American Airlines tweaks boarding process: First-, business-class passengers to board a little earlier

2 days ago 7

April 16, 2025

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5 min read

Boarding American Airlines

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First-class and business-class passengers will board a tad earlier on American Airlines flights starting next month.

On Wednesday, the Fort Worth-based carrier announced it's making some tweaks to its boarding procedures in hopes of speeding things up and streamlining the preflight process.

The changes take effect May 1.

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Under the updated boarding order, passengers with a first- or business-class ticket will be invited to preboard ahead of the formal group boarding. That privilege will continue for flyers with the carrier's invitation-only ConciergeKey designation. Travelers who need a bit more time to board — including families with children under the age of 2 — will be allowed on board early, too.

From there, things look fairly similar to what the airline offers today, with priority group access awarded to AAdvantage and Oneworld alliance elite status members, and travelers with certain cobranded American credit cards.

American Airlines boarding groups

Here's how American Airlines' new boarding groups will shake out:

Boarding groupPassengers invited to board

Preboard	ConciergeKey members First- and business-class passengers Passengers who need extra time or assistance, including families with children under the age of 2
Group 1	AAdvantage Executive Platinum status members Active-duty military members with a military ID
Group 2	AAdvantage Platinum Pro elite status members Oneworld Emerald members
Group 3	AAdvantage Platinum elite status members Oneworld Sapphire members
Group 4	AAdvantage Gold members Oneworld Ruby members Lifetime AirPass customers Travelers who carry the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees), which also includes a complimentary Admirals Club membership ($595 annual fee)
Group 5	Main Cabin Extra passengers, excluding those flying on a basic economy ticket AAdvantage members without status, but with 15,000 Loyalty Points in the qualifying year Eligible AAdvantage credit card holders
Group 6	AAdvantage members
Group 7	Main cabin
Group 8	Main cabin
Group 9	Basic economy passengers who don't meet any of the above criteria

Thinning out Group 1

The biggest change American made was to shift premium-cabin passengers into preboarding from their current Group 1 boarding slot, where they board alongside top-tier Executive Platinum members.

Group 1 — despite its priority designation — can be a heavily packed boarding group, particularly at major American hubs like Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), where there is a large number of elite status customers.

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The carrier hopes the updated boarding procedures will lead to a "better-paced boarding process" when combined with a host of other boarding-related changes that are also set to start on May 1.

A host of other boarding-related changes

In February, the carrier announced it would bump up the boarding times for flights on certain narrow-body aircraft. Boarding now begins 35 minutes prior to departure for flights operated with an Airbus A319 or A320 aircraft. Flights with a larger Boeing 737 or A321 aircraft will see boarding begin 40 minutes before takeoff.

The carrier already boards flights on its wide-body Boeing 777 and 787 jets even earlier — 50 minutes before the scheduled departure time.

Software banning line-cutters expands

Last fall, American also rolled out new software aimed at preventing passengers from boarding before the gate agent calls their group with an audible "beep" that would prompt the gate agent to tell the customer to step aside and wait for their group to be called up.

That program is now widely available at airports American flies from, the carrier said Wednesday, and in place to cover around 90% of its customers on any given day.

Early feedback, the airline said, has been "overwhelmingly positive."

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Featured image by

KYLE OLSEN/THE POINTS GUY

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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