4 ms·

Not really; the only difference is that instead of waiting at the gate / in the aisle for people to put their bags in the bin, you're sitting in your fancy seat

by ilyanep 10y ago

Not really; the only difference is that instead of waiting at the gate / in the aisle for people to put their bags in the bin, you're sitting in your fancy seat drinking a rum and coke. You still wait for your bag, even though it's 'priority' -- both times I've come into DCA in the last few months, it's taken like 25 minutes after I got to the carousel for it to start spinning (and my bags are one of the first ones out, but eh). You definitely fly in comfort as a business passenger, but I wouldn't say you fly much more efficiently.

ghaff 10y ago
>You still wait for your bag Not to pick on you specifically but, for a lot of people, bring less stuff. I don't use a roll-a-board for carry-on. I travel with fully legal soft-sided luggage that doesn't inflexibly take up as much space and a small computer bag. I rarely find I need to check luggage unless I'm doing activities that require sporting gear etc.
- drawnwren 10y ago
  Not at all. I have a lot of friends who do this and travel. Especially in business you aren't fighting for overhead space. If you can do carry on only, you definitely should. It makes travel significantly easier.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    Same, I always try to do carry-on only. TSA PreCheck helps, but the boarding process is still so inefficient. If I ran an airline, there would be a mandatory class with a test on boarding and unloading efficiently. It really bugs me how almost no one puts their bag up in the Corey orientation (they put it in with the wide side down instead of vertically, so one less bag per compartment fits). People also tend to stuff all their non-carry on stuff into the bins, which further reduces space. Airlines are partially to blame for this behavior as well, since they rarely enforce it or even give much guidance. People also walk very slowly into the plane, struggle to lift their stuff, then realize they need something out of the pocket so they hold up everyone while they get it. I also never understood why both doors aren't used for boarding and the planes boarded middle-first. I bet I could get the boarding time down to about 40% of what it is right now with my suggested changes. In the security lines, there are too few lanes open and too few helpers. If I opt out of the idiot scanner, it adds at least 10 minutes, sometimes 30. I've had many TSA people be incredibly rude to me when I've opted out, one yelling at me for putting my carry on in front of another person's on the undriven, too-short conveyor belt after the same person had previously instructed me to remove my bag from the belt when I informed them I was opt-out (every other time I've flown, they make you wait like an idiot while your bag and the contents of your pockets sit on the other side of the conveyor, free for anyone else to take). The security theatre on display is also infuriating. If one wanted to, travel with someone and have them not opt out, but grab your carry-on from the other side of the scanner while you wait for them to even call for someone to think about coming over to check the elastic in your underwear for a wine opener, which if they didn't confiscate, would have obviously been used to initialize the downfall of western civilization. Meanwhile, the random checks with guns in their pants get through the blow-hard machine all the time: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2015/06/01/politics/tsa-failed-undercover-airport-screening-tests/index.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2015/06/01/poli...
    - stouset 10y ago
      > I bet I could get the boarding time down to about 40% of what it is right now with my suggested changes. My guess is that this is of no real benefit. Refueling, restocking, loading baggage, running maintenance checks, and other tasks need to happen before the airline can get the plane back into the air. Only extremely infrequently have I been on a plane that was able to roll back from the gate shortly after the last passenger boarded. If the limiting factor here was passenger boarding times, airlines would have every incentive to improve the situation from where it is now. They have no incentive to speed up boarding to be any faster than the slowest of the rest of the preflight processes.
      - maerF0x0 10y ago
        Its kind of like the model of aging (as I understood it presented by Aubrey de grey). There are many things to solve and if you dont solve them all, the first one to go gets you. No reason to board faster if you cannot do refueling faster, no reason to refuel faster if you cannot load baggage faster, no reason to load baggage faster if you cannot board faster.
drawnwren 10y ago
I completely disagree. The separate line at check-in and through security plus early boarding to a separate cabin mean you never deal with significant wait times and you can check-in significantly closer to take off. American airports in general are bad about bags, but having your bag in the first group again gives you a huge advantage. Especially if you mix with TSA pre check.
- ghaff 10y ago
  Plus if I'm sitting in my comfortable seat drinking a rum and coke and reading a book for an extra 15 minutes, I don't really find that a particular hardship away from the noise and the throngs of people in the terminal.

by ilyanep 10y ago

ghaff 10y ago

>You still wait for your bag Not to pick on you specifically but, for a lot of people, bring less stuff. I don't use a roll-a-board for carry-on. I travel with fully legal soft-sided luggage that doesn't inflexibly take up as much space and a small computer bag. I rarely find I need to check luggage unless I'm doing activities that require sporting gear etc.

drawnwren 10y ago
Not at all. I have a lot of friends who do this and travel. Especially in business you aren't fighting for overhead space. If you can do carry on only, you definitely should. It makes travel significantly easier.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  Same, I always try to do carry-on only. TSA PreCheck helps, but the boarding process is still so inefficient. If I ran an airline, there would be a mandatory class with a test on boarding and unloading efficiently. It really bugs me how almost no one puts their bag up in the Corey orientation (they put it in with the wide side down instead of vertically, so one less bag per compartment fits). People also tend to stuff all their non-carry on stuff into the bins, which further reduces space. Airlines are partially to blame for this behavior as well, since they rarely enforce it or even give much guidance. People also walk very slowly into the plane, struggle to lift their stuff, then realize they need something out of the pocket so they hold up everyone while they get it. I also never understood why both doors aren't used for boarding and the planes boarded middle-first. I bet I could get the boarding time down to about 40% of what it is right now with my suggested changes. In the security lines, there are too few lanes open and too few helpers. If I opt out of the idiot scanner, it adds at least 10 minutes, sometimes 30. I've had many TSA people be incredibly rude to me when I've opted out, one yelling at me for putting my carry on in front of another person's on the undriven, too-short conveyor belt after the same person had previously instructed me to remove my bag from the belt when I informed them I was opt-out (every other time I've flown, they make you wait like an idiot while your bag and the contents of your pockets sit on the other side of the conveyor, free for anyone else to take). The security theatre on display is also infuriating. If one wanted to, travel with someone and have them not opt out, but grab your carry-on from the other side of the scanner while you wait for them to even call for someone to think about coming over to check the elastic in your underwear for a wine opener, which if they didn't confiscate, would have obviously been used to initialize the downfall of western civilization. Meanwhile, the random checks with guns in their pants get through the blow-hard machine all the time: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2015/06/01/politics/tsa-failed-undercover-airport-screening-tests/index.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2015/06/01/poli...
  - stouset 10y ago
    > I bet I could get the boarding time down to about 40% of what it is right now with my suggested changes. My guess is that this is of no real benefit. Refueling, restocking, loading baggage, running maintenance checks, and other tasks need to happen before the airline can get the plane back into the air. Only extremely infrequently have I been on a plane that was able to roll back from the gate shortly after the last passenger boarded. If the limiting factor here was passenger boarding times, airlines would have every incentive to improve the situation from where it is now. They have no incentive to speed up boarding to be any faster than the slowest of the rest of the preflight processes.
    - maerF0x0 10y ago
      Its kind of like the model of aging (as I understood it presented by Aubrey de grey). There are many things to solve and if you dont solve them all, the first one to go gets you. No reason to board faster if you cannot do refueling faster, no reason to refuel faster if you cannot load baggage faster, no reason to load baggage faster if you cannot board faster.

drawnwren 10y ago

I completely disagree. The separate line at check-in and through security plus early boarding to a separate cabin mean you never deal with significant wait times and you can check-in significantly closer to take off. American airports in general are bad about bags, but having your bag in the first group again gives you a huge advantage. Especially if you mix with TSA pre check.

ghaff 10y ago
Plus if I'm sitting in my comfortable seat drinking a rum and coke and reading a book for an extra 15 minutes, I don't really find that a particular hardship away from the noise and the throngs of people in the terminal.