United Airlines has announced an interesting new boarding procedure that will board economy passengers with window seats before passengers with middle and aisle seats in a bid to speed up turn around times.
There are a lot of painful moments in travel but watching people fumble around getting on and off the plane has to be among the most frustrating. The ever increasing popularity among airlines to operate a fleet of single aisle planes has made this pain point even more prevalent for travelers as hundreds of passengers use one aisle.
The carrier will change its boarding procedure on October 26 by asking economy-class passengers who have selected window seats to board the aircraft before other passengers. The new boarding process will be implemented on all United Airlines’ domestic flights and some international flights.
How much time will this save? About 2 minutes. For us passengers this isn’t a great improvement but for an airline where every minute on the ground costs money this will add up to millions.
So which passengers are winning here? Well it depends how you look at it. If you are boarding first it means you also have access to the overhead bins first and the limited space available. If you are boarding last as a middle or aisle seat passenger it means more time in the actual airport rather than on the plane waiting. Again though…. its two minutes so the real winners here are probably the window seat passengers who can access that over head luggage space.
It is important to state that United’s new boarding procedure makes no changes to pre-boarding for those with disabilities or those with the highest level of frequent flyer status. Nor does it make any change to group one, which includes those in first and business class.
