Check your group: United Airlines to reintroduce window, middle aisle boarding this month
United Airlines is set to roll out a more efficient boarding process for its economy passengers later this month. It’s not quite the Steffen Method, but it takes some inspiration from that complex theory of the best way to board a plane, with the new plan calling for those in window seats to get on first, followed by middle seat sitters and then those on the aisle.
An internal company document reviewed by Paste BN said that boarding times on United flights are up by up to two minutes since 2019 and that the so-called WILMA (somehow, an abbreviation for window-middle-aisle) method is shown to save about two minutes in boarding per flight.
United previously used the WILMA boarding method until 2017, when it introduced basic economy seating. A spokesperson for the airline told Paste BN that the computer systems in use at that time limited the airline to a five-group boarding structure. Newer technology allows for more boarding groups, which was the impetus behind the change.
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According to the airline, boarding will begin taking place in this order on Oct. 26:
- Preboarding: Customers with disabilities and unaccompanied minors, active duty military, Global Services members, families with children under two and Premier 1K members
- Group 1: United Polaris business, United first, United business, Premier Platinum, Premier Gold and Star Alliance Gold
- Group 2: Premier Silver, Star Alliance Silver, Chase and certain other credit card holders and paid Premier Access
- Group 3: Window seats, exit row seats and non-revenue passengers
- Group 4: Middle seats
- Group 5: Aisle seats
- Group 6: Basic economy on domestic flights and those between the U.S. and the Caribbean or Central America excluding Panama City and San Salvador
For families and other groups sharing a reservation, all travelers will be eligible to board in the earliest category based on their tickets. So, if a family is occupying an entire row, all travelers on the reservation will board with the window seats in Group 3.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for Paste BN based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com