How Many Boarding Groups Does American Have? 

American Airlines has in total 9 boarding groups numbered 1 to 9 along with Pre-boarding & Concierge Groups. The boarding group is assigned as per the passengers’ membership status & cabin ticket. 

American Airlines Priority Boarding

As stated the boarding groups are categorized and henceforth prioritized on the basis of membership status & type of cabin booked. The priority list is as follows. 

Pre-boarding (You have to request it)

• If you need special assistance. 

• Travelers boarding with children under the age of 2 years

ConciergeKey: If you have ConciergeKey elite Advantage membership

American Airlines Group 1 

• If you are first class passengers

• If you are active-duty U.S. military member with military I.D.

• If you are business class passenger (only on a 2-class international plane)

• Executive Platinum AAdvantage members

AA Group 2

• If you are Oneworld Emerald member

• If you are business class passengers (only on a 3-class plane)

• Platinum Pro AAdvantage members

American Airlines Group 3

• If you are platinum AAdvantage member

• For Oneworld Sapphire members

AA Group 4

• If you are Gold AAdvantage members

• For Oneworld Ruby members

• If you are AirPass members

• Premium economy class passengers

• Citi®/AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® cardmembers

• If you buy priority boarding 

• If you are an eligible corporate travelers, you may get this. 

American Airlines Group 5 (Preferred boarding)

• If you are main cabin extra passengers (not including basic economy tickets)

• Applicable for eligible AAdvantage credit card members. 

Group 6: Available for All AAdvantage members

Group 7: This is for general boarding

AA Group 8

• This to is for general boarding

• It is also open to the basic economy class passengers to/from Europe & South America

AA Group 9: This is for basic economy class passengers traveling within the U.S., Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, & Mexico

Preferred Boarding Vs Priority Boarding 

Based on the above priority order assigned, say if you are not happy with your boarding order and would like to board earlier for whatever reason, American Airlines do have the option to board earlier. There are two ways to do that: a) Preferred Boarding & b) Priority Boarding. Let’s discuss this in detail below. 

Priority Boarding

You can purchase priority privileges during the online check-in, or at the airport during your check-in, or while making your reservations before your flight. Also, if you are opting for the priority privilege package, it also comes with priority at check-in counters & priority security lines (available at certain airports). 

In this case, you will get access to the boarding group 4. This is however not one of the first groups as there are several groups of passengers who will be boarding before you. 

Preferred Boarding

Unlike the last one, you cannot purchase preferred boarding. In this case, travelers with preferred boarding get an entire group of their own in the American Airlines boarding process: boarding group number 5. 

Even though you can’t buy it directly, it is rather easy to qualify for it by simply having one of the co-branded premium credit cards. 

Note: (before you look forward to opting for a better priority for your boarding)

• Priority privileges are amazing but be aware that you will anyway receive priority boarding if you have bought premium cabin class, or have an elite status like AAdvantage or Oneworld, or if you have the AAdvantage Executive World Elite card.

• Again, same logic, if you are already holding exclusive elite credit cards or have elite status, anyway you will be getting preferred boarding by default so it makes little sense to purchase priority privileges unless you really want to. 

Process of American Airline Boarding Groups

The process to make the boarding on American Airlines is very simple & traveler-friendly. So, irrespective of the boarding groups, the airline is going to start the boarding process anywhere between half an hour to 50 minutes from the time of departure (the specific time depends upon the destination & type of aircraft). You will be able to find the information of your boarding group and accordingly, you can proceed to board the aircraft. 

Conclusion

Now, you are aware of the entire process involving boarding flights on American Airlines along with the types of boarding groups that are there. You also know the exact American Airlines priority boarding so that you know what to expect on the day of the flight. Lastly, you should have taken note that there is an option to upgrade your priority boarding order so that you board earlier.