Comments on: Magic carpet? United adds separate elite boarding area at gates

By: United rolls out a new boarding order. Elitism, efficiency, or … so what? » Upgrade: Travel Better

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:13:27 +0000

[...] – Faster boarding with an astrophysicist’s touch – Magic carpet? United adds separate elite boarding area at gates – Southwest guarantees A-group boarding passes to expensive tickets and [...]

By: The Global Traveller

The Global Traveller — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 08:24:50 +0000

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.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:11:01 +0000

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…

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:54:44 +0000

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.)

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:53:18 +0000

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.