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Boarding by blocks starting at the front is ridiculous. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a worse way to board a plane. And yet somehow every time I fly
by kemayo 15y ago
Boarding by blocks starting at the front is ridiculous.
In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a worse way to board a plane. And yet somehow every time I fly that's how it happens. Maybe it's just that my company chooses horrible airlines.
The article mentions that assorted methods of boarding were tried, though it only goes into detail about "the Steffen method". I wonder what the difference between blocks-from-the-front and the obvious improvement of blocks-from-the-back is.
- jbri 15y agoThe difference is generally that higher-paying (i.e. first and business class) passengers get seated first (because having your higher-paying passengers wait for the lower-paying passengers is undesirable), and they're also generally seated at the front of the plane so they don't have to wait when getting off either.
- seanp2k 15y agoalso the ride is nicer. But yeah, it's stupid.
- kemayo 15y agoThough back-to-front means that the expensive passengers can arrive closer to the departure time, and don't have to suffer through everyone in economy shuffling by them and hitting them with their carry-on. It does cost them some flexibility, in that they can't board as soon as they arrive. But my experience is that sitting outside of a plane is generally far nicer than sitting in first class... at least on domestic flights. For international flights getting on sooner would be more desirable.
- cma 15y agoYou misunderstand a big part of a first class ticket. The curtain between first class and economy class doesn't make the seats more comfortable. It keeps "undesirables" out of the sight of snobs. If airlines want snobs to board later, they better install curtains segregating the lobby.
- true_religion 15y agoDon't most airlines have a separate lobby for business class and first class passengers? I've never flown domestic, but that's the way its been for international flights.
- rdouble 15y agoThere isn't really a difference between first class and business class on domestic flights. If you have the miles or your company pays for it, you can go sit in the sky club or whatever, but that's over by the entrance and there's usually no difference when you get to the gate.
- yardie 15y agoThe curtain is there to keep people that don't have any business there out. Most of the international flights have layflat seats in F/J sections. And most people don't put their iPods/kindles/iPads away when they fall asleep so the casual person could walk up and walk away with something. It's also there to keep them out of their toilets. When you have 40 people in coach waiting for 2 toilets and 2 unused ones in first the first you gotta make the firsties feel better for buying a more expensive ticket.
- count 15y agoYou board first as first class, because you have time to put your suit jacket up, and get your first free beverage, before they have to confiscate the cups for takeoff. If you boarded last, you'd get no pre-takeoff beverage to sooth your nerves. At some airports, they board the larger jets through multiple doors - First/Business gets their own, and everybody else crams into the other one. I've also been asked to wait to board while the first class gets situated and has their pre-flight drink. (I've also had that pre-flight drink, and it's pretty nice!).
- amalcon 15y agoAt least one U.S. airline (I forget which) briefly used a transparent scheme to work around this: the first class rows were boarded first, and from there was back to front.
- swhitt 15y agoUnited/Continental does this (basically). First class first, followed by their frequent-flier-tiered passengers. From then on, it's back to front.
- kemayo 15y agoMay vary depending on location. I flew United on Sunday, and they did a complete front-to-back load on both my flights.
- mikeash 15y agoMaybe I haven't been paying attention, but I fly a few times a year and I thought this was how approximately every airline did things since roughly the dawn of time. They always start off with "first class, elite status members, families with small children, etc.", then once that phase is over they fill in from back to front.
- jamesbkel 15y agoMy flight travel has lessened considerably over the past 2-3 years, but until then I'd witnessed that to be standard practice.
- ______ 15y agoI think part of the reason that people could justify the expense of first class is exactly this -- the ability to sit there with a smug look while the rest of the plane exasperatedly waits to be seated.
- kemayo 15y agoI'm prepared to admit that I am not motivated by this. To me it sounds far more pleasant to sit there outside reading while everyone else has to queue up, then walk in just before take-off to get into my comfortable first class seat, without being jostled by the entire rest of the plane's passenger complement slowly trudging past me and impinging on my personal space. Perhaps I'm weird.
- jbri 15y agoAlternatively you could walk in as soon as boarding starts, sit down and start reading, and not have to worry about looking up every few minutes to see whether it's your turn to board yet.
- kemayo 15y agoThat's where the people-walking-by-jostling-me bit comes in as a motivator for staying out. Besides, why look up when they're announcing things over the P.A.?
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoYou don't have to board immediately when they call first class. You can wait until everybody else has boarded.
- kemayo 15y agoThat's true... but if I board later then I generally have to wait in the line up to the plane, unless I'm really cutting it close.
- mikeash 15y ago
- DaveMebs 15y agoI don't think that boarding back to front is the necessarily an obvious win here. One thing you will see on flights is that people in the back often place their overhead bags in a compartment near the front. As they do not plan to access this during the flight, it causes them no trouble and saves carrying the bag back and forth. The downside, of course, is that people in the front quickly run out of overhead space while there is still plenty of room in the back. Shuffling bags back and forth is obviously costly and depending upon the prevalence of this behavior may result in less efficient boarding (as compared to front to back).
- rorrr 15y agoStill, on average, back-to-front is faster.
- zacharycohn 15y agoYou could discourage this behavior by keeping overhead compartments closed when passengers board the plane. As they reach their seats, then they open a compartment for their bag. Once everyone is seated, staff closes all the compartments. I think the added time/social pressure having to open a compartment would be enough to stop most people who do this.