American Airlines Is Testing a Way To Enforce Boarding Groups

Updated: October 17, 2024, 12:06pm CDT

Edited by:

Coming Soon to an Airport Near You
The American Airlines Boarding Order
Final Thoughts

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Passengers trying to board an American Airlines flight before their boarding group is called are triggering an alert when they scan their boarding pass, and they’re being asked to step aside.

That’s because American Airlines is rolling out an automatic system that causes a beep when people scan their pass at the gate if that pass is for a group that is not boarding yet. Gate staff can then ask the passenger to step aside and let people in the appropriate group get on board.

An American Airlines spokesperson confirmed in an email to Upgraded Points that reports of the new system appearing on Reddit are correct. “It’s true. We’re testing ways to make the process better for our customers,” said the email.

Here’s what you should know before your next flight.

Coming Soon to an Airport Near You

The system has been tried out at airports with relatively few American Airlines flights before being introduced to others where AA has a major presence.

“We’ve tested in ABQ and TUS and are expanding soon to other locations including DCA,” the spokesperson said, referring to Albuquerque, Tucson, and Washington’s Reagan National airport, respectively.

AA Plane at DCA — American Airlines planes at DCA. Image Credit: James Larounis

“We are in the early phase of testing new technology used during the boarding process,” the spokesperson continued. “The new technology is designed to ensure customers receive the benefits of priority boarding with ease and helps improve the boarding experience by providing greater visibility into boarding progress for our team.”

American Airlines is happy, and passengers appear to be too.

“We’ve been pleased with the results of the test so far” is how the American Airlines representative put it.

A passenger’s experience as described on Reddit was also positive: “Flew out of ABQ last week and the gate agents made multiple announcements of this new boarding rule. No one seemed to want to be embarrassed by breaking it!! When flying out of O’Hare, no such announcement was made.”

The American Airlines Boarding Order

The boarding order on American Airlines includes 9 numbered groups, but in fact there are 11. Boarding begins with those needing extra assistance and families with children under 2, followed by ultra-elite passengers who have the invitation-only ConciergeKey status.

In comparison, Delta Air Lines has 9 boarding groups including pre-boarding, and United has 7.

Hot Tip:

You can’t purchase preferred boarding on American Airlines, but you can get it from some of the airline’s co-branded credit cards.

To be sure, the system is not fully automatic; it relies on human intervention. A gate agent has to acknowledge the beep and tell the passenger to step back. But it’s a step in the right direction, and gate agents can use discretion to let you continue boarding, such as traveling with your spouse who has an earlier boarding group.

Final Thoughts

This development is nothing but good news for American Airlines flyers. Orderly boarding speeds things up for everybody. All passengers benefit from getting on faster and minimizing delays.

If the AA experiment proves to be a success at the airline’s bigger hubs, it’s likely that other airlines will follow suit since technological innovation by one of the U.S. major airlines tends to be followed by its competitors.