New Boarding Order To Be Implemented By United Airlines

The change comes as an effort to save passengers valuable time.

United Airlines has announced, via an internal letter, that effective on October 26th, it would prioritize boarding of economy customers sitting in window seats above those sitting in aisle or middle seats.

According to estimations provided by the airline, the implementation of the new boarding process will result in a time savings of up to two minutes. Customers in First Class, Business Class, or the Early Boarding Group will not be affected by the change.

The boarding processes of airlines are often adjusted in order to save valuable time during the lengthy task of putting passengers into airplanes. In general, the airlines provide priority boarding to their most valuable customers. It is possible for a delay in departure caused by disorderly boarding to snowball into more disturbances throughout the day if planes and passengers arrive late, particularly at airports that are already at capacity.

According to the letter, United will maintain the same boarding procedure for all groups from pre-boarding (which includes passengers with impairments, active duty military, children under the age of 2, and United's top-tier elite frequent fliers) to Group 3. Customers with window seats will be given boarding priority beginning with Group 4, followed by customers with middle seats, and finally travellers with aisle seats. According to United, members of the same reservation, such as families, are permitted to board together.

The revised boarding procedure will be used on all flights inside the United States, as well as on certain foreign flights.

 

Source: cnbc.com