Magic carpet? United adds separate elite boarding area at gates
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Yesterday, Aviation Daily reported on United’s new check-in and boarding procedures for elite-level frequent flyers at San Francisco International Airport.
Most notably, the airline is rolling out separate boarding lanes, literally laying down a red carpet for elite travelers who can board at any time.
Previously, elite flyers were invited on board early, as part of seating area 1. But once seating area 2 was called, the elites were in line with everyone else. Now, the separate elite “lane” will allow those travelers to move to the front of the line, even when “now boarding all rows” has been called out.
Continental has been doing this for some time, with a blue “Elite Access” carpet. If you’ve never seen it before, click here.
All 30 United gates at SFO have already been “upgraded” to this arrangement. Other hubs will be completed by midyear, and the top 40 airports should have the system in place by the end of 2007. (Some spaces at gates are kind of tight… will there really be sufficient room for two lanes?)
I like this idea, though it is bound to rub some people the wrong way for its velvet rope elitism. As I’ve argued before, ultra-frequent flyers who spend so much of their life traveling deserve to move through airports faster. If this gets them on the plane faster, then so be it.
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January 30th, 2007 at 9:53 am |
Yup - this exact thing happened to me last Friday at SFO.It was definately weird. There was a huge line of people waiting to get on the plane on the ‘economy’ side, and just me on the ‘red carpet’ side. And sure enough…they held up everyone on the other side to let me through.
It was nice getting on to the plane faster, but I felt awkward about it.
January 30th, 2007 at 9:54 am |
NWA has been doing this for some time too. It turns out to be silly at most gates since there is no space for the extra line. Further, there is only one gate agent taking tickets and they tend to be heads down with the larger line, so only pushy elites get any better service. In my experience as a non-pushy elite
gate agents on the whole do not seem to buy into the perks-for-elites marketing mentality! So line up at the gate, fellow elites, and hurry on in! (Well, as soon they have boarded first, exit rows, people who want or need extra time, passengers who have or will have children, the young, the middle-aged, the elderly and those with four or more carry-ons the size of baby grands.)
January 30th, 2007 at 10:11 am |
It’s not quite that new at SFO, is it? I saw it in the international terminal in November and a few weeks ago at gate 74 (TED).
Also, unless something changed, the red carpet is only available to first class and higher level elites (this lowly 2P had to wait with the masses).
On that note, this past weekend I flew a short trip on Southwest — my first one in years (since they left SFO). I was actually surprised how well their A, B, C boardling procedure works. By the time boarding began, everyone at the gate had neatly lined up in their respective line, and the lines smoothly walked into the gangway without the usual mob clustering around the gate agent. Having checked in online 24 hrs before departure, I was in group A and had a wide choice of seats available to me. And I didn’t even bother lining up in the A queue until it was almost completely boarded. Something UA should consider for their boarding…
January 31st, 2007 at 2:24 am |
It’s about time for UA.
There are a range of different approaches by airlines. Separate line marked out by a carpet by some (eg NW), separate door to the airbridge (eg SQ at SIN), separate line at the boarding pass reader (eg SQ at out stations), then there are the places you can board directly from the lounge.