American Airlines Updates Boarding Process with New Preboarding Rules

American Airlines is making another change to its boarding process.

Effective May 1, American will begin pre-boarding with First and Business Class customers, along with those who need additional time to board. That includes travelers with children age 2 and younger, as well as wheelchair users.

Everything else about the boarding process remains the same, including priority for ConciergeKey members, who will continue to pre-board. Here’s the rest of the boarding order:

Preboarding: ConciergeKey members, First/Business Class passengers, families with children age 2 and under
Group 1: AAdvantage Executive Platinum members, active duty U.S. military with military ID
Group 2: AAdvantage Platinum Pro members, oneworld Emerald members
Group 3: AAdvantage Platinum members, oneworld Sapphire members
Group 4: AAdvantage Gold members, oneworld Ruby members, AirPass members, Citi / AAdvantage Executive cardmembers
Group 5: Main Cabin Extra passengers (excluding Basic Economy), AAdvantage members with 15,000+ Loyalty Points
Group 6: AAdvantage members
Groups 7–8: Main Cabin
Group 9: Basic Economy

The only other change is that American is allotting an additional five minutes for boarding—something it announced earlier this year as a way to make the process less hectic and stressful.

Passengers flying on Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft will now begin boarding 35 minutes prior to departure. Those flying on Boeing 737s, Airbus A321s, and all widebody aircraft will begin boarding 40 minutes before departure.

The goal, the airline said, is to create “a better paced boarding process and better management of overhead bin space.” These changes, coupled with stricter enforcement of boarding by group, have effectively overhauled the way American boards passengers over the past year.