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}
Jul 8, 2019, 6:52 am
#2657
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Denver, CO, USA
Programs: Sometimes known as [ARG:6 UNDEFINED]
Posts: 26,689
Not sure if this is sarcasm or serious. It's been close to 5 years since I've been through BOS with UA, but my experience was the self boarding gates were disasters, substantially slowed down boarding, and caused more work for GAs (granted this was also right around the time they rolled them out). The more work for GAs was odd because these were supposed to be part of a QI project to reduce the number of GA's needed to get a flight out from 2 to 1.33.
Jul 8, 2019, 8:00 am
#2658
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,569
The BOS cattle chutes remain a disaster. I had to go through them about a week ago. Not only do people not understand them, a good 20% of the BPs don't work, exit row BPs confuse people completely, and the mere presence of these TSA-style chutes just screams "we don't trust you."
Jul 8, 2019, 9:43 am
#2659
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: NYC/Northern NJ
Programs: 1K - UAL, Platinum DL, Marriott, Hilton, SPG
Posts: 1,815
Do you want strollers or families taking 20 minutes to sit down Jr, JrJr, Grandma and a bunch of regular passengers after them. Or allow the families strollers to board into coach (maybe higher number rows) and board elite/premium passengers after them which likely can/will sit down quickly due to lower row #s ? I don't think there is a good formula as I've seen disabled (and removing the wheel chair) take forever while jetbridge is unsafely crowded. Narrow body planes and many many compact seats causes the backlog.
Jul 8, 2019, 11:03 am
#2660
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Denver, CO, USA
Programs: Sometimes known as [ARG:6 UNDEFINED]
Posts: 26,689
Jul 8, 2019, 12:00 pm
#2661
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: 42,198
My response to such open and outrageous retorts from staff - "I detect and report variations from company policy to my UA account manager for escalation to management. Look forward to a call from your supervisor. That's how I do it."
Jul 8, 2019, 3:50 pm
#2662
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,116
I am not debating you on this point - just look at it both ways.
Do you want strollers or families taking 20 minutes to sit down Jr, JrJr, Grandma and a bunch of regular passengers after them. Or allow the families strollers to board into coach (maybe higher number rows) and board elite/premium passengers after them which likely can/will sit down quickly due to lower row #s ? I don't think there is a good formula as I've seen disabled (and removing the wheel chair) take forever while jetbridge is unsafely crowded. Narrow body planes and many many compact seats causes the backlog.
Do you want strollers or families taking 20 minutes to sit down Jr, JrJr, Grandma and a bunch of regular passengers after them. Or allow the families strollers to board into coach (maybe higher number rows) and board elite/premium passengers after them which likely can/will sit down quickly due to lower row #s ? I don't think there is a good formula as I've seen disabled (and removing the wheel chair) take forever while jetbridge is unsafely crowded. Narrow body planes and many many compact seats causes the backlog.
I want to get on the plane first-- settle into my seat with my bags directly above me.
Jul 8, 2019, 11:46 pm
#2663
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: DEN/OGG
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 1,482
I had that or a similar GA last year at IAD too. Even took a photo of her and sent the complaint to GS.
Jul 9, 2019, 5:21 am
#2664
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: NYC/Northern NJ
Programs: 1K - UAL, Platinum DL, Marriott, Hilton, SPG
Posts: 1,815
Nods in agreement as I have no come back/respond to that one as I've experienced this exact scenario and you are 100% correct.
Jul 9, 2019, 5:58 am
#2665
Join Date: Dec 2015
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 90
Wrote to the GS desk yesterday. Being told that the order is up to the gate agent.
I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction with the pre-boarding process actually used on many United flights versus United's published pre-boarding process.
The published pre-boarding process is:
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
I assume that each group in the pre-boarding list should be called one at a time, in the order listed, and the next group not called until the previous group is complete. However, on many occasions, this order is not followed, with families with children age 2 and younger called before Global Services, and many times 1K and Global Services being called together at the end.
I'd ask that United provide additional training to gate agents to reinforce the importance of following the boarding policy as it has been written.
REPLY -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. xxxxxx,
I'm sorry to read about your concerns about our new boarding process. It is not our intention to cause you dissatisfaction.
The pre-boarding process you've given is correct, however according to a gate supervisor I recently spoke with the order is up to the gate agent. They may or may not call unaccompanied minors. It is at their discretion to just board them.
Your loyalty and feedback are very important to us. I've filed your feedback with our Marketing team for their review.
On behalf of United Airlines and Global Services, we value your business, as well as your feedback and look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon.
Best Regards,
Global Services
Customer Care
I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction with the pre-boarding process actually used on many United flights versus United's published pre-boarding process.
The published pre-boarding process is:
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
I assume that each group in the pre-boarding list should be called one at a time, in the order listed, and the next group not called until the previous group is complete. However, on many occasions, this order is not followed, with families with children age 2 and younger called before Global Services, and many times 1K and Global Services being called together at the end.
I'd ask that United provide additional training to gate agents to reinforce the importance of following the boarding policy as it has been written.
REPLY -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. xxxxxx,
I'm sorry to read about your concerns about our new boarding process. It is not our intention to cause you dissatisfaction.
The pre-boarding process you've given is correct, however according to a gate supervisor I recently spoke with the order is up to the gate agent. They may or may not call unaccompanied minors. It is at their discretion to just board them.
Your loyalty and feedback are very important to us. I've filed your feedback with our Marketing team for their review.
On behalf of United Airlines and Global Services, we value your business, as well as your feedback and look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon.
Best Regards,
Global Services
Customer Care
Jul 9, 2019, 6:02 am
#2666
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 57,569
I’d spend the next 10 minutes asking him why UA decided to cheapen Polaris. It had so much promise....
Jul 9, 2019, 6:14 am
#2667
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Bronze, United 1K, HH Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,477
Wrote to the GS desk yesterday. Being told that the order is up to the gate agent.
I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction with the pre-boarding process actually used on many United flights versus United's published pre-boarding process.
The published pre-boarding process is:
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
I assume that each group in the pre-boarding list should be called one at a time, in the order listed, and the next group not called until the previous group is complete. However, on many occasions, this order is not followed, with families with children age 2 and younger called before Global Services, and many times 1K and Global Services being called together at the end.
I'd ask that United provide additional training to gate agents to reinforce the importance of following the boarding policy as it has been written.
REPLY -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. xxxxxx,
I'm sorry to read about your concerns about our new boarding process. It is not our intention to cause you dissatisfaction.
The pre-boarding process you've given is correct, however according to a gate supervisor I recently spoke with the order is up to the gate agent. They may or may not call unaccompanied minors. It is at their discretion to just board them.
Your loyalty and feedback are very important to us. I've filed your feedback with our Marketing team for their review.
On behalf of United Airlines and Global Services, we value your business, as well as your feedback and look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon.
Best Regards,
Global Services
Customer Care
I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction with the pre-boarding process actually used on many United flights versus United's published pre-boarding process.
The published pre-boarding process is:
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
I assume that each group in the pre-boarding list should be called one at a time, in the order listed, and the next group not called until the previous group is complete. However, on many occasions, this order is not followed, with families with children age 2 and younger called before Global Services, and many times 1K and Global Services being called together at the end.
I'd ask that United provide additional training to gate agents to reinforce the importance of following the boarding policy as it has been written.
REPLY -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr. xxxxxx,
I'm sorry to read about your concerns about our new boarding process. It is not our intention to cause you dissatisfaction.
The pre-boarding process you've given is correct, however according to a gate supervisor I recently spoke with the order is up to the gate agent. They may or may not call unaccompanied minors. It is at their discretion to just board them.
Your loyalty and feedback are very important to us. I've filed your feedback with our Marketing team for their review.
On behalf of United Airlines and Global Services, we value your business, as well as your feedback and look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon.
Best Regards,
Global Services
Customer Care
Jul 9, 2019, 6:19 am
#2668
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.8MM
Posts: 6,348
Jul 9, 2019, 8:02 am
#2669
Join Date: Dec 2015
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 90
So they talk to one gate supervisor and tell me it is up to the gate agent which order to follow? I can't believe they would publish a policy like this and leave it to the gate agent. So much for a consistent customer experience.
Jul 9, 2019, 12:59 pm
#2670
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: JAX
Programs: United Lifetime 1K, Global Service, Marriott LTTE, Hyatt GLobalist, AA MM,Hertz PC, Global Entry
Posts: 110
As Global I still have !k's running over me to get on board ahead of me 1 in 4 times I board.