The parent brings a valid point though. I'd really expect a modular luggage compartment would be a FAR more cost effective first step; the waiting passengers c

The parent brings a valid point though. I'd really expect a modular luggage compartment would be a FAR more cost effective first step; the waiting passengers could have onboarded their luggage already to a waiting pod, and when the plane lands, it simply detaches its pods to be unloaded in parallel as the loaded new pods are attached. (Or a similar approach with fuel tanks) I openly admit to not knowing of any subtleties behind why you'd even want to swap a cockpit, it seems to me like one of the more static/easily left in place components, given you're only really "rotating" the pilots, if anything.