Starting Monday, 15 February 2016 United Airlines will bring back aircraft pre-boarding for families with young children aged two and under.
The new boarding priority will be:
- People with disabilities / active-duty members of the military in uniform / families with small children / Global Services [all four groups will be invited to board concurrently]
- Group 1
- Group 2
- Group 3
- Group 4
- Group 5
United spins this as a customer-friendly change, stating—
As we committed last fall, we have been looking closely at every aspect of our customers’ travel experience to see where we can improve and eliminate points of stress. Customers and employees pointed to the boarding process, just as many of you have, as an area where they wanted to see improvements; many shared that the boarding process for all customers would be smoother if we could accommodate families with infants earlier, as they often need more time to board.
All of us have experienced being the customer in the jet bridge tending to an infant, a diaper bag and a stroller – or to being the person in line to board behind that customer. Resuming pre-boarding for families with infants should provide a smoother process for everyone.
First, I write as a someone who is not a father and has never even traveled with young children. I also write as someone who has flown over 1,200,000 miles on United Airlines and continues to fly United consistently, as I am doing as I type this.
I was happy when United removed pre-boarding for families with young children a few years ago because there was far too much abuse and gate agents simply did not have the resources or time to be strict. Routinely, large families would board with one infant or families with five and six year olds would try to board early. United must be strict in shaming families who try to take advantage of this concession by refusing to let them board and sending them to the very back of the line.
Further, it just does not make much sense to me to board families, who need time to get settled and stow away bags (and sometimes drag screaming kids onboard), before everyone else — that slows down the boarding process for everyone else and coops kids up longer on a plane. Boarding them with group one or group four will not save any time.
My solution is two-fold. First, board families with young children last, so they can step onboard with their diaper bags and play toys and squirming children at the last possible moment. No matter how many diversions are available onboard, better to be on the ground than in a confined metal canister. For that to work though, carry-on bag limits must be strictly enforced so that families with young children boarding last, who also tend to have an extra carry-on bag, have sufficient space to board. Without this second step, boarding families with infants last will create even more problems because there will be no space left for their hand luggage.
What do you think about United’s new early boarding policy for families traveling with young children? Mommy Points has a different opinion than mine.
Perfectly said Matt, and I fully agree. When we travel with our kids, we check in our luggage except for a backpack of entertainment and change of clothes. We always board last and expect to put our backpack under the seat in front of us. We want to spend the least amount of time trapped in the little tube.
As a new parent I have discovered that the chance of having critical carry-on baggage required to be gate checked (containing all of the things which are crucial to the child having a pleasant flight) to be an unacceptable risk when boarding later in the process. The actual implementation of carry-on baggage rules have been so poor for so long that it would require a dramatic change in behavior to be accepted by other passengers in order for me to relax my efforts to pay extra, get a co-branded card, or take advantage of early boarding for children to make the flight as easy as painless for my family (and ultimately for other passengers who would much prefer to sit near a well fed, dry, and entertained child).
“Board families with young children last, so they can step onboard with their diaper bags and play toys and squirming children at the last possible moment. No matter how many diversions are available onboard, better to be on the ground than in a confined metal canister.”
Sorry but in practice this isn’t the best solution and would lead to many delays, let alone probably actually making the travel process harder on the very people its supposed to help. As you said in the remainder of your comments, for the late boarding to work “carry-on bag limits must be strictly enforced so that families with young children boarding last, who also tend to have an extra carry-on bag, have sufficient space to board.” As anyone who travels frequently knows, people in the last boarding groups typically will have to gate check their bags. I cannot see GA’s logistically being able to board 150+ passengers, monitor each carryon they are taking on/confirming with FA’s, and then boarding the family last. Even if they did, the family probably will be rushing down the jetway, have to drop off a stroller, wait for the FAs doing PDBs/hanging up coats/etc in F (or slowing down that process), find row/seats (then realize no one is seated together and try and summon FA to change seats), find carryon space, then get settled….oh and since said family was waiting until they got onboard to give the baby a bottle, now there is a screaming baby while mom or dad fiddle around trying to get the bottle.
Let’s be honest…whether they are boarding early or boarding last, infrequent travelers are going to slow down the boarding process. But getting the family settled in 5-10 mins before the rest of the herd gets on MAY alleviate some of the bottlenecks that happen currently or would happen if they are allowed to board late/last.
Is there potential for the policy to be abused? Yeah but its up to GA discretion; and really if GA’s are able to send Group 2 people to the back of the line when they show up at the gate when F/Elite/etc/Group 1 only are supposed to be boarding, then I surely am convinced they can weed out parents with two year olds vs parents with the giant baby that actually is 12 years old.
I think people are really overthinking the overall impact of this. I could be completely wrong how this all pans out, but parents traveling with kids under two represent such a small portion of the flying public…..why? Because in reality the whole experience is a pain in the ass logistically (try carrying a baby/car seat/stroller/diaper bag/etc thru an airport) and unless the kid is asleep or taking a bottle you better hope that they enjoy being confined in a metal tube with little space and sitting amongst strangers for hours.
While the idea of boarding families with small children last has merit in theory, I’m just not sure I ever see it working in practice. Bin space is definitely an issue, but so is getting situated in general. If you’re lugging a car seat, diaper bag, toys, etc., I’d imagine it’s not going to be easy to get settled while the FA is glaring at you to hurry up and be seated so they can shut the door. And even if carry-on rules are enforced, imagine the problem of having seats in, say, Row 13, but only having open bin space all the way back. Yeah, you might avoid subjecting your baby to a few minutes of discomfort at the beginning, but you’ll just end up delayed getting off the plane in the end.
Personally, I think Southwest strikes a reasonable balance with “Family Boarding” between the A and B groups. You’ll get bin space, but don’t have to sit idle on board for half an hour, either. Maybe the right answer is to create a “Family Boarding” group between regular Groups 1 and 2, but assign it at check-in automatically for a child below a set age plus parents only. That would stop a lot of the cheating and prevent gate agents from having to make judgment calls on what constitutes a “family that needs more time”.
“..preboarding for families with children two and under…”
How many families have only ONE child under two ? I can just hear/see it now….the arguing at the gate how the two year old should then become the “permission” for all the other family members (older children, both parents) to pre-board. This will definitely get out of hand. How stupid could United be to define pre-boarding based on whether or not a child is under two and the rest of the family hangs back in a cluster ? Gate agents need to get flights out on time, not be referees with whining parents wanting their Disney experience every time they fly.
Why bother preboarding them at all, in the case that there are at least 20 families with small children… Yes, I’ve been on quite a few of those flights myself!