United Airlines will automate upgrades and standby seat allocations at the gate, freeing up gate agents and potentially eliminating charges of malfeasance for clearing upgrades out of order.
SPA, A New Automated System For United Airlines Gates Agents
United calls its new system Standby Process Automation or SPA for short. In a note to employees shared with Live and Let’s Fly which explains the new system, United said:
“SPA is an automation that clears upgrades, confirmed customers awaiting seat assignments and standbys without the need for CSR intervention, giving CSRs more time to provide caring service to our customers, and complete other critical pre-departure tasks – all while reducing touchpoints throughout the travel experience for both our employees and pass travelers.”
CSRs are customer service representatives (gate agents).
The technology was due to be rolled out earlier this year, but was delayed due to the pandemic.
60 minutes before departure for international flights and 30 minutes for domestic flights, the following automated gate functions will begin, in this order:
- Flight auto-restricts
- Held seats are released
- Upgrades are processed
- Need seats are accommodated
- Revenue and non-revenue standbys are accommodated
Seat Solver, a peusdo-AI seat engine, will work to provide travelers with the best possible seat. The tool recognizes when you are traveling with a companion, knows your age (for exit row seating assignments), or if you have a split reservation.
Last month, the system soft-launched in Chicago (ORD) and Newark (EWR). This month, the new system is soft-launching in the following airports:
- Brussels (BRU)
- Frankfurt (FRA)
- Houston (IAH)
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- London (LHR)
- Minneapolis (MSP)
- Orlando (MCO)
- San Francisco (SFO)
It will move systemwide by the end of the month. United says this system “creates a consistent process at all airports.”
Good News Or Bad News?
Overall, I think this is a positive step. Gate agents are often accused of shenanigans (upgrading friends first, deviating from the list) and this should eliminate or at least lessen that possibility. I tend to think these charges are usually unwarranted, but I’ve certainly seen situations over the years where they are. However, I’ve also been in standby and upgrade situations where a passenger’s name is called and because s/he does not show up, I got the last seat or upgrade instead.
I suspect one downside may be that this system will clear people who may be on standby and checked in, but do not intend to travel…which may create offload concerns (and even more work) for some gate agents in the final moments before flight departure. You’d be surprised how often this happens for employees traveling on standby.
One other downside may be that with the system clearing all upgrades and standbys in one sweep and automatically assigning seats, the tradition of each passenger choosing their own new seat assignment will be eliminated. What if there are two aisle seats left, one in an exit row that does not recline and one a few rows back? Say the sweep clears the two passengers and the the passenger who was #1 on the list receives the exit row seat, since the AI determines it is the better seat. But what if that passenger would have preferred a seat that reclines? Too late now if the second standby passenger was already assigned it simultaneously. In the past, gate agents traditionally cleared seats one at a time, calling up the passengers and asking for their seat preference.
But in an age of concern over reducing touchpoint and human-to-human interaction, I’m interested to see how this system works in practice.
CONCLUSION
The job of a gate agent may soon get much easier…or may soon get harder depending upon a flight. But for customers, automatic upgrade clearances and seat assignments should add predictability to travel and create a more transparent upgrade and seat assignment process.
I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been left behind when agents were too “busy” to clear standbys (even jumpseaters) or just forgot to do it. I’ve watched people behind me on the list get seats when I didn’t. I haven’t been asked for my seat preference in at least a decade so I’m not worried about that being eliminated. I was #1 on the upgrade list on my most recent flight that went out with 6 empty FC seats, but no upgrades were done; I’m not actually quite sure what the coronavirus policy is on that.
I wonder what CSR intervention may be possible for the not-uncommon scenario of a nonrev couple with 1 E+ seat remaining but a twosome E- available? I know it takes more time to process but it’s nice to be asked your preference in this situation. I don’t think AI has a good answer to this!
AI will have no answer to the very common situation of paying customers on different PNRs wanting to sit together.
AI could get that very easily from indicators such as those 2 sitting together on >3 flights in the past, social media profiles or other data (same household address etc). But what’s called AI here, seems to be more a simple workflow.
I’d be curious to hear the thoughts of GAs on this matter. Seems like a net positive development to me.
It all depend upon agents accurately and appropriately inputting names going on the list. Often correct policy or code isn’t known or agents will guess. The automated system will perform as programmed so bad input can give bad output.
Dumb idea, CSR’s not allowed to switch people to their preferred seat. As as 1k flier, despite my seat preference stated in my profile, I have all too often been upgraded to a seat I would never select if given a choice. CSR’s correct this, will AI? Also, what use is clearing the seats just 30 minutes before take-off, which is usually after boarding has already begun. Many times I’ve been upgraded when the CSR comes on to the plane to move me only after I’ve already situated myself onboard. Why not save us all both the hassle, and clear the seating before boarding begins, say 45 minutes before takeoff, so we know before we board, or does that make too much sense?
Maybe gate agents will manually clear before that 30-minute mark. We’ll see. I’ve reached out to United for clarification.
I agree with Chris concerns. The system worked fine before. Smells like a cost saving initiative to get down to one agent on the mainline flights.
Delta’s upgrade process works similar to what you are asking for. Just BEFORE pre-boarding starts, GA’s clear all upgrades. Pax see their names and new seat numbers on the monitors/app. If the pax is not monitoring either, then when the pax scans his/her BP, a small piece of paper spits out with the pax’s new seat number. There is little or no GA involvement. DL does not call up pax to the counter to give them new BP’s (like what UA does).
DL considers E to E+ an upgrade. Initially pax were not pleased to get an upgrade to a middle E+. Thus, pax can now specify in their PNR/account whether or not they want a middle E+ if one comes available – and also whether they want the upgrade or not.
Clearing ALL upgrades BEFORE boarding commences really works well.
Other nuances: (1) Sometimes the clearing occurs even before boarding starts – and seems to happen on higher fare basis tix in my experience, and (2) when there is a delay in clearing all upgrades (which is rare), it is usually because of some unusual circumstance.
There are NO upgrade shenanigans on DL like there are on UA. On UA I always hated being in the top part of the list and never ever clearing – while lower names cleared. Ugh!
If you don’t want the upgrade, you can decline the upgrade. Or rather, you can remove yourself from the upgrade queue.
Can someone tell me what “flight auto-restricts” refers to? I just Google’d it, and the only search result was this Live and Let’s Fly page. Thanks
It means no more bookings (generally last-minute employee additions to the flight) on it and check-in is cutoff. Sometimes these restrictions can be overridden.
I’m thinking it’s more about potentially cutting staffing levels. I love United as a 1k flier, but the ‘caring interactions’ bit is a little far fetched. I also agree about the clearance timing needs to be adjusted since pre-boarding usually happens before the 30 minutes and it is a pain to get reseated once on board and settled.
Auto-restrict also means that the computer system restricts pre-departure control of the flight to the employees at the particular gate. (Ticket counter agents no longer have access.)
As an airline retiree ( not UA), I think that the new procedure sounds great for fair non-rev boarding. It does also seem like a plan to reduce personnel at gates.
Only the agents at the departure gate can change the seating on the flight or check some one in. Agents at the ticket counter, service center or any other gate would have to call the departure gate to have any changes made.
Positive IF it means no more agent hawking of upgrades for cash vs. running the UG list
Sounds like some reductions in CSRs is on the horizon.
I was a gate agent for a major airline for 33 years, just retired. A lot of times when our mileage plus people were put on automatic upgrades for standby, the customer would get the last upgrade leaving his spouse in coach in the middle seat and then the srandbys would get that aisle. The spouse would then want his seat back in coach and his seat would already be given away. This was a huge problem and not fair to the elite member who just wanted to sit with his spouse. They would not always be around until last minute to ask but the glitch in the computer was never fixed. I enjoyed my interaction with customers and was always happy to help them and solve problems that came up. As a gate agent, everything the computer is doing is eliminating the need for me. Those standbys who are listed and not showing up and getting cleared is taking away the good seats from others. I would much rather be in charge of the flight myself, not a computer. So glad I enjoyed the good years!
Hi Sue, thanks for your 33 years of service. Best wishes in your next chapter of life.
Sue, agents like you were the reason I used to exclusively fly with your company. Airline management sometimes forgets how important the “service” aspect is to their FF’s. You cannot automate personal service and the ability for an agent to override (imho) the debacle of a SHAREs system software creating the seating debacles you outlined an keep your best customer base. Enjoy your retirement, I am sure your headaches will be a lot fewer!
This is awful news for employees flying standby. Another dagger in the perk that brings many people to the industry.
You are right that many seats will be auto-assigned to people with no intention of getting on the flight.
Sounds like another Scott Kirby “service enhancement”, meaning a reduction in csr headcount and restricting csr override of the system in an irregular operation or providing customer service.
Jury is out for this 1Ker. I used to always get upgrades, in the last 2-3 years, virtually never. I will have to see if this improves the process for me, but its United, so I am not optimistic
I think this is great. I’ve seen flight attendants and gate agents get preference over other employees way too often. They can get sneaky and it is very unfair.
While this new process is true, what is not mentioned is that the CSR’s have the ability to turn off the auto processing whenever they want.
That wasn’t in the memo shared with me. Do you have more details you can share?
If I volunteer to stay in my short pitch third class aisle seat and not even have a thought of upgrades may I get two cans of low calorie cola beverage simultaneously? Will the new system help with that?
What about the disabled? Do you find a nice comfortable seat that reclines? Do they make us wait?
I was 1K for a number of years until this year (now plat until end of next year, I suppose), and I got a last minute upgrade maybe once that I can remember (on a short domestic flight and I gave that away so I could sit with family). So I don’t think this is going to mean much to me. I am starting to fly a little more, mainly for family reasons. Right now, though, I am also working on burning up the miles I have on UA rather than using cash.
This sounds what Delta Air Lines has been doing for quite a while. It’s fast and transparent on the gate overhead monitors. I much prefer this so no shenanigans happen!
UA’s system has always had the ability to mass-clear upgrades and standbys. It sounds like the big improvement is trying to seat families together, avoid exit row issues with kids and special needs, and a better algorithm for assigning the best available seat. It would be great if we could save our order of seat preference in our MileagePlus profile. That would allow the system to meet each person’s preference order rather than a generic preference.