United Airlines, well known for offering cheap fares, including cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages, has announced a new boarding process that is making many of its elite frequent fliers unhappy.
Under Uniteds previous seven tiered boarding group system passengers holding a United credit card had to wait to board after its elite frequent fliers. Under the new boarding process its credit card holders are being allowed to board at the same time as frequent fliers who fly up to 75,000 miles annually on United.
Many United elite frequent fliers are unhappy claiming that going forward there is little incentive to try to fly on the airline frequently enough to earn gold or silver status going forward.
International first class passengers are unhappy that they will no longer be given preferential treatment and will have to board with a large group of other fliers in Group 1. First class passengers are not used to waiting in line behind 20 to 50 other passengers.
Uniteds new boarding group priority process is:
Pre-boarding will be for passengers with disabilities, followed by Global Services customers (this is an invite only group who spend tens of thousands annually on tickets) and uniformed military personnel.
Group 1 will include Premier \1K, Premier Platinum and first and business class passengers.
Group 2 will consist of Premier Gold, Star Alliance Gold, Premier Silver, Star Alliance Silver, and Uniteds credit card holders.
Groups 3 through 5 will be for general boarding.
There is a second phase to Uniteds revised boarding process, already implemented at a few gates at Uniteds busiest airports that will be rolled out in March. Dedicated lanes will be created for each group to line up in prior to boarding.
www.cheapfares.com