American Airlines is reshuffling its boarding groups, and adding additional time to the boarding process, before the busy summer travel season.
American Airlines Reshuffles Boarding Groups
Beginning May 1, 2025, American’s new boarding process will go into effect. Domestic mainline flights will see five minutes of additional time added to the boarding process and groups have been reshuffled to, according to the carrier, allow for a “better paced boarding process.”
According to American, the changes will provide three key wins for its passengers:
- Fewer carry-on bags will need to be checked at the departure gate. (Not sure how the boarding process changes the available overhead bin space but OK.)
- Customers will have more time to get settled and find their seats, and receive support from flight attendants when needed.
- Those in the premium cabin will experience the personalized service that they know and expect. (is that really a selling point?)
The most noticeable shift to the boarding process comes for preboard passengers. As a father of a 10 month old, this is especially notable as First and Business Class passengers will no longer board with Group 1. Instead, they have been added to the preboard group along with ConciergeKey members and families with children ages 2 and under.
Honestly, I don’t really follow the rationale here. The preboard group is essentially becoming Group 0 and some flights will have more than 20 pre-board passengers. This isn’t even including passengers needing extra time down the jet bridge.
After preboards, American will keep its current boarding groups 1-9, though changes have been made to better accommodate the airline’s AAdvantage loyalty program members. The details for each group are below.
| Group | Qualifying Passengers |
|---|---|
| Preboard | Concierge Key, First and Business Class, and families with children ages 2 and under |
| Group 1 | AAdvantage Executive Platinum and active duty U.S. military with military ID |
| Group 2 | AAdvantage Platinum Pro and OneWorld Emerald members |
| Group 3 | AAdvantage Platinum and OneWorld Sapphire members |
| Group 4 | AAdvantage Gold, OneWorld Ruby members, AirPass customers, and Citi AAdvantage Executive cardmembers |
| Group 5 | Main Cabin Extra, AAdvantage members who have earned at least 15,000 loyalty points, and eligible AAdvantage credit card members |
| Group 6 | AAdvantage Loyalty Program members |
| Group 7 | Main Cabin passengers |
| Group 8 | Main Cabin passengers |
| Group 9 | Basic Economy passengers |
American Will Continue to Expand Its New Boarding Technology
As part of the press release, American also emphasizes the use of its new boarding technology. The airline has received positive feedback and, having seen it firsthand, I’m excited to see this rolled out across the carrier’s operation.
The new technology rejects the boarding passes of passengers who attempt to board before their group is called. An audible chime is given and gate agents send the offending passenger back into the waiting area (think the walk of shame, but in an airport). The idea here is to cut down on gate lice and ensure passengers with higher status and elite perks are able to board first and find overhead bin space.
According to the airline, the new technology is available to 90% of its customers (not airports) when boarding and they plan to roll out the software to the remaining 10% by the end of 2025.
Summary
American Airlines is making changes to its boarding groups. In a head scratching move, the carrier is shifting First and Business Class customers into the preboard group and arranging the remaining groups based on AAdvantage status, loyalty point count, and class of service.
Overall, this change doesn’t make much sense to me, dumping premium cabin passengers in with the preboard passengers who may be slower down the jet bridge doesn’t seem like the best experience. However, I’ll reserve final judgement until I see the new boarding process firsthand.
