Finally!
American Airlines has adjusted the boarding order for flights, which is a welcome change. Let me provide a bit of insight here for a second — previously, Executive Platinum and Platinum members all boarded at once, resulting in a HUGE mass of people boarding at the gate. To say boarding was chaos on at least three quarters of my flights would be an understatement, and I know a lot of people have been complaining about this process for awhile.
Looks like things have finally changed. Yay!
American Airlines Adjusts Boarding Groups
Here’s the new order:
- ConciergeKeySM members
- First Class and U.S. Military
- Business Class, Executive Platinum and oneworld® EmeraldSM
- Platinum Pro, Platinum and oneworld® SapphireSM
- Gold and oneworld® RubySM
- AirPass and Priority
- Group 1
- Group 2
- Group 3
- Group 4
Concierge Key has been made into an official boarding group, as part of their enhanced benefits for upgrades ahead of all other elites.
First Class will remain an independent boarding group with US military in uniform, though it’s worth noting that Executive Platinums used to board at this time.
Next will be Business Class, Executive Platinums and all oneworld Emerald members, which now separates them away from the Sapphires.
Platinum Pro and Platinum, along with oneworld Sapphires now have an independent boarding group. This is a downgrade for those that use to be Platinums, as they got the privilege of boarding with Executive Platinums.
Golds and oneworld Ruby’s board next, though I’d like to see this a bit better implemented on the gate agent’s part — often I see them call all the elite levels in immediate succession, without actually letting the groups board in a reasonable amount of time.
AirPass and Priority board next, and it’s worth noting these do NOT include the credit card holders.
Group 1 includes the credit card holders, and they’ll board next, followed by Groups 2, 3 and 4.
Hat Tip: Tim
My Take
I think these are mostly good changes, though I know Platinums probably get the biggest downgrade here, as the Platinum, Platinum Pro and Sapphire group will be quite large. As an Executive Platinum, I’m quite happy to now have an independent boarding group.
All of this new policy aside, it will be interesting to see how the gate agents enforce this, as, in my experience, things can change person to person. Some agents boarding more quickly, while some leave time for the individual groups to actually make their way down the line to board.
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
Kudos to American for listening. It fixes a major gripe, cost them nothing and probably speeds up boarding.
Wow, if I could even remotely afford a first class flight. I was lucky enough just to get my daughter and I tickets to go to Japan on AA, before I lost my job. But I was told by someone at the airport when I checked about our flight in March, and I was told because I am a little heavy set and not special that we will Never Ever get upgraded to First Class even if they have seats. I would have to have $2000.00 each to fly first class.
But I love your blog site its lets me know things I didn’t know. Thanks
They really need to adopt a boarding area model like southwest where each class/group can just line up in their groups. The chaos in the boarding area is not caused by exec platinum and platinum being a large group. It is caused by people with no priority status clogging the area. I’m platinum and took my first flight of the year and noted the change. Funny I never saw an email from American detailing that change. Maybe I kissed it.