Airport News
American Airlines adds extra first-on-the-plane boarding group
One American Airlines plane, many classes.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines is making changes to the boarding process, under the guise of "making the airport experience even simpler and more straightforward."
According to a release, on May 1, American will "refine" the boarding process by updating boarding groups and adding an additional five minutes of boarding time.
Updated groups for preboarding
Under the new system, First and Business customers will now get to pre-board first, along with those who used to be in the pre-boarding group: people in wheelchairs and parents with children age 2 and under.
AAdvantage members stay in their same mid-range groups, and as for the economy traveler, you're pretty much dirt.
5 more minutes
In February, American announced it was adding five additional minutes of boarding time to domestic mainline flights beginning May 1. Their theory is that this extra time, coupled with these updated boarding groups, will allow for a better paced boarding process. They also say it will result in as better management of overhead bin space, because "fewer carry-on bags will need to be checked at the departure gate" — although they do not explain why this is true.
As of May 1, here's how much time they're alloting for boarding:
- Airbus A319, A320 aircraft: 35 minutes
- Boeing 737, Airbus A321 and all widebody aircraft: 40 minutes
These "enhancements" come on the heels of American’s launch of new boarding technology last fall, which tells AA how many customers there are in each group to maintain a steady boarding process.
This technology is available to 90 percent of customers when boarding, including most of American’s major hubs, with the remaining 10 percent rolling out before the end of 2025.
The haves and have-nots
Below is a chart with the updated boarding groups. Basically, they've broken what
used to be "Group 1" into two levels: Preboard and Group 1.
Preboard was previously for people who needed more time getting onto the plane (although is that not true of all of us?). In the new scheme, the wheelchair brigade and the breeders are now joined by ConciergeKey and all Business travelers (some Business travelers used to have to board with the icky lower groups but now they're bumped up).
And in the department of "if you have to ask, you can't afford it": ConciergeKey is the highest tier of the airline's AAdvantage elite status program, reserved for top-spending customers and corporate travel influencers. It's an invite-only status, not open to everyone.
While Business gets bumped up, U.S. military gets bumped down from pre-boarding to Group 1.
Preboard
- ConciergeKey
- First/Business
- Families with children ages 2 and under
Group 1
- AAdvantage Executive Platinum
- Active duty U.S. military with military I.D.
Group 2
- AAdvantage Platinum Pro
- oneworld Emerald
Group 3
- AAdvantage Platinum
- oneworld Sapphire
Group 4
- AAdvantage Gold
- oneworld Ruby
- AirPass
- Citi / AAdvantage Executive cardmembers
Group 5
- Main Cabin Extra (excluding Basic Economy)
- AAdvantage members who earn 15,000 Loyalty Points
- Eligible AAdvantage credit cardmembers
Group 6
- AAdvantage members
Group 7-8
- Main Cabin
Group 9
- Basic Economy
