American Airlines Is Cracking Down on Travelers Who Try to Board Early

American Airlines is trialing a new boarding process that the carrier hopes will stop passengers from cutting in line and getting on their flight before their turn.

Boarding a plane is generally a quick and seamless process for elite-status frequent flyers or those flying in first class or business class, with separate lines and short waiting times. It’s often a different story for those in economy class, however.

Photo: Courtesy of Yolanda Suen / Unsplash

Airlines typically operate policies that divide economy passengers into boarding groups, with each group called up to board one by one. Some passengers ignore these rules and attempt to board as soon as they can, frustrating those who paid for priority boarding and making the process longer for everyone involved.

Now, American Airlines is attempting to crack down on those pesky line jumpers with a new boarding process they’re testing at select airports. As first pointed out by a Reddit user, travelers attempting to board their flight before their turn were met with an “error beep” when they scanned their boarding pass.

Last week, a passenger who boarded an American Airlines flight out of Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) later posted on the American Airlines subreddit: “As usual, group 1 was flooded with people, but several people ahead of me, when trying to scan their boarding pass, got an error beep. The gate agent proceeded to tell them, ‘You are group 5, please step aside.’ Was awesome to see this enforced and looked like it was system driven vs. gate agent having to make that call.”

American Airlines Confirmed It Is Testing a New Boarding Process

An American Airlines spokesperson later confirmed to USA Today that the carrier is indeed trialing a new boarding process.

“We are in the early phase of testing new technology during the boarding process,” said the spokesperson in a statement. “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.”

Photo: Courtesy of American Airlines

According to the airline, the new technology is currently being trialed at Tucson International Airport (TUS) as well as Albuquerque, with plans to extend this to more airports in the near future, including at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA).

How Does American Airlines’ Boarding Process Compare with Other Airlines?

This is not the first time airlines have attempted to streamline their boarding processes in recent history.

Back in May, Delta Air Lines updated its own process, grouping travelers into eight different zones ranging from First Class passengers in Zone 1 to Basic Economy passengers in Zone 8. United Airlines also tried speeding up its boarding process by introducing a window-first policy late last year, in which passengers with window seats are allowed to board before those in the aisle- or middle seats.

Many international airlines also implement boarding groups, from British Airways and Lufthansa to LATAM and Japan Airlines, but American Airlines may well be the first major carrier to use technology to actively prevent passengers from boarding early. It’s yet to be seen if American’s trial will be a success and implemented as an official policy for all its flights.