Roger Lococco

More of a curiosity than anything, but where to deadhead crew fit into the boarding process? Recently, I was on a flight where 8 x deadhead crew boarded directly after people with disabilities and before families with children under the age of 2.

All were in First Class, if that impacts the boarding sequencing for them.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I think GA has latitude on boarding of any UA employees. I have zero problem w/ letting any of them (whatever their travel purpose) boarding first.

cfischer

Unless that means that the entire OH space in the F cabin in taken. 8 crew in F ... that would be my concern

Roger Lococco

Yeah, maybe. Optically, it was kind of strange watching 8 passengers walk right around and by several families with young children who were waiting to board near the front of the open area pre-boarding space. Maybe it would have been clearer if the GA had announced 'before we board our families with children under the age of 2, we're going to board our deadheading crew first.' At least one family did not realize they were United crew and seem somewhat 'surprised' that a large group of such seemingly fit men were boarding as 'people with disabilities or needing more time'.

Lol. That was exactly my first thought, as they were each carrying the full suite of crew carry-on bags. For me, it didn't matter as I didn't clear the Points Plus upgrade list and was back in coach.

LarryJ

Deadheading pilots, in uniform, can board at anytime, as long as the FAA minimum compliment of F/As are onboard. Out of uniform, they can board at anytime during the passenger boarding process. I don't know the specifics for deadheading F/As but they seem to be similar.

Pilot jumpseaters can board anytime, as long as at least one of the working pilots is onboard.

Non-revs (not deadheading) board in the appropriate group for the cabin in which they are seated. If the flight is relatively full, we often won't get our seat assignment until after our boarding group has boarded. The automatic sweep of the standby list is at T-30, the check-in deadline for Domestic, but on full-ish flights, at least some of the non-revs may have to wait until the end of boarding to see if there are enough no-shows for them to get a seat.

Roger Lococco

Sounds good, thanks. These were out-of-uniform deadheads ... so sounds like they are able to board at their convenience and did so. I guess it was good manners to let the first group (people needing more time to board) go first.

DASRTR

Out of uniform, which is why they had all of their crew luggage with them. Upon landing they probably bee lined it to the Crew room to change into uniform and then to their appropriate gate. They do not leave the secured area to go to baggage claim and may not have time to do such either. They also can’t afford for their luggage to get lost or take forever to come down. If it did, then that means they could not work their flights. Putting pax without a crew and delaying their flights.

Roger Lococco

Yes, I understand how it works. Regardless, the GA announced 5 - 6 times that overhead bin space was limited on the flight and that they needed to check upwards of 20 bags ... and the policy of only being able to bring on one carry-on and one personal item. I understand that United crew are an exception and I'm sure the crew used the under seat space in First as much as they could. Nonetheless, I did laugh a bit when I saw all 8 of them lining up to board with all of their luggage and thinking that it would take up some space. As I mentioned earlier, I was not upgraded so I knew whatever space they used would not impact me.

Separate but I guess related, the overhead space issue on domestic United flights seems to be an issue every single time. I don't know what the driver is, but the current construct is not working well.

LarryJ

That is why we're upgrading the overhead bins in all of the narrowbody aircraft. The new bins have enough room for a rollaboard for every seat. It eliminates the need to gate check bags on most flights.

ContinentalFan

What do you do if the dead headers arrive late—close to the end of boarding, when gate checking has begun?

clubord

Happened to me a couple times over the years. Find some available space or bag gets gate checked, not a big deal.

LarryJ

What Clubord said. It gets checked. If it delays us on the other end we just take the delay. They hardly ever leave without us.

In the old days, we had a system where we could take our bag down to ramp level and give it to the bag handlers. They'd put it in last. We had special tags so that the rampers on the other end knew it was one of our bags and they'd put in on the ramp next to the baggage door for us to go down and pick up when we arrived. The airports/TSA put a stop to that a few years ago. Can't go out on the ramp unless we are a working crewmember now.

TonyBurr

UA employees flying always board before the paying customers so they can get settled in the F seats before the peasents board

Roger Lococco

That's awesome. That would be a huge step forward.

In the spirit of keeping things positive, I had one of the best hamburgers that I have ever had in my lifetime on United last month. Arguably the best ever.