Partial to the Window Seat? One Major U.S. Airline Has Good News for You.Window seat flyers are getting an upgrade as United Airlines revamps its boarding process.
By山姆·西尔弗曼•
Key Takeaways
- United Airlines is changing its boarding process.
- The new plan is expected to cut two minutes from boarding times and will go into effect on October 26.
Window seat flyers at one airline will now get a major perk — besides a view from the top.
United Airlinesis revamping its boarding process and plans to board economy passengers with window seat tickets first before middle- and aisle-seat passengers to speed things along, according to a company internal memo obtained byThe New York Times.
The new plan is expected to cut two minutes from boarding times and will go into effect on all domestic flights (and a few international trips) on October 26.
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The new boarding style – known as the WILMA method – boards in order of seating with window first, middle second, and aisle seats last.
United is implementing the new strategy after testing its effectiveness at five airports — beginning in 2017 — and found that it could successfully reduce boarding time.
Despite the new change, families will still be allowed to board together. Those who purchased first and business-class seats will be omitted from the boarding shake-up and will still be allowed to board first, along with those who qualify for preboarding, including people with disabilities and unaccompanied minors.
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Following the news, social media users hadmixed reactions.
#newsflash@UnitedAirlinesplans to speed up boarding by having window seats in the back get on first. Wow. And it took *how many years* for them to figure that one out??
— David Migoya (@DavidMigoya)October 18, 2023
Darn smart people.
"United Airlines announces window seat passengers will board first under new policy" this is another example of castehttps://t.co/4mr6Z3uvpB
— (@lostntranslatio)October 17, 202
United Airlines will implement new boarding process starting with window seats boarding first then middle…Finally an airline with some sense
— Shadow Green (@ShadowGreen8)October 18, 2023
