diburning

In my experience, United has the option for passengers to provide their passport information to United online, and it's attached to your profile/PNR. With that information in the system, they don't do a doc check until your international leg.

narvik

They definitely will if a Visa is required.

diburning

Oh, I forgot about that.

TomMM

My experience has been If a visa is needed for my destination, the doc check is always performed at the initial airport with OLCI not available. For other destinations it has been mixed. Most flights to Europe it's only the passport check at boarding. Trips to MSQ and BEY required doc check at initial airport even though visas weren't required.

caseminole

Decided to treat myself by purchasing F ticket from MCO-LAX on Xmas day.

The flight actually went out with 5 open F seats, so even as a lowly Silver, I could have gotten a free upgrade, but thats not the point of my post.

I have never seen a pre-boarding in such disarray.

I dont mind boarding those with disabilities first, for obvious reasons. There were two wheelchair passengers, and one elderly couple with walkers.

Then there was one military personnel that got to board. OK, its great that they board early, I get it.

next was "Global Services", and as a premier flyer since the 80s (Silver or Gold only , mostly on pre-merger CO), I "kind of" get this one too. No one qualified for this one.

Then the call went to any passengers traveling with small children under 2 and other passengers needed special assistance. There must have been a minimum of 20-25 people that met this criteria.

So, here I am. A lowly Silver Premier in boarding group 1, but with a purchased first class transcon ticket. I finally boarded alone with maybe 10 other F passengers, all of us grumbling about the long wait.

Why not board folks with disabilities first, and then put the military personnel, global services, etc all into boarding group 1.

Let group 1 board first, THEN take care of all the others needed assistance

Call me selfish and entitled, who cares.

I just think a lifetime elite passenger on a paid F fare should board almost right away, not 10-12 minutes after 30 people have been loaded up.

Thoughts?

mahasamatman

United considers military, GS, 1K, and children to all be more important than F passengers. (Though moving 1K to BG 0 is a fairly recent change.) It's their business model, and the only real choices are to buy into it or go elsewhere.

narvik

....just as well you didn't notice all the 1Ks boarding before you too!

aacharya

This has nothing to do with general UA boarding policy, but the misuse of "assistance" amongst those who travel to and from Florida.

Google "miracle flights" here and you'll see it.

94010flyer

Not defending United, since I think that F passengers should be pre- boarded at the same time as 1K --- but I believe the rationale for letting families with small kids board first is that they need extra time to board, just like disabled folks. Normally out of SFO, this is just one or two families, IME and doesn't take long. I think you're a victim of Orlando and Disney World, where I assume much of the traffic is families with small kids, so there is an unusually long wait in that particular airport.

Critic

It's also important to remember what airport you're departing from - Florida airports in general have a high number of pax requiring pre-board, and MCO in particular is going to be the capital of "Families under 2 requiring extra time". The delay comes with the territory (literally and figuratively.)

RobotDoctor

United used to board people with disabilities followed by Global Service followed by First Class, then 1K, 1P, 2P then all others. This was called out as there were no boarding lines except for the line with the Red Carpet. This changed after the merger. After the merger it's was people with disabilities, Military members, Global Service, families with children under 2 then boarding group 1 and so on. Then UAL changed the boarding procedure to include 1Ks to board during pre-boarding after families with children under 2 and before boarding group 1.

I believe Global Service should be allowed to board at any time during the boarding process. This group is the highest revenue group of the entire airline, by a long shot. I've been told this one group, within the top 1% of spending, contributes about 50% of the revenue for the airline. I definitely understand people needing additional time to board (disabilities and families with small children). I do think at times the former is taken advantage of when there is one person with a disability and their entire entourage (sometimes 4 or 5 additional people) board. Be that as it may, let the disabled and families with small children board. I definitely understand the Military priority. To all those who are serving and who have served, THANK YOU! As for 1Ks, it's about time. 1Ks contribute another 20% or so revenue so between Global Service and 1Ks that amounts to nearly 70% total revenue (again, from what I have been told by UAL personnel). I understand the first class thing and maybe first should be boarded during pre-boarding. Until that day happens first class is group 1. Before 1Ks were offered pre-boarding I frequently held a first class ticket (albeit a buy up to first) and just took my place in group 1. I am also a lifetime Platinum member working towards lifetime 1K. Keep in mind that there may be others in first class that have purchased first class fare and have a higher priority than you do. At the end of the day the flight will not leave without you as long as you are at the gate ready to board.

narvik

That is pretty much impossible, mathematically.
It would mean GS and 1K generate 26 billion USD in 2017, with GS contributing 19 billion all by themselves.

RobotDoctor

Yes, MCO would definitely be filled with families with children under 2. Thank goodness I'm based in DEN and rarely, if ever, go to MCO.

glbltvlr

I'm dating myself severely here, but there was a time when I was flying frequent transcons. Everybody boarded quickly and efficiently. You could almost hear a pin drop the entire six hours, even in coach. Look around and folks were reading, a few using a laptop or dozing off. Then I had a flight between BOS and MCO, on Eastern. You may recall they were the "official airline for DisneyWorld" and marketed that heavily. Toy balls rolling up and down the aisle, kids screaming, babies crying for 3 hours. The difference was amazing.

RobotDoctor

As I said, this was conveyed to my by several CSRs at various locations. Unfortunately I don't have a way to confirm this. Maybe what was meant was 50% of ticket revenue. UAL also generates a significant amount of revenue with freight contracts as well. I would also suspect there's revenue generated with credit card alliances, hotel alliances, car rental alliances as well.

I suppose we have to keep in mind that MCO has always been and will always be primarily a family destination. Happiest place in the world, right? The flying I did with Continental was primarily from 1990 though 1993 and the culture was different back then. It seemed quieter and was conducive to the business traveler. Or maybe I was too focused on the frequent beautiful FA and wondered how a single bum like me could date one. I never flew Eastern so I cannot comment on that experience. I switched to United in 1994 (DEN based) and from that time until the merger United was marketed and conducted as a business airline. The clientele was significantly weighted to the business traveler which meant laptops galore and pretty quiet. Of course some locations always were family oriented. Again, MCO is such a destination. In 2007 I took my family (with an 11 and almost 9 year old) to MCO to spend a week at the happiest place on Earth. Yes, those flights were heavily weighted as a family centrist flight. I don't recall balls rolling down the aisle or screaming kids but yes, baby cries could be heard. Thank goodness for earphones and an iPod.