NWA adds new boarding line for elite flyers

Northwest Airlines continues to tinker with its boarding policies. Last week I told you the airline had

introduced a new first-come, first-served boarding process

that eliminated the traditional method of boarding by zones. (It keeps assigned seating intact, however.) Now the

Detroit Free Press

reports

(via

USA Today

) that Northwest is introducing another wrinkle: a special boarding line for its elite frequent flyers.

Northwest's vice president of passenger marketing and sales, Jim Cron, says the airline's most valued customers "will never wait in a long line to board the airplane." Expect to see the new lines first in Detroit, Phoenix, and Portland, among others, before they are rolled out to additional cities in the months ahead.