United Boarding Process Changes Coming January 8-9!

As I was searching through Milepoint tonight I noticed a new thread in the United forum from our friend, UA Insider.

UA Insider indicates that in an effort to simplify the boarding process and reduce crowding they are going to shrink the number of boarding groups from 7 to 5. The groups will be as follows:

Pre-Boarding: Customers with disabilities, then Global Services and uniformed military personnel
Group 1: Global Services, Premier 1K, Premier Platinum, Premier Cabins
Group 2: Premier Gold, Star Gold, Premier Silver, Star Silver, MileagePlus Presidential Plus and Club Cardholders, MileagePlus Explorer and Awards Cardholders
Groups 3-5: General Boarding

They are also rolling out changes to gate areas that will create new lanes for each Group to help ease the boarding process and have clear areas for each group to queue up. What do you think about the changes?


The full post from UA Insider is below.



Hi Everyone,

We know the topic of boarding is one that you care about, and we wanted to provide you with an update on further changes we will be making to address the frustration that many customers – including many of you – have expressed. 

Over the next several months, we’re going to be making several changes to address crowding and consistency and, frankly, to help you just understand where you should stand as you wait to board. Over time, we’ll also make physical changes to our gate areas, deploy better directional signage, and enact changes to the boarding process itself. 

Bear with us as these changes roll out over a period of months. Here is a brief overview of what you will see:

• Simplified Boarding Groups (January 8-9, with full implementation January 10): Starting late tomorrow, we plan to reduce the number of boarding groups from 7 to 5 (plus pre-boarding). The new boarding group priority will be:

• Pre-Boarding: Customers with disabilities, then Global Services and uniformed military personnel
• Group 1: Global Services, Premier 1K, Premier Platinum, premium cabins
• Group 2: Premier Gold, Star Gold, Premier Silver, Star Silver, MileagePlus Presidential Plus and Club cardholders, MileagePlus Explorer and Awards cardholders
• Groups 3-5: General boarding

Worth noting: If you are traveling on January 9 or 10, and checked in to your flight before we made the change, you can refresh your online boarding pass to see your new boarding group. You can also go to a kiosk to reprint your boarding pass.

• Revised Gate Layout with Premium Bypass Lanes (March/April): We will add more boarding lanes – in many cases, one for each boarding group. At nearly every gate, our Premier Access boarding will be comprised of two separate lanes – enabling a dedicated line for groups 1 and 2 respectively. Some of you have already seen this concept, as we are testing this new layout at several gates (in many cases with temporary signage). Below are some of the gates where we are testing this layout:

• Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) – B8, C16 and C18 (adding two more at a later date)
• Cleveland (CLE) – C27 and C3
• Denver (DEN) – B23 and B32
• Houston (IAH) – C40 and E2
• Los Angeles (LAX) – 70B and 73
• New York/Newark (EWR) – C123 and C131
• San Francisco (SFO) – 73 and 80
• Washington-Dulles (IAD) – C19 and D7

We’ll have more information to share in the coming weeks and months. Thank you for your patience – and especially your feedback – as we work to make our boarding process better.

Shannon Kelly
Director, Customer Insights
United Airlines