Let’s face it: few things are more annoying than boarding an airplane. To cut down on the pain a bit and to increase its operational efficiency, United changed its boarding process. Some don’t seem to like it, but I think the new process is a brilliant idea.
The most annoying things about traveling are boarding a plane, waiting to board, deplaning, collecting checked bags, and dealing with rental car agencies in no particular order. Why? Because these are the most tedious parts of travel and are often the most time-consuming. Many airlines have tried to improve at least some aspects of these issues, like 20-minute bag guarantees and different bonding procedures, but they often fail to address the root of the issue. Hopefully, that’ll change with the latest attempt.
United Changed Its Boarding Process
To me, one of the best boarding processes is the one employed by Alaska – at least, I think they’re still doing this, as I haven’t flown standard economy with them in quite some time. That involves boarding standard economy passengers from back to front, getting those that need to walk the farthest onboard on first. That helps to greatly reduce congestion onboard the aircraft. But this order can still be refined further, which is what United sort of did recently.
United changed its boarding process to increase economy class boarding efficiency by allowing passengers with window seats to board first. This makes a huge amount of sense to me, as they’re kind of trapped. If people with aisle or center seats board before window passengers, those seated in the middle and aisle need to get up and block the aisle to make room for the window passengers to get to their seats.
Of course, Mileage Plus elite members sitting in economy will still board first, which means that some could still sit in a middle or aisle seat before those in window seats get onboard. Speaking of, here is what United’s new boarding process looks like:
- Pre-Boarding
- Customers with disabilities
- Unaccompanied minors
- Anyone flying with children 2 or younger
- Active military members
- Global Services® and Premier® 1K®members
- Group 1
- Premier Platinum and Gold members
- Star Alliance™ Gold members
- Travelers in United Polaris®, United First®and United Business® cabins
- Group 2
- Premier Silver members
- Star Alliance™ Silver members
- Travelers with Premier Access® or Priority Boarding
- United℠ Explorer, Club, and Presidential Plus℠ Cardmembers
- Group 3
- Travelers in Economy Plus
- Group 4
- Economy class passengers with window passengers going first
- Group 5
- Basic Economy passengers
Final Thoughts
United changed its boarding process, which is an excellent step in the right direction. Will it ultimately make a difference? We shall see. United claims that’ll speed up boarding by two minutes, which isn’t a lot. And, to me, that’s likely a function of having different boarding tiers, especially with elites boarding before everyone else in economy, and basic economy passengers boarding last, regardless of what seat they’re actually in. Of course, you can’t make changes to these tiers, though, as they’re monetized. So, again, we’ll see what happens!