We have more boarding group changes by American Airlines according to this press release this morning. Starting on May 1st, American will begin a refined boarding process, which they describe as “simpler and more straightforward,” with the summer travel season coming up.
First and Business class passengers will now preboard, yes, preboard with Concierge Key and children 2 and under. American notes “three key wins” for passengers:
- Fewer carry-on bags will need to be checked at the departure gate
- Customers will have more time to get settled and find their seats, and receive support from flight attendants when needed
- Those in the premium cabin will experience the personalized service that they know and expect
This change is basically an unofficial move of AAdvantage Executive Platinum members to group 2. My initial thought was, why can’t we just call First/Business as group 1? However, American probably realizes how unpopular it would be to move an entire elite status group down 1 group (and all subsequent groups down 1 also).
Remember that Executive Platinum used to board in group 2 going back several years. It’s easy to move up an elite status group up, but a lot harder to move them down.
American seems to acknowledge that business-heavy hub-to-hub routes often have massive group 1 queues (speaking from experience, my Monday morning flights out of New York City have massive group 1s). This seems to be an effort to break up group 1.
Here’s the new look at the boarding groups:
We pretty much have 10 boarding groups now. I do wonder what it’ll be like for families utilizing preboarding, as they tend to take more time with strollers and toddlers. I feel like it takes away the entire meaning of “preboarding.”
I’m scheduled to fly on May 1st when this starts, so I’ll get to see this in action firsthand.
Featured image by the author.
