18 October 2023
(WFLA) — United Airlines will be completely changing the way passengers board a plane later this month.
First-class and business-class passengers will still board the plane first as they do now, but then the changes start, according to an internal memo obtained Tuesday by WFLA.
After certain groups (seen below), United passengers flying economy and assigned window seats will board first. This will cut down on the amount of times people already seated have to stand in the aisle to let another person sit down, according to the memo.
The new boarding process, known as “WILMA,” will begin for flights on Oct. 26, the airline said. WILMA stands for window-middle-aisle. All window seat passengers will board the plane first, followed by passengers with middle seats, and then passengers with aisle seats.
The boarding groups will be as follows:
Boarding GroupPre-boarding- Customers with disabilities and unaccompanied minors
– Active-duty military
– Global Services members
– Families traveling with children 2 and under
– Premiere 1K members1- United Polaris Business
– United First
– United Business
– Premier Platinum
– Premier Gold
– Star Alliance Gold2- Premiere Silver
– Star Alliance Silver
– Chase and specific international card holders
– Paid Premiere Access3- Window seats
– Exit row seats
– NRPS and NRSA4- Middle seats5- Aisle seats6- Carry-on restricted Basic Economy
– Customers with no boarding group number on their boarding passInformation provided by United Airlines
Customers traveling in groups on the same economy reservation will be assigned the same boarding group based on the “highest applicable boarding group,” according to the memo.
United Airlines has previously tested the WILMA method before and said it can save up to two minutes of boarding time per flight, according to the memo.