MW This video of an angry United Airlines passenger shows how competitive boarding a plane is now
By Charles Passy
Boarding a plane has become 'elitist,' passengers say - but airlines profit off premium travelers paying for priority status
Which boarding group do you qualify for?
Boarding a plane has become a game of entitlement, some airline and customer-service experts are warning.
Just look at this recent video that's surfaced and gone viral across social media, showing a United Airlines $(UAL)$ traveler complaining that a family with young children got ahead of him in the boarding process.
The traveler reportedly had Global Services status - an invitation-only top-tier group that Nerdwallet says is "reserved for the most loyal among loyalists." (It's speculated that you must spend at least $50,000 a year on United flights through its booking platform, or fly at least 150,000 miles annually to reach this status, NerdWallet adds.) In the video, the traveler can be heard saying to the gate agent, "Would you let me go before them?" Shortly thereafter, he says "There's an order" to another traveler who suggested he have a little more patience and understanding.
For its part, United doesn't deny that there's such a boarding system in place. Specifically, the carrier says pre-boarding goes in the following order: customers with disabilities and unaccompanied minors, active members of the military, Global Services customers, families with children under 2 and, finally, Premier 1K (another elite tier) members.
And that's not counting what comes next: Six different groups of United passengers follow the pre-boarding group. Group 1 includes Premier Platinum and Gold members and first-class and business-cabin passengers, among other travelers, while Group 6 is for Basic Economy fliers.
But even if the Global Services traveler was correct about his place in the pecking order and that he had priority over the family, critics say the system has become confusing, at best - and elitist at worst.
"Airlines have created a boarding process that has more layers than any cake that's ever been baked," said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Atmosphere Research Group, a travel-advisory firm.
There's also been a rise in what the airline industry refers to as "gate lice," or passengers crowding the gate to be first in line when their boarding group is called - or, worse, trying to cut the line and board early.
Some passengers say they've had enough of the system, too.
Take Lana Walker, who runs her own marketing firm and became frustrated after paying $50 to upgrade to priority boarding on her recent United flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Walker says she was still far from first in the boarding queue, and found the system a bit mystifying. (Those who pay for the upgrade are in Group 2, according to United's site.)
"That's not my Webster definition of priority," said Walker. She added that she finds the system also unfairly favors those with the financial means to travel frequently or rack up points through their spending on airline-branded credit cards.
"Quite frankly, we've created an ecosystem that is elitist," she said.
Industry experts are quick to note that United is hardly the only airline with such a boarding system in place. American Airlines $(AAL)$, for example, has nine different boarding groups, plus various travelers, including premium-level passengers, who qualify for pre-boarding.
'Airlines have created a boarding process that has more layers than any cake that's ever been baked.'Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Atmosphere Research Group
It's no secret why airlines give premium passengers a jump on boarding, experts say. Those passengers contribute heavily to a carrier's bottom line, and keeping them happy is critical to keeping them coming back and paying those pricier-than-economy fares.
For example, when reporting its latest earnings this week, United noted that its premium revenue grew 9% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 11% for the full year. That's higher than the growth in basic-economy revenue, which increased 7% in the fourth quarter and 5% for the full year.
Premium passengers can also be equated with brand-loyal passengers. And United CEO Scott Kirby has said that passengers who fly frequently with the carrier are essential to its financial success.
"Our results are built on winning more and more brand-loyal customers," he said in a statement this week.
Premium passengers obviously benefit from a range of perks, such as seating with more legroom or in preferred locations. But early boarding has become one of the most coveted ones: It mainly has to do with the move by airlines almost two decades ago to charge for checked baggage, which prompted travelers to increasingly bring their luggage on the plane and make use of the overheard bin space.
But those bins can fill up fast - and the advantage goes to early boarders.
What's perhaps making the situation more frustrating, some say, is how tiered boarding can make passengers feel like they're pitted against each other. In turn, they say, that can lead to the kind of skirmish captured on the "There's an order" video with the United top-tier traveler.
"There's a little bit of this class system going on," said Marbue Brown, a customer-service expert and author of "Blueprint for Customer Obsession."
All of this can result in slower boarding, too, experts say. While there's debate as to which boarding methods may be the quickest - back to front vs. other systems - experts say having passengers board in groups not necessarily aligned with seat locations can inevitably lead to bottlenecks in the aisles that delay takeoff.
These boarding scenarios can make for good comedy, however. Consider a skit from the "Key & Peele" show that imagined a situation in which passengers with all sorts of odd statuses gained early boarding privileges. Think: passengers carrying a blue suitcase, or "old, religious people with military babies," or even a whole tier devoted to one person - namely, the actor Jason Schwartzman.
So, what's a traveler who's stymied by the fact that they don't qualify for those higher tiers and may miss out on getting that coveted bin space for their carry-on to do?
Nick Ewen, senior editorial director of The Points Guy travel site, says there's an easy solution: Just pay the extra money and check your bag. And as far as issues of people asserting their boarding status go, he says passengers need to reacquaint themselves with the concepts of courtesy and kindness.
"Everyone needs to take a breath and recognize that traveling can be stressful for a lot of people," Ewen said.
-Charles Passy
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 24, 2026 15:32 ET (20:32 GMT)
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