Zones are gone, Boarding by row starts 11 May
May 3, 2011, 9:15 am
#61
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 227
Try to board with "EliteAccess" on any Monday morning/Thursday afternoon flight ex-EWR. With some 50+ on the upgrade list for a 737-500 with just over 100 Y seats, MORE THAN HALF of Y is trying to board at once. Not once have I seen a line form during this process either as every single elite/companion/Y-B rushes the gate as if there's only 3 people being called up. In order to get any chance at overhead space above row 7/21, unfortunately I HAVE to join in on this mob.
How management sees this as the optimum model with respect to efficiency, incremental revenue, and customer satisfaction when compared to the legacy United model simply baffles me. I kept assuring myself and other elites in line that "things will get better once they assess the situation and aligns to UA's model". Guess I was wrong.
How management sees this as the optimum model with respect to efficiency, incremental revenue, and customer satisfaction when compared to the legacy United model simply baffles me. I kept assuring myself and other elites in line that "things will get better once they assess the situation and aligns to UA's model". Guess I was wrong.
Last edited by iluv2fly; May 11, 2011 at 6:02 am Reason: unnecessary
May 3, 2011, 9:39 am
#62
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: UA Plat 2MM; AS MVP Gold 75K
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The Star alliance gereral site says *G gets priority boarding along with 1st and biz class. It doesn't say that about silver, about members of US armed forces, nor that they may or may not be lumped in with silver. It is tough to promote a seemless consistant product throughout a greater alliance when your policies differ from them, and differ from your own, depending on the flight. It is even worse when you are an elite of a foreign airline and do not understand English so well. You are used to a policy that is to be consistant across all * carriers, and may not understand the nuances of the modified programs of a single carrier in a foreign tongue. http://www.staralliance.com/en/benef...silver-status/
CO doesn't always follow Star Alliance rules -- they have long been known to violate the rebooking rules, and just today I responded to someone where they violated the amenities rule for Premium Customers.
If they don't follow those, why do you think CO would care about *A boarding priorities?
May 3, 2011, 9:39 am
#63
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Manhattan
Programs: CO Plat, SPG Gold
Posts: 1,468
I'm excited to see CO's boarding procedures selected as I find them equally efficient and more enjoyable than UAs. On those fwe flights with significant number of Elites then boarding among the elites can be broken down into status but otherwise this is by far the better system.
May 3, 2011, 9:52 am
#64
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: 1K on UA, Platinum on CO
Posts: 336
No surprise that CO folks are happy CO's boarding is chosen and UA folks are unhappy. Just seems like more of CO policies are being kept than UA - one has to wonder why that is. It is amazing how little communication is coming out of the UA about any of these changes - this is one of the changes I would like to see - more formal and official communication from UA about the changes that are coming that I will suppository like.
May 3, 2011, 9:57 am
#65
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Los Angeles& Telluride
Programs: UA1K, 1MM,AA Exec. Platinum, Global Entry, Nexus
Posts: 731
really? are you serious
Lost amid all of this crying is the fact that the plane leaves when it is all loaded. there is so much fluff time built into the schedules that it really doesn't matter. As a 1K all I really care about is making sure that I have some bin space to load my carry on in VERY close proximity to my seat. Yes, if I got on early, I would insure that. As numerous posts have explained. Its more about the attitude of the GA's and Flight attendants. A business heavy crowd knows the drill. A non-stop to Orlando with the entire family and the traveling house would be a pain, but we still all have to get on the plane. What's the rush? Want to squeeze all of your butt cheeks into 17" of seat. Want to read the latest copy of hemispheres? The real cruel thing would be in my opinion to OFFLOAD the plane by row. Oh wait, we already do that!!! Guess I"m in search of my 200th post so I can get free S&H greenstamps. Please recover economy so that the jobless who post about stuff like this can get a job. Including me.
May 3, 2011, 9:59 am
#66
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
They provide priority boarding to *G. If anything, the CO version is more in line with the *A policies than the UA version as they lump *G in with EliteAccess while on UA they are not permitted to board across the red carpet with F/C pax.
Doesn't make much of a difference to me whether elites are by group or not or if it is windows than aisles. I'm more focused on the more significant benefit of access to the carpet for all elites. That's a tremendous value when you've got a tight connection.
May 3, 2011, 10:12 am
#67
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: IAD
Programs: UA 1K/MM, AA EXP, Marriott Plat
Posts: 192
I thought UA's bread and butter is elites. This seems to move in the opposite, more WN direction...
May 3, 2011, 10:17 am
#68
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
May 3, 2011, 10:18 am
#69
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bay Area, CA
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I think the fundamental issue is that UA's model works well for Elite heavy flights and large domestic F cabins (which is what UA tends to have). UA's 757s have 24F, 777s and 767s have ~36F. That, plus however many Elites may be in Y.
CO only has one domestic plane type with 24F, none with more. And CO only has about 20 of them. Meanwhile, UA has more than 100 domestic aircraft with 24+ F seats, or about half of its domestic-configured fleet. CO's 24F plane represents < 10% of its domestic-configured aircraft.
May 3, 2011, 10:21 am
#70
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: United Premier 1K 1MM; AA Plat Pro; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott Platinum; Avis President's Club
Posts: 2,528
For those tht are so against CO boarding style, I'd like to see the UA style boarding try to load a fully loaded 753 in 20 minutes and see how it wrks out. Case in point I recently wrkd an EWR-PUJ flight and boarding took nearly 40 minutes. I'm glad the CO boarding stay, I feel the UA style is kinda rushed.
May 3, 2011, 10:28 am
#71
Join Date: May 2009
Location: PHL
Posts: 2,842
It depends how elites board. If as it has been stated here,Boarding all elites together after military and F, then yeah it's a pretty big downgrade to have 1P and 2P added to the gate lice red carpet boarding scrum. It's stale as it is trying to fight short hop segment heavy overweight middle aged sales reps with their boarding passes sticking out of their shirt pockets who are 1K or GS or UDU into F and arrive on the red carpet for boarding 30 minutes+ before a flight.
Add all elites to that scrum and you for SURE are talking fighting half the plane to board on red carpet.
Add all elites to that scrum and you for SURE are talking fighting half the plane to board on red carpet.
However, my point is that the OP merely speculates that Zone boarding will go away, there is no mention about how Elites will board, everyone just seemed to run with it.
May 3, 2011, 10:43 am
#72
Join Date: Jun 2007
Programs: UA, AA, LH, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Hertz
Posts: 1,759
That said, I don't have anything against all elites boarding on the carpet - just against all of them boarding at the same time. I really don't see how breaking down the elite ranks into groups slows down the boarding process since virtually every time I boarded the UA flight the GA called the next group before the previous one completed boarding. The flow of passengers is constant and uninterrupted but the higher level elites get their consistent patronage of the airline recognized in a meaningful way.
May 3, 2011, 11:19 am
#73
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2003
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Again, this is an intl carrier that flies to many countries and connects with partners that fly to many more, not WN, where for the most part the population speaks the natl language.Sometimes, the tail should wag the dog, and in cases like this, talk to front line employees and repeat customers instead of having office folk decide what way to best integrate "the best of both companies equally."
This is the source of all the decisions being made to date, all to the negative for UNITED frequent fliers.
UNITED does not board small kids before other groups. That is the best policy. The fact my kids come in with my 1P or 1K status kept my loyalty to UNITED.
May 3, 2011, 11:36 am
#74
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Programs: UAL IK;Marriott Plat Elite;Hyatt Diamond;Hilton Gold;Hertz Presidents Circle
Posts: 1,567
My gate angel at LAS told me that they will be boarding Military/First/Elites/Children/Back to front
He thinks it will be a Cluster
He thinks it will be a Cluster
Last edited by iluv2fly; May 3, 2011 at 11:47 am Reason: language
May 3, 2011, 11:58 am
#75
Formerly known as CollegeFlyer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: JRA
Programs: UA 1K MM, AA PLT, Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Gold, Hertz 5*
Posts: 6,716
Nova, most of the military is on contracted city pairs to contracted airlines. There is very little loyalty or discretionary spending, especially by those traveling in uniform required to board 1st.) One's chosen career does not influence high yield spending on private businesses and as such does not need to be rewarded to increase loyalty and spend. For a propaganda move, on a carrier that is worldwide as well as part of a worldwide alliance that has similar benefits across the entire alliance, the decision to put regional patriotism ahead of unified star alliance policies and revenue/frequency rewards seems to not have problems associated with it. Failure to see this to me is a bigger problem than the ability to see all the drawbacks of any given procedure. Blinders on, or blind patriotism, either way, is less beneficial than open eyes and open minds. You may feel strongly that US patriotism should trump profitability, and profit generating repeat business, and that is your right, but to say that a person that may have an issue with that has big problems is just an ignorant and cloed minded statement. Not everyone world wide is a big fan of the US, our foreign poicy or our military. On WN, that only flies within the US, that may work, but UA flies to some places that aren't too keen on the US military and the elites of those places, used to boarding 1st may take offense. They also have the ability to direct their spending to other carriers, which most people on govt contracted carriers can't do (for the most part.)
While people can certainly believe that the airline should let uniformed military personnel board first, saying that anyone who disagrees with the policy must have big problems, or something similar to that statement, is simply laughable.
