You'd be surprised how many people have strong opinions on how this should work: United Airlines is changing its boarding process, so people with WINDOW seat board first.
"The New York Times" got their hands on an internal memo that says they're making the switch next Thursday, October 26th. Here's how it'll work . . .
1. Pre-boarding will still happen. People with disabilities, young kids, and members of the military will still board first. Then people in first class are next. So the new system only applies to people in coach.
2. People with window seats are next. Then middle seats, and aisle seats are last. The idea is someone with an aisle seat won't have to get up to let people in. But boarding last means there might be less space for them in overhead bins.
3. Families and groups still get to board together. But you'll be boarding last, even if one of you has a window seat.
4. People in "Basic Economy" will also be in that last group. "Basic" fares don't let you choose your seat. But even if you end up with a window, you're still at the back of the line.
It's called the "WILMA" system, short for "window-middle-aisle." And if it sounds familiar, it's because it's not actually new.
United used to do it this way before switching to front-to-back boarding in 2017. So they're really just reverting back to an old system.
How much time could it save? They say it could shorten the boarding process by "up to two minutes."
One expert called it a "step forward" but said it's still not really the BEST way to do it. Ideally, they'd combine it with back-to-front boarding. So, people with window seats in the BACK of the plane would board first. The window seats in the middle of the plane, and so on.
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