Tag Archives for boarding.
I’ve had airlines ask me whether I wanted to board first or last when flying first class. I always prefer last, unless it’s a new cabin product I’ve never taken photos of and want to get in early for blog content.
Southwest Airlines seating is first-come, first-served. The earlier you board, the better your seat selection. The earlier you check in, the earlier you’re allowed to board. But some passengers get to jump the queue.
Delta Air Lines is moving from ‘branded boarding’ to having 8 boarding zones starting May 1, although things are even more complicated than that because there are still groups that are called to board before and in the middle of those zones.
This is supposed to streamline boarding and be better for customers by… copying American and United, and copying Delta itself from 2017.
“Don’t cut in line” really only doesn’t apply when you’re trying to make a connecting flight. Here everyone was polite and maintained standards of civility – something all too rare in modern air travel!
As long as you’re in the first half of boarding you’re going to be fine and you really don’t want to be on board longer than that anyway so following this advice to board with group one doesn’t actually make you better off. You just stay on the plane longer.
According to an internal memo, United is boarding planes two minutes slower than they were prior to the pandemic. And so they’re moving to what they call WILMA, which is basically ‘Window Middle Aisle,” and adding a new sixth boarding group for domestic flights.
Since yesterday Southwest has increased how much they’re charging for upgraded boarding. Pricing is still dynamic, but has become more so, with a higher potential price than before, according to an internal memo reviewed by View From The Wing.
The problem with United’s boarding isn’t just that they board earlier but how their gates are set up: boarding pens. Passengers line up in their assigned group, with each group having a different area (airport and gate-allowing), far in advance of boarding.
United is running an ad campaign attacking Southwest over its inflight product – because if you don’t have Rapid Rewards elite status, buy a premium fare, or pay for ‘Early Bird check-in’ you need to check in 24 hours prior to your flight to avoid being assigned one of the last boarding positions and therefore one of the last shots at picking a seat on board.
But United is worse.
Delta Air Lines is conducting a test boarding planes using two jet bridges at the same time. This way they can get twice as many passengers onto the aircraft at once, making the boarding process go faster.
If adopted, in the future this could mean a single jet bridge that splits off and then boards passengers through two different doors on the aircraft. For now they are using two gates next to each other to accomplish the feat. Since Cincinnati is a much smaller station for Delta than the hub it used to be, they have extra gate space to allow this kind of test.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
