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}
Sep 19, 2018, 12:01 am
#1426
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1K MM, Marriott Gold
Posts: 4,768
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...
Sep 19, 2018, 12:19 am
#1427
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: HNL
Programs: UA GS4MM, MR LT Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 6,447
Y
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.
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.
Sep 19, 2018, 12:26 am
#1428
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: CO
Programs: UA OG-1K, Marriott Plat, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,360
That and people that try to skip the single line que for the 2 person Club entrance. You get behind some CC dumby or someone who doesn't understand F isn't club access and you'll hang there forever. Single line, next available agent.
Sep 19, 2018, 12:35 am
#1429
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: SFO / LHR
Programs: UA GS 2.2MM / UC / AS Gold 75K / Bonvoy Plat / Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,028
With the elimination of GS checkin lanes at all but the main hub stations (merging those lanes with Polaris/1K and creating long waits), United is clearly less focused on GS ground handling and the program overall these days.
Hopefully this new process gets smoother as time goes on.
Sep 19, 2018, 12:55 am
#1430
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 812
UA could have solved all of these problems by having a separate pre-board lane. They shouldn't have tried so hard and gone from 5 lanes to 2. 5 lanes to 3 would have worked better.
Sep 19, 2018, 3:29 am
#1431
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: San Antonio, TX
Programs: United GS, Marriott Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 109
Flew out of Boston this morning - automated announcement has been updated but the pre-boarding announcement has no pauses so as expected there was a mad rush to the gate. Would be nice if they used the one at a time announcement with a pause rather than literally all 5 pre board groups called simultaneously.
Sep 19, 2018, 5:47 am
#1432
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: BOS/SIN
Programs: DL PM, OZ Diamond Plus, BA Silver
Posts: 1,803
So with this new change as a non-UA *G on a $70 BE ticket EWR-BOS I get to board in the same group as someone flying NRT-EWR-BOS on a ~$7000 paid J ticket... not complaining but something seems a little off to me
Sep 19, 2018, 6:35 am
#1433
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Cleveland, OH
Programs: UA-GS 1MM), Hertz Pres Circle, Starriott Titanium)
Posts: 1,966
Flew out of Boston this morning - automated announcement has been updated but the pre-boarding announcement has no pauses so as expected there was a mad rush to the gate. Would be nice if they used the one at a time announcement with a pause rather than literally all 5 pre board groups called simultaneously.
I expected the odd GA to mess up with gradual improvement over the course of the year. When they enshrine the incorrect method into an automated announcement, this will be an absolute cluster.
Sep 19, 2018, 6:39 am
#1434
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 11,458
Flew out of Boston this morning - automated announcement has been updated but the pre-boarding announcement has no pauses so as expected there was a mad rush to the gate. Would be nice if they used the one at a time announcement with a pause rather than literally all 5 pre board groups called simultaneously.
Sep 19, 2018, 6:41 am
#1435
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Cleveland, OH
Programs: UA-GS 1MM), Hertz Pres Circle, Starriott Titanium)
Posts: 1,966
Aren't the 'automated announcements' at BOS actually just initiated by an agent pushing a button? Effectively that's just the same as the agents who formerly went 'We now invite disabilitiesmilitaryfamiliesglobal' (and now I assume will go 'disabilitiesmilitaryglobalfamilies1k').
Does a single button press rattle off the whole pre-boarding announcement, or does each "sub-group" in preboarding require a separate press. Also, in the spoken script, is there supposed to be a "pause" between each sub-group as before? Or are all preboard groups invited simultaneously.
Sep 19, 2018, 6:49 am
#1436
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 11,458
I guess the question boils down to:
Does a single button press rattle off the whole pre-boarding announcement, or does each "sub-group" in preboarding require a separate press. Also, in the spoken script, is there supposed to be a "pause" between each sub-group as before? Or are all preboard groups invited simultaneously.
Does a single button press rattle off the whole pre-boarding announcement, or does each "sub-group" in preboarding require a separate press. Also, in the spoken script, is there supposed to be a "pause" between each sub-group as before? Or are all preboard groups invited simultaneously.
Sep 19, 2018, 7:36 am
#1437
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 4,115
I just noticed this as well, and I wondered why no one else picked up on it earlier. IMHO, this is one of the stupidest moves they've made. They call them the "green" and "blue" lanes, but labeled them with numbers... which happen to match two of the boarding groups. Not confusing at all. 
I agree that a simple "A" and "B" would've been better, since "Premier Access" would obviously lead to confusion for Group 2 folks lined up in the "regular" lane.
I agree that a simple "A" and "B" would've been better, since "Premier Access" would obviously lead to confusion for Group 2 folks lined up in the "regular" lane.Now, UA needs 5 lanes just to organize its preboard groups. The GS pre boarding worked because there was usually just a couple people, and it was generally easy to stand to the side with some discretion. Even with that though, it was sometimes awkward to find a place to “huddle”. Forget about elitism and priority, it’s a simple matter of the number of people and space.
I don’t have a good feeling about how this is all going to turn out.
Sep 19, 2018, 7:38 am
#1438
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: San Antonio, TX
Programs: United GS, Marriott Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 109
Also - the BG1 announcement came before pre boards were finished.
Oh well. Let’s see what IAH has in store in an hour for my next flight.
Sep 19, 2018, 7:49 am
#1439
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: DAY
Programs: UA 1K 1MM; Marriott LT Titanium; Amex MR; Chase UR; Hertz PC; Global Entry
Posts: 10,158
The idea of a "pause" between groups is great, but not consistent with the directive to Gate Agents to get the flight boarded and pushed ASAP. Incentives are not aligned to encourage paced boarding....
Not that I think paced boarding would be any slower, but perception seems to be rushing the boarding process is better for push times.
Not that I think paced boarding would be any slower, but perception seems to be rushing the boarding process is better for push times.
Sep 19, 2018, 7:54 am
#1440
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 11,458
The idea of a "pause" between groups is great, but not consistent with the directive to Gate Agents to get the flight boarded and pushed ASAP. Incentives are not aligned to encourage paced boarding....
Not that I think paced boarding would be any slower, but perception seems to be rushing the boarding process is better for push times.
Not that I think paced boarding would be any slower, but perception seems to be rushing the boarding process is better for push times.
