porciuscato

At EWR today: I was politely lined up with all the other Pax for the Terminal A bus. Up saunter two United flight attendants straight around the entire queue to the front. I watched them get off at the other end. They were most definitely not in a hurry. Just asserting their superior status, I suppose.

United -- where employees always come first and passengers are always last.

mariol

If I wasn't getting paid since I only got paid for block-to-block time, I could see being in a rush to get to the break room too...

porciuscato

I don't get paid for that time in line either, so I guess I'll start cutting the line too.

Kacee

This is not noteworthy. Crew (and airport employees) get priority, which is as it should be.

Otherwise, the complaint would be that departure was delayed because the crew was stuck in the security line.

WineCountryUA

It is long a practice for all airline personal (and some airport personal) at all airports to bypass security and immigration lines. This seems inline with that practice. Must admit the security bypass does rub me wrong at times but this does not appear out of ordinary. This is a practice I seen other airline employee handle worst (especially European crews) and better than UA employees. Nothing UA specific here.

lilpisher

Disagree - I'm expected to show up on time for meetings, etc and need to account for lines, IRROPs, traffic, etc. Sometimes that means, for critical meetings, I leave a day ahead of time to account for delays. Haven't heard a compelling argument as to why airline/airport staff have different expectations.

rmadisonwi

I’d think a compelling argument is: if they’re late, everybody is late.

lilpisher

I don't disagree that at least initially there will be some timeliness issues, though feel confident that if United (or other airlines) set expectations that crew show up to their assigned locations on time or otherwise face disciplinary actions, it shouldn't be a long term problem.

narvik

Are we seeing a trend here on United FT?

Crew jumps the queue at terminal transfer bus stop, to be seated down for most of the flight, while locking themselves a lavatory for their own use.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

What if it's a crew that's just been shifted to another flight because another crew's timed out and the plane's just sitting there waiting for them to show up? Or an aircraft has been swapped in for one that's running late? A/C gate change? I can think of a slew of reasons why crew ought to get priority and have a hard time bashing crew priority if I don't know the circumstances. And I don't think it's a big deal to begin with. If they're getting on to be first off for a good reason, I'm fine with that. And I'm not going to sit there and quiz them on their reasons.

Maybe UA could monetize A<>C bus early boarding (after crew)

And pilots flight attendants should stand in regular security lines? They should allocate regular security line time to be at their job?

LarryJ

Was this the line of people actively boarding the bus or the line for the agent who checks boarding passes and directs people to the correct bus?

porciuscato

it was the lone actively boarding. Again, these two FAs were in no hurry whatsoever after getting off the bus.

Kmxu

Nope. You need more data points for a regression analysis.

UA_Flyer

I don't see any issue with this.

There are multiple flights scheduled, and the crews going through the security/bus lines at the same time as us may or may not be on the same flight as us. We are not in a position to judge if they are early or late for their scheduled flights.

If we want flight crew to get there early waiting for the incoming aircraft and get ready so the flight can leave on time, then why are we get annoyed if they appear not be in a hurry. If they appear to be in a hurry, then we are annoyed they are late for work, and may delay departure.

Kacee

I'm not a fan of UA service culture, but complaining about airline personnel getting security priority is both misplaced and pointless. As already noted, this is not UA specific, it is an industry-wide policy. (And I agree with the comment upthread that crews on non-US carriers, IME LH in particular, are the ones you're most likely to see cutting the line en masse.)

If there's a legit complaint here, it's with the Port Authority for not providing a separate crewmember access line.