Airlines have long struggled to come up with an efficient way to board an aircraft and the boarding process can be the source of many passenger complaints as crowds of passengers clog the boarding lanes. While the process has the end goal of getting people on the plane, each airline has their own style. United Airlines unveiled its newest streamlined process on Monday with the hope to make boarding a quicker and less crowded experience.
Passengers will still be assigned groups to board in based on status and class of travel but the new process will see the airline go from five lanes to only two. The two lanes, number lane one and lane two, are also color-coded, with lane one, blue and lane two, green. Which lane passengers will use will be determined by their group number and when they arrive at the gate.
To begin, pre-boarding, which includes Premier 1K, Global Services, active military personnel, and families with children age 2 or younger, will board through lane 1. Next will be Group 1, which is for first and business class passengers and Platinum and Gold frequent fliers, which will board in lane 1 as well. Passengers in Group 2, Silver-level frequent fliers, United credit card holders and people who purchased priority boarding, will line up in lane 2. Once Groups 1 and 2 have boarded Groups 3 through 5 will board through lane 2.
Group 3 and 4 will be for regular economy passengers and will most likely be administered based on seat location. Window seats typically board before aisle and middle seats because it takes less time for them to get seated when they are the first to the row as nobody has to get up for them…
