for bags. And then the F pax who boards will have to go back to the exit row to find space, which means they're going to be last off the plane.

Putting your bag more than a row or two behind you (i.e. far enough that you can't just say "excuse me, would you mind passing me my bag?" when everyone stands up) means waiting for everyone to deplane before you can grab it. When I'm running late and end up in row 1 with my bag over row 20 (on a 170), that's annoying, but the bins are small, and I was late. When the same thing happens on a 737 because 50 people are able to board before me (and yes, *G are now able to board before F if they camp the line), I'm not nearly as happy.

HNLbasedFlyer

The bean counters at UA would love on any given flight to see 40 GS/1K's - personal opinion, I doubt any flight ever had 40 GS/1K

jsloan

Well, I was #30 on the upgrade list as a 1K on an AUS/SFO flight earlier this year. It's not the least bit difficult for me to believe that there are 40 GS/1Ks on some flights.

HNLbasedFlyer

You would still be 25% off -

But, if there are that many GS/1K - all the more reason to make the 1K's happy with pre-boarding - The needs of the few (First Class not 1K or GS) do not outweigh the needs of the many (us 1K's)

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Kacee

You'd be surprised.

On recent LAX-SIN I saw the FAs' map for the forward J cabin and over half the pax were marked as 1K. And that's ex-LAX, rather than SFO.

Heck, I've been on SAN-SFO with 15-20 combined GS/1K. That's on an airbus or 737.
UA only flies narrowbodies AUS-SFO. Extrapolate 30 1K/GS on a 739 to a full 77W or 789, and you've easily got over 50.

username

One big problem with UA's boarding queues is that they actually disrupt concourse traffic. People don't bend the lines and a lot of the times, they end up cutting concourse traffic. They really need to try to manage it better as the problem would not go away with the new process...

LAXOGG

On my weekly trips EWR-DEL two years ago, we routinely had 50+ GS/1K on board.