United Airlines Making Changes to Boarding Process

United Airlines is making changes to its boarding process in an effort to speed things up this fall.

Starting October 26, the carrier will add a seventh boarding group and spread out economy flyers across four different groups based on whether they're booked in a window, middle or aisle seat (WILMA), according to an internal memo to airport staff that was shared with The Points Guy this week.

There will be no changes to preboarding or groups one through three. However, group four—currently middle and aisle-seat passengers—will be split into two boarding groups, with group four including middle-seat passengers only and group five becoming aisle seats only.

According to TPG, basic economy fare with no full-size carry-on passengers will move to a newly created group six in eligible markets.

United said the changes are in response to longer-than-usual boarding times. According to the memo, the WILMA process will save up to two minutes of boarding time.

The airline tested the new boarding process at one hub and four domestic outstations and said that net promoter scores were higher than those of the existing process.

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