United Airlines is on a mission to stop the scourge of ‘gate lice’ – the term that frequent flyers have airline staff have coined for passengers who crowd around the gate area before their boarding group has been called.
In one recent YouGov poll of U.S. flyers, 76% said that overcrowded airport gates were a problem, and nearly two-fifths of flyers said that overcrowding at the gate was a major problem.
In other words, it’s not just frequent flyers who are annoyed at passengers swarming around the gate before their boarding group has been called. This is a problem that needs fixing.
United’s new ‘virtual gate’ app feature
Thankfully, United Airlines might just have the answer with its latest mobile app feature that it has dubbed the ‘virtual gate.’
Rather than standing around the gate and getting in the way of other passengers before your boarding group is called, the ‘virtual gate’ feature provides real-time updates directly to your phone, with which boarding group has been called.
A progress bar also shows how many passengers have already boarded, meaning that passengers no longer have to crowd around the gate, straining to hear announcements on the public address system or looking for updates on the gate screens.
“The more information our customers have, the more confident they feel about their trip – and that’s particularly important during the holidays,” commented David Kinzelman, United’s Chief Customer Officer, on Tuesday.
“The United app gives travelers personalized, real-time updates during their entire travel journey, helping our customers feel like they have a personal assistant guiding them every step of the way.”
Will else is United adding to its mobile app?
The question, though, is whether this new feature will persuade travelers to abandon the deeply ingrained habit of unnecessarily waiting around the gate… just in case.
The good news is that United has already achieved significant user penetration, with around 84% of passengers already using its mobile app ahead of travel, so there’s hope that travelers will take heed of the new service.
The problem, though, is that this feature largely ignores why ‘gate lice’ exist in the first place. Sure, some people are just angsty and don’t want to miss their turn to board, but the real issue is that everyone wants to get their hand luggage on board.
And with limited space available on most aircraft, you just don’t want to be at the back of the line, putting yourself in a situation where the gate agent unceremoniously attaches a label to your bag and has it gate checked.
What other new app features is United introducing?
Thankfully, United has at least updated its bag tracking feature so you can see exactly where your checked bag is at every point in the journey – just like you can see the progress of your Amazon delivery.
The airline has also been pushing ahead with a slew of other welcome features in its mobile app, including a personalised connections assistant that guides passengers with layovers from one plane to the next.
The feature builds upon United’s industry-leading ‘ConnectionSaver’ tech that holds departing flights for a few minutes if customers who have a tight connection due to a delay have a realistic chance of getting to their next gate.
Should passengers fail to make it to their connecting gate, United’s app can now automatically rebook them on the next available flight for free, without the need to speak to an agent, while other updates provide real-time updates on delays, and the reason behind the delay!
Bottom line
United’s latest app feature is a welcome improvement that could prove useful to some passengers. The problem, it seems, is that it doesn’t do any to address the reason why ‘gate lice’ have become such a big issue.
Still, it’s nice to see an airline investing so much in passenger-friendly tech, given that much of the industry is so slow to bring these kinds of improvements.
United has had the best IT of the major U.S. airlines for a very long time now. While this should certainly help with gate lice, what’s really needed is for United to understand why people act as gate lice. I think the main reasons are:
Not enough seats in the gate area for all passengers.
Charging for checked bags so more people try to carry on more themselves. That means more full overhead bins and everyone wants to have the first possible access and accordingly crowds the gate.
United is not enforcing uniform carryon baggage standards for everyone, regardless of their status or position.
Bulkhead seats lack sufficient overhead space due to bins marked for crew use so bulkhead passengers press to get on.
Boarding order is not being consistently enforced like at AA.
“Miracle Flight” passengers who need a wheelchair to board first but are somehow miraculously cured inflight and easily walk off by themselves are not penalized so they do the same trick repeatedly.
While United’s IT improvements are absolutely a step in the right direction they need to address more of the reasons that gate lice crowd the gate than just a lack of information. If United would address these problems then they would have the gate lice problem solved. Is it likely that United would implement all of these policies, no matter how rational, if they wanted to? Almost certainly not. In fact, some of these problems like inadequate gate area seating could be strongly influenced by United but not actually controlled by the airline. Still, if they implemented most of the above list along with the new tech improvements then United would become the absolute leader among U.S. airlines at substantially reducing gate lice.
Even flying first class, we have to “stand around” and try to be the first in line. Why? Because all the preboard and crew take up even the overhead space in the front of the plane. Just a few weeks ago, we’re booked first class, are the third and fourth in the boarding group 1. We get on board and the bins are already full, we have to put our carry on bags back behind the curtain. Guess how convenient that is when it’s time to deplane when everyone rushes forward and we’re there and can’t get to our bags because they’re back six rows.
Oh, and “the bins are exclusive to first class passengers”. Yeah, right.