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Last week and as a result of the introduction of Basic Economy fares American Airlines announced that it would be changing the order in which passengers board its aircraft from 1 March 2017. I had a quick look at the details in the airline’s press release to make sure it hadn’t done anything particularly heinous (it hadn’t) and then went about my day.
It wasn’t until later in the day when I discovered that a good number of American’s customers were apparently pretty upset at how “complicated” the new boarding order is going to be and, based on some of the comments, you would have thought the new rules required a working knowledge of quantum Physics.
Sadly these people are either being deliberately obtuse or are staggeringly stupid.
Here’s how American Airlines presented the upcoming changes:
Bear in mind that this is just showing how things will be changing…this isn’t a document or sign that passengers will be faced with at the gate….so even if you think the image above is complicated it’s not something that most passengers will ever see.
All that will happen at the gate is that the groups shown in the right-hand column will be called to board in the order shown.
American Airlines already prints group numbers on their boarding passes….
….so as long are you’re capable of listening and reading (your boarding pass) it really shouldn’t be too taxing to figure out when you can and cannot board the aircraft.
Sure, for those who don’t speak English things may not be easy but, if anything, they will be easier than before.
In the past the first few groups to board were not assigned numbers so you’d hear gate agents calling out cabin classes (First, Business etc…) or status tiers (Executive Platinum, Platinum etc…) and those are more prone to being misunderstood that a simple call of “Group 1” or “Group 2″…especially when you consider that a number of credit cards which purport to give “priority boarding” also use words like “Platinum” in their name.
Yes there are more groups in American’s new boarding order but there is absolutely nothing complicated at all in how the process is supposed to work. Frankly, if you can’t understand that you’re meant to board when the gate agent calls out the group number printed on your boarding pass then you probably shouldn’t be traveling unaccompanied.
Unbundling Shown For What It Is
One thing that the new boarding process has highlighted quite well is just how meaningless “priority boarding” is if it’s the kind that you purchase as an add-on or if you get it with a credit card. Take a look how far down the food chain it comes:
Customers with non-status based priority boarding will be boarding in Group 4 and those with the more basic “preferred boarding” will be boarding in Group 5.
Depending on the route being flown it could easily be that most passengers will already be on the aircraft by the time these Groups are called so it’s hard to see (a) why this is called “priority” or “preferred” boarding and (b) why anyone would choose to pay extra for it.
There are going to be quite a few disgruntled credit card customers standing at the gate watching the world board ahead of them when they were led to believe tat they would have some sore of “priority” come boarding time.
Bottom Line
As I’ve said elsewhere, the only people who are going to be confused by the new boarding order are the terminally stupid or those who choose to be “confused” as they attempt to cut a line they know full well they shouldn’t be in.
Personally I like the new boarding order as, despite what American is showing as the status quo in their press release, that’s not been my experience. The reality of the current boarding order is quite different and, as I pointed out last year, it is truly terrible.
This new boarding order is a lot clearer, a great improvement on what we have right now and not in the slightest bit confusing.
