American Airlines tries enforced boarding zones in interesting new test

Trying to cut to the front of the boarding line may not work for much longer with American Airlines.

That's because the Fort Worth-based carrier is testing new technology that will help gate agents enforce the boarding order. The new software alerts the gate agent when a passenger is trying to board before their group is called. News of this software trial was first reported by View from the Wing and independently confirmed by TPG with an American Airlines spokesperson.

If you do try to board before your turn, the computer connected to the boarding pass scanner will display an alert message and sound an alarm to warn the gate agent not to board you.

The agent can manually override the alert in certain cases, such as if you're traveling with a companion in a better boarding group. But for the most part, lining up early and boarding when you want to will no longer be possible on American.

For now, American is branding this new technology as a beta test, only available at a few limited outstations. The airline has been piloting the software in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, and it'll shortly enable it in other locations, including its hub at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

American says it's been pleased with the test results so far, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the airline expand this software worldwide.

"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 carrier spokesperson told TPG.

For American, it seems sensible to increase the enforcement of its boarding groups. Priority boarding is a perk of elite status, and not strictly enforcing the boarding order eliminates one of the key benefits of earning status with the airline.

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Another big consideration is that several AAdvantage cobranded credit cards include priority boarding, and reserving this perk for those who sign up for cards should help the carrier generate more sign-ups.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with this technology in the coming months. Loyal flyers who want to maximize their chances of finding overhead bin space will likely be rooting for the feature to start popping up at other airports — and on more airlines.

American currently uses a nine-group boarding process, with the full group breakdown as follows:

• ConciergeKey: ConciergeKey members
• Group 1: First class, active-duty U.S. military members with military ID, business class on a two-class international plane, Executive Platinum elite members
• Group 2: Platinum Pro elite members, Oneworld Emerald elite members and business class on a three-class plane
• Group 3: Platinum elite members and Oneworld Sapphire elite members
• Group 4: Gold elite members, Oneworld Ruby elite members, AirPass members, premium economy, Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® cardmembers, travelers who bought priority boarding and eligible corporate travelers
• Group 5: Main Cabin Extra (excluding basic economy), eligible AAdvantage credit card members and AAdvantage members who have earned 15,000 Loyalty Points
• Group 6: AAdvantage members
• Group 7: Non-AAdvantage members with a Group 7 boarding pass in economy class
• Group 8: Non-AAdvantage members with a Group 8 boarding pass in economy class
• Group 9: Basic economy travelers

Related reading:

• Your ultimate guide to American Airlines AAdvantage
• Best credit cards for American Airlines flyers
• American Airlines elite status: What it is and how to earn it
• Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
• The best credit cards to reach elite status
• Everything you need to know about flying basic economy on American Airlines