HNLbasedFlyer

I don't think I missed the point at all - regardless, the more blunt approach is I suspect UA would rather fire you as a customer - and other fliers like you - you don't fit at all as the kind of customer they are trying to attract.

FullFare

We probably have a clash of perspectives. I always simply pay for the F cabin. I said that. I obviously flew UA a tone once, before they melted down a few years ago. Current lifetime for me is 2.5 mm miles? Does that count with you and others for anything? Why am I judged differently from a pax who has spent less lifetime on the carrier? Gosh, I have been in the midst of trying to come back. Now a kick in the head and I hear UA saying current 1K's should trump me? I say no way. I don't pay for these TOD tickets and simply buy first class tickets when I do fly United.

As for reality. My experience over the past several years, on all airlines, is that there are not a whole lot of "comp" upgrades for status flyers as in the past. Look at what all the carriers do: Getting an upgrade at the time of ticketing is anachronistic. All the carriers, led by DL, imho, keep the upgrades to the last bitter second. At any rate, I don't partake of these upgrades. My wife and I get tons of systemwide upgrades on AA. DL, and (when we were 1K) on UA and we wind up simply throwing them away and squandering them every year because they seldom honor them at the time of ticketing and we don't hang around praying for a waitlist break. Even on AA, our major carrier, I'm sitting on 14 of these things, after flying for 8, and piling up another 4 for making 8mm lifetime now, and 2 from last year.

I remain confined that devaluing a pax with paid F ticket is not the way to go and and am not persuaded by all the assertions of the 1K advocates that that status alone should prevail over a paid F ticket. For reasons as above. Give the 2.5 mm flyers like myself and others equal recognition for what we have endured with this carrier. I will match my lifetime spend on UA with anybody else posting on this board. And I'm not done flying yet

findark

While bin space is indeed a concern, I do have to say.. I have boarded with Group 3. I have boarded with Groups 4 and 5. I have been the last person on the plane with a frantic GA literally holding the door and looking down the concourse for me. I have never had to gate check my bag -- there have been some close calls so I still try to line up early when I can, but the FA in F has always been able to make things work, including one time when she gate-checked a Y pax's bag that had been stuffed in an F bin. If boarding early is valuable, F pax still have a pretty darn similar experience -- show up 15 minutes early and be at the front of the Group 1 line, or show up at/after boarding begins and slide in to the end of the G1 line.

The real problem I'm starting to see based on the reports here is exactly what happens with LH boarding all the time. They make some sort of mumbled call that invites a group larger than 4 people to get on the plane and everyone charges the gate. That's basically what I'm afraid of.

Unless you're flying IPTE J

+1. Boarding a DL plane is always a hassle, and ditto LH. The UA lanes were so orderly by comparison. I know you're not as much of a fan, but the only airline I've flown with a nicer boarding process than UA is WN.

n8-the-gr8

I'm surprised by all the categorization of First Class VERSUS 1K VERSUS GS VERSUS whoever else. Do people not understand that there's a large amount of overlap in these categories? Certainly many GS are buying paid business or first tickets a lot of the time. To a lesser degree with 1K as well (I typically fly first but domestically so have never hit the GS spend threshold despite flying 100K+ a year). So if 1/4 of a first class cabin has 1K or GS, and maybe 50% of 1K / GS don't get upgraded and are in economy, it's not as if half the plane has boarded before non-status first class pax. In reality part of the first class cabin has boarded and a small portion of the economy cabin has before remainder of First class.

I'm mostly looking forward to being able to walk around all of the annoying non-Group 1 people who crowd the lanes not knowing where they should board. At the end of the day, boarding will always be somewhat chaotic. I find American, Alaskan and Delta all can have chaotic boarding processes with their respective approaches so outside of Southwest's model (which doesn't work for legacy full-service airlines), they can each be a mess whenever you have everyone trying to put bags in the overhead bins (which I would argue drives the anxiety to crowd the gate).

Kacee

That boarding priority is a proxy for social standing? As a 1K who pays for J/F about 75% of the time, I find that notion, well, ridiculous.

I'll add that I was not offended when SQ recently placed me in Boarding Group 2 on SIN-BKK, despite flying on a J ticket as a *G. If SQ wants to give priority to PPS and Solitaires, that's their business, and it certainly won't prevent me from flying them again.

WineCountryUA

Civility Reminder

On FT and particularly in this forum, we discuss the airline, UA -- what they do and how we feel it will impact our travels. We do this in a collegial manner and with civility. We do not discuss each other nor try psychoanalysis the motivations of each other -- that will lead to no good and is disruptive to the discussion.

If you feel you have been attacked in violation of the rules, do not strike back -- report this to the Moderators using the Moderator alert ("red triangle" with white !).

Let's return to the discussion of UA

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

FullFare

Appreciate your speculation on UA's motive for my future flying, but you may be off on your assessment of my prior spending on this carrier over the past 35 years. Wife and I didn't make 2.6 mm lifetime each for each. Your assessment that I am not fitting their type of customer is insulting and bogus. You my hear from other flyers like my wife and me. Are you a shill for the airline?

Have a nice day.

kokonutz

It does. And the overhead space in F is limited. The best way to assure that F pax get that space is to let them on first or among the first.

Many here have asserted that most 1ks are in F anyway. Well, so what's the harm in allowing those few non 1ks who are ALSO in first to pre-board as well. Shouldn't add that many pax to the pre-board, and they will be assured that GS, 1Ks and Golds in coach don't steal their overhead space.

I am hoping this whole issue is at least partially solved with the universal implementation of Space Bins:


But in the meantime I'll board among the first on DL and AA.

Tennen

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.

Yeah, in some ways, it would've been better to just copy AA's process. Even though we do rag on them for having 10 groups including CK (but hey, UA now has 11!), if anything, it seems to spread out the crowds to manageable levels while also providing "better recognition." It's actually kinda surprising that they didn't adopt the process, since Kirby seems to be bringing everything else over from AA...

seat38a

Lets be clear here. The problem isn't that 1K's get to pre board but that United decided to dump Golds and *Golds and maybe platinums into Group 1. Unlike Delta and AA which which treats premium cabin passengers together with their top tier elites, now United has gone and grouped premium cabin passengers with their mid tier, and alliance elites which there are, correct me if I'm wrong but a load more of.

kokonutz

That's the right thing to do: add premium cabin to 'pre-board (group zero?)' putting UA on par with AA and DL.

seat38a

Most of this hoopla could be easily eliminated if UA addopted what Swiss does. This is from my flight last year.


Not only was it labeled but the FA strictly enforced it. A guy from coach dumped his bag up in the BC bin and as soon as we crossed the cabin divider, the FA got his attention and told him to remove it.

brp1264

Does anybody know if my spouse traveling with me will get to pre-board as well once I hit 1K this year?

Datapoint from my flight today from IAH->BWI.

The new boarding process at my gate and the one next to mine was implemented correctly by the GAs.

Aside from some kettles hanging out front near the BG1 line and some confusion if they were BG1, it wasn't too sloppy. Would have been nice for a bit more separation between BG1 and BG2 as the two were a bit close.

I can imagine on a more elite heavy route like to/from SFO or EWR this would have been a larger cluster.

FullFare

Agree with this intelligent and compelling post. DL and AA board premium cabin with priority, as UA should. I don't know who or wherefrom UA got the idea to displace F cabin passengers in boarding priority, behind elite class pax not purchasing first, but I sure hope they reverse that, wake up, and copy AA and DL, their major competitors.

Make no mistake, the overhead bins are precious and need to be protected for F pax. Can't expect policing by FA's (they didn't do well in the days when they called the cops to drag the doc off the plane). I have seen countless times when boarding Y cabin pax if tossed their stuff in the F overhead bins and a late-boarding upgrader (hey, a 1K at that) was SOL. One time, poor soul had to have his bag checked. And he wasn't that late to board.

Sum up: F cabin pax deserve priority before non-F cabin pax. The other carriers are doing it, as stated above.

UA needs to do the right thing and place F cabin pax in the priority board group. Major reason is overhead space, not value to society. All the speculations about this, including posters claiming personal valuations of themselves as to whose business is more valuable to UA, have been degrading to all of us. Agree with the moderator that it needed to stop.

I've already phoned in to UA about this. I'm in control of my company's worldwide travel to a significant extent (we allow F paid travel for worthy events) and have already told UA that we would like to be heard about this issue.

WineCountryUA

Traveling companions board with the highest elite. GS has been having their companions pre-board with them.