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American boards its aircraft in 10 phases, starting with its highest-level AAdvantage status members.
American Airlines is testing an alert system that identifies individuals attempting to board the plane before their boarding group has been called.
The system emits a beep when customers attempt to board a flight before they are supposed to. It is being trialed in Albuquerque and Tucson and will soon be expanded to Washington Reagan National Airport and other locations, the airline said.
"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 said in a statement.
American boards its aircraft in 10 phases, starting with its highest-level AAdvantage status members, then working its way through members of U.S. armed forces, flyers with premium seats, lower-level status customers and American co-branded credit card holders.
The late boarding groups are for economy customers who aren't AAdvantage members and for basic economy flyers.
American passengers often pay extra to board early, either through the purchase of a premium seat or through the direct purchase of priority boarding. Increased policing of the boarding process would protect the value of that perk.
The new system won the praise of at least one American customer in Albuquerque last week, who took to Reddit to comment on it.
"As usual, group 1 was flooded with people but several people ahead of me when trying to scan their boarding pass got an error beep," the post reads. "The gate agent proceeded to tell them 'sir/ma'am you are group 5, please step aside.' Was awesome to see this enforced and looked like it was system driven versus gate agent having to make that call."
Credit: Robert Silk - Travel Weekly
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