United finally fixing it’s boarding process?
United has been beaten up bad on its absolutely pathetic boarding process. Just the sheer number of comments I got on my last post on this topic (32 at the time of writing this) is telling. They have turned what used to be an orderly and efficient boarding process into a cattle call, where the only way you did not get boarded ‘first’ was if you did not have a United MileagePlus number.
Well, they seem to have noticed that we hate it. In an email I got today that was giving an update on how the merger is progressing and how they are finally able to reduce hold times, correct messed up mileage balances, they also mentioned that they are studying alternate boarding processes.
Text from their email:
… We are simplifying and better identifying our boarding groups and boarding sequence to improve your experience at the gate. We will introduce our improved boarding process soon.
… The bottom line is that we’ve heard you clearly. Our entire company is focused on delivering the travel experience that you expect from us. This is our number one priority, and we’ll continue to update you as we progress.
Hope they mean what they say. And I hope the new boarding process is really an improvement. What do you think? Leave a comment.
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New how? For the last several weeks all boarding groups have been numbered, including first class and top-tier elites. I think it’s very simple to understand, certainly better than calling out five different premier groups, *Gold, CC holders, etc.
The boarding process that has been used since mid to late last year is nearly identical to the PMUA one, except the groups previously called by status/cabin are their own group, which I think reduced gate lice because people see “6” instead of “1”.
They have not really fixed it for 2 reasons 1) they still board all elites on their blue carpet, eliminating the option for GS/FC/1K to arrive late an still board quickly 2) they rarely seem to space out the groups, so that they might as well not bother with them.