In a new test, American Airlines is actually enforcing the boarding groups that are printed on its boarding passes. News broke after a passenger posted on Reddit about boarding with the first group in Albuquerque; in that passenger's telling, a number of people ahead of them in line scanned their ticket only to get an "error beep." The gate agent then asked them to step aside and wait for their boarding group, the poster said. "Was awesome to see this enforced and looked like it was system driven vs gate agent having to make that call." American Airlines later confirmed to USA Today it is testing the new system in Albuquerque and Tucson and that it is happy with the results so far. More airports, including Washington Reagan National Airport, are expected to start using the new system soon.
"We are in the early phase of testing new technology used during the boarding process. 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," a spokesperson for the airline says in a statement. Priority boarding is one of the perks of reaching elite status with the airline. But, as the Points Guy explains, "The agent can manually override the alert in certain cases, such as if you're traveling with a companion in a better boarding group." (More American Airlines stories.)
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