Now Boarding......

FMV is not sure what's going on here - but we flew United last night and it looks like they had the "First Day of the New Program Jitters"

The gate agents were all over the place and therefore they thought the new program allowed Premier Exec AND Premier members as part of Boarding Area 0.5. Question: Who else was left? Nobody. The scene was such that Boarding Area 0.5 was simply the same as previous Boarding Area 1.

We're told that other flights did it correctly, and only Premier Execs were part of the 0.5 - but we also had this thought. By making the Premier Executive benefit so public - you also make the Premier benefits less valuable since you took away something they previously had....

Boarding Zone 0.5 ??

FMV recently recieved the following email from United:

Dear FMV: Beginning November 12, our Premier Executive members and Star Alliance Gold guests will board before Seating Area 1 customers through the Economy Lane.

The new boarding order will be as follows: Global Services, 1K and customers sitting in United First will continue to board first through the Red Carpet Lane, followed by our United Business customers. Our Premier Executive and Star Alliance Gold members will then be invited to board.

After all of our most-valued guests are on board and getting settled, the regular boarding process of seating areas 1 through 4 will begin.

Previously, there wasn't a ton of obvious difference between Premier Execs (50,000 miles flown) and "regular" Premier (25,000 miles) members. Yes, you had priority for waitlists and maybe upgrades, you could book exit row seats, and you had the nebulous Star Gold benefits - but it wasn't very obvious. Especially for international travellers. On the contrary, Seating Area 0.5 changes this and makes a very public benefit.

Most airlines are pretty blatant that their elite fliers matter more than the causal flier. On one hand, it causes some bitterness, on the other hand FMV is Premier Exec so YAY !!