United Just Made a Policy Change That Gives Middle Seat Passengers a Big New Perk

Declan Gallagher
·1 min read
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United Airlines just sweetened the deal for all travelers flying in the dreaded middle seat. Starting October 26, United will update its boarding policy with a few fresh policies which will disperse economy flyers over four groups. One will see middle-seaters moving to a preferential position.

The new procedure was announced Thursday in an internal memo (via The Points Guy). It's called WILMA, which refers to "window, middle, aisle" organization.

Pre-boarding, as well as groups one through three, will remain the same. Group four, however, which currently includes middle and aisle-seat travelers, will now be limited to middle seats only. Group five will now be exclusively devoted to aisle seats.

In markets where United offers a basic economy fair without a carry-on option, those travelers will be pushed into a newly created sixth category.

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Additionally, economy customers who have multiple tickets on a reservation will all "receive the highest applicable boarding group given to any one traveler."

Though United admits these changes may cause some confusion amongst longtime passengers, they think any trouble or expenses incurred will be worth the payoff. The company ran a test of the WILMA process at several undisclosed airports and found that it shaved about two minutes off the boarding process.

According to United, the average boarding time has increased by two minutes since 2019, so this measure is really to get things back to normal rather than to speed them up. Though it’s adding a new group, the company hopes the process will be smoother and therefore quicker as a result.