US trials enforce boarding houses in exciting new test

Trying to squeeze in at the front of the boarding line may not work much longer for American Airlines.

That’s because the Fort Worth-based carrier is testing new technology that helps gate agents enforce boarding orders. New software will alert gate agents when passengers try to board before their group has been called. News of the software trial was first reported by View from the wing and was independently confirmed by TPG with an American Airlines spokesperson.

If you try to board before your turn, the computer connected to the boarding pass scanner will display a warning message and sound an alarm to warn the gate agent not to let you board. .

Staff can manually override warnings in certain situations, such as if you’re traveling with a companion in a better boarding group. But for the most part, lining up early and boarding when you want is no longer possible in the US.

For now, American is branding this new technology as a beta test, available only at a limited number of stations. The airline has tested the software in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Tucson, Arizona and will soon roll it out to other locations, including its hub at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). .

American says it’s pleased with the testing results so far, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it expand the software worldwide.

“We are in the early stages of testing new technology used in the boarding process. This new technology is designed to ensure customers receive the benefits of priority boarding with ease.” ease and helps improve the boarding experience by providing more detailed information about the boarding process to our team,” a carrier spokesperson told TPG.

To Americans, increasing enforcement of its regulations seems reasonable. boarding group. Priority boarding is a perk of elite status, and failure to strictly enforce boarding orders eliminates one of the Key benefits of earning status with the airline.

Check value: Are airline credit cards valid anymore?

Another big consideration is a number AAdvantage co-branded credit card includes priority boarding, and offering this privilege to card subscribers will help service providers attract more sign-ups.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this technology in the coming months. Loyal customers who want to maximize their chances of finding overhead luggage space will likely wish the feature started appearing at other airports – and on more airlines.

The Americans currently use a nine-group boarding process, with the full breakdown by group as follows:

• Concierge key: Concierge key member
• Group 1: First place, active duty military personnel of the United States Have a military card, business class on a two-class international plane, Executive Platinum elite member
• Group 2: Platinum Pro elite member, Oneworld Emerald elite member and business class on three-class aircraft
• Group 3: Platinum elite member and Oneworld Sapphire elite member
• Group 4: Gold elite member, Oneworld Ruby elite member, AirPass membership, premium economy, Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® cardholdersPriority ticketed travelers and eligible business travelers
• Group 5: Main Cabin Extra (excluding basic economy), eligible AAdvantage credit card member and AAdvantage members earned 15,000 Loyalty Points
• Group 6: Priority member
• Group 7: Non-AAdvant members have a Group 7 boarding pass in economy class
• Group 8: Non-AAdvant members have a Group 8 boarding pass in economy class
• Group 9: Basic Economy Traveler

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