<p>rentof2 - wow what an adventure for your son. Everything now will be a breeze. It’s like the first baseball game my son went to - my husband took him to yankee stadium years ago because it was beanie baby day - it also happened to be the day David Wells pitched his perfect game. :)</p>
<p>From seatguru: “United refers to their outside-in boarding process as “WilMA” (Window, Middle, Aisle). United boards Mileage Plus Premier, Mileage Plus Premier Associate, Mileage Plus Premier Executive, and Mileage Plus 1K members first. After elites have boarded, United has courtesy boarding for passengers requiring extra assistance. Then, passengers board windows first, then middle seats, and finally aisles. United instituted this process to speed up boarding and to reduce clogging in the aisles. Passengers in window seats move into their seats, clearing space for middle seat passengers, who then clear space for aisle passengers.”</p>
<p>I am an extremely frequent flyer on United Airlines, at the premiere executive level. I have NEVER seen them board like this. They board elites and those needing extra assistance, and then they board Seating Area 1, Seating Area 2, Seating Area 3 which is based on how “important” you are to them when you made your reservation (ff and price paid) - not on the location of your seat. When two people are traveling together, I’ve never seen them designate the window-seat person to board before his middle-seat companion. I wonder where Seatguru gets this?</p>
<p>^So if you have not seen it, it must be a lie? Or “made up”? I wonder why we would do that. Maybe we are stupid, or not important. I would prefer to believe it depends on where you fly from, and think the experience is worth posting on this thread.</p>
<p>Students traveling all the way across the country may not be coming home for short fall or spring breaks. If you decide it’s worth traveling across country, you may decide it’s worth checking a bag. </p>
<p>"She said if you were really concerned it would be an issue, simply call the airline when you’re making the reservation and have a note put on the record that it’s OK. "</p>
<p>I will try this.</p>
<p>Wow, chill - I wasn’t accusing anyone of lying.</p>
<p>My husband is a Platinum FF on one airline. There are times HE can’t print out his boarding passes for business travel and he IS using his own credit card. It’s an inconvenience but not the end of the world. He just has to allow extra time at the airport to go to the ticket counter to get it done. The agents are not able to tell him WHY this is happening. Whatever…it’s annoying but that’s about it.</p>
<p>We have booked tickets for our kids on a bunch of different airlines using OUR credit cards and neither has ever had an issue getting a boarding pass. They show their identification to the ticket counter folks and the pass is printed out for them. Usually they are able to print their boarding passes at home the day before. </p>
<p>My husband wonders if it’s a homeland security issue…and every so often he comes up for “verification”…</p>