awaflyboy

ok, here in phx here is the official order and verbiage as per the announcement page that we have at each gate.


"Before we begin general boarding for US Airways flight # xxx to xxx, we 'd like to invite customers who need assistance or who are traveling with children younger than 5 to board now through gate xxx.

pause

"We now invite our First Class (or Envoy) customers to board US Airways flight # xxx with service to xxx through gate xxx.

pause

We now invite our Zone 1 customers and Dividend Miles Chairman's, Platinum and Gold Preferred members and Star Alliance Gold Members to board flight # xxx to xxx.

pause

We now invite our Zone 2 customers and Dividend Miles Silver Preferred members , US Airways Premier World Class MasterCard and Bank of America Visa Signature card holders to board flight # xxx with service to xxx.

pause

We now invite our customers in Zone 3 to board flight xxx with service to xxx

pause

All remaining customers for flight xxx with service to xxx may now board through gate # xxx."

flysurfer

Basically, you are voting for a "always board me first" policy.

geo1005

^

So it should be FC, then Zone 1, then Zone 2, etc etc.

It would be great if this was actually followed and enforced all over the US system - it would make boarding muuuuuuch more smooth for all of us.

USPhilly

Agreed. It would also be nice if the US website reflected the current boarding process.

BoeingBoy

To muddy the waters further, the latest boarding update for agents (12/15/2009) says:

Pre-boards

Zone 1 - First Class/Envoy, Star Gold, Chairman’s, Platinum, Gold, bulkhead and exit rows without under seat storage

Zone 2 - Silver, World MasterCard and Bank of America Visa cardholders, Choice Seats and remaining exit rows

Zone 3 - Web check-in

Zone 4 - General boarding

Zone 5 - For 767/330 only - split general boarding

Jim

brobab

Today, CLT-PHL #1578. Pre-boarded assistance PAX, then "pre-boarded" FC only. The flight was delayed and PHL was a mess, so the FC "pre-board" became a free for all.

brobab

Boarding Flight 957, ORD-CLT Pre-boarded Assistance, then FC ONLY, (turned a few zone 1's away) - AND told all PAX that she would check the O/H for bags and purses that should have been stowed under {our} feet. My dream GA....

ibrandsguest

Thanks! out of curiosity, is there a way to direct a GA to this? (Is it available on the computer screens that they have?)

Still can't understand why a simple policy like this can't be followed.

PWMFlyer19

My personal opinion is FC then zone 1. The only comment I would additionally make is that on the website (http://www2.usairways.com/en-US/trav...g_process.html) in Zone 1 it lists the two groups we are disagreeing about separately.

--Customers booked in First Class or Envoy

--Dividend Miles Chariman's, Platinum, and Gold Preferred member, Star Alliance members.

Is that suppose to be Zone 1 part A and Zone 1 part B ? Or is it suppose to be all Zone 1 ? If you look at Zone 2, it is written as out in one sentence like list. So if you believe all Zone 1 should be called at once, I would think it would say and be formatted like:

"Customers booked in First Class or Envoy, Dividend Miles Chariman's, Platinum, and Gold Preferred member, Star Alliance members."

I don't care really and either is fine for me and consistency would be nice, but oh well - at long as it is either/or and not something else - like all zones.

Cheers.

USPhilly

+1 but that could get us off onto a tangent that has been extensively argued about on FT.

Interesting point, I hadn't thought of it that way. Now re-reading it, I would say FC should be boarded separately from the rest of zone 1. Either way it was meant to be though, that could certainly explain the differences between GAs depending upon how it's interpreted.

Phrequent

HAHAHA HAHAHAAHAHAH

OMG - ROFLMAO

HAHAHAHAHA

OK --- I find it very amusing to see this string in action. There seem to be two camps present here:
1) Board FC first and everyone else after,
2) Board FC & group 1 at the same time, and so-forth.

Seems that US Airways' policy is #2 -- yet several US Airways folks have explicitly stated here that there are instructions to use #1. HAHAHA.

The issue here is that US AIRWAYS MANAGEMENT PROCESSES ARE AS INCONSISTENT AS USAIRWAYS PRODUCT - plane & simple. No ifs ands or buts. But - that's what you need to settle for when you fly (or are forced to fly) US AIRWAYS. They are a LOW cost carrier and .... it shows. Rather it is painted on them with red spray paint.

Sure. FC should board first. Before elites and *after* grandmothers in WheelChairs are given *enough time to traverse the jetway*. That's how it works EVERY OTHER airline. Everyone else has dual lanes now (red carpet, Priority AAccess, Diamond lane, et al). Fat chance US ever invests in such things. The GA's can't even control a crowd, just like the FA's can't give proper instruction to load roller bags directly in, so you end up with tons of space taken up with only a few bags.

The underlying problem with US is that they now rape the "I travel once or twice a year at most" crowd with bag charges, et al (like all the airlines do) -- which results in the burden being put on their GA's and FA's to board a plane CORRECTLY where everyone wants to carry on the largest possible bags (and multiples of them, like all the airlines do). BUT -- when the GAs & FAs do a crappy job, the BS hits the fan and you end up with the
30 minute US AIRWAYS boarding process
....where First has been sitting for 30 minutes while the FA's are frantically racing about trying to determine when they should start gate checking luggage. And lest we not forget the folks who DONT check their luggage, are last in line, and have COME TO EXPECT to have their bags gate checked by default. Compare with 5 or 10 years ago -- there wasn't the "space issue" there is today.

And what does ALL of this result in? Really **crappy service** for customers who are FREQUENT (as in FREQUENT FLYER **LOYALTY** programmes).

--PP

P.S. Did someone posting above mention US and a 777 plane? HA HA HARDEE HAR HAR!

P.P.S. - I got freakin' zapped by one of those EmPower� ports hanging exposed in a US plane a few weeks back. And people said they took the power away --- no, they are just stuck in the 90's with EmPower�. Should I sue???

BoeingBoy

This is what I've been able to find in the CSR manual:

Actual verbiage for announcements can be found in DRS (QIKPath: ANNMAINLINE).

Interestingly in light of the last several posts, under boarding the manual says:

Board First Class/Envoy.
Start General Boarding by zones.

That page in the CSR manual was updated on 8-1-09.

Jim

cdepks

Well, yes, although it doesn't need to actually be called that...all kidding aside, it really doesn't bother me either way. If I am in F, then so what if Zone 1's are getting on also, they are likely not to take F overheads; if I am in Zone 1, why do I care if I board with or after F?

5.9LITRE

i fly out of LGA each week and sometimes they board F first and sometimes they call zone 1, chairman, platinum, gold, and silver preferred.

in the first scenario i usually am only able to get to the gate as the last first class passenger (and often only until after they call zone 1) just b/c so many people in zone 3-4 are always in the way. the FC overhead is sometimes full but at least i can put my bag in the next closest overhead since coach hasn't started boarding

in the second scenario, basically the entire plane boards at once and the FC overhead is often full by the time i can get to the gate and the coach overhead is 25% full so sometimes i have to walk back several rows to put my bag in the overhead. the few times i've been able to board early i observe several coach passengers putting their coats, extra bags/purses/etc. in the FC overhead.

so therefore, even though it is supposedly against policy i definitely prefer FC boarding first. plus if i were to actually pay additional $ for FC i'd want to board first and increase chances of getting my pre-departure drink (lol yeah right)