6 ms·

> United said that it's shown to save up to two minutes of boarding time. Incredible.

by ttymck 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
CoastalCoder 3y ago
I can't tell if that's sincere or sarcastic.
kylehotchkiss 3y ago
5,000 flights a day, 3 flight attendants = ~ 500 hours/day in flight attendant pay saved (context: flight attendants are recently getting or fighting for boarding pay)
- thsksbd 3y ago
  But if all the minutes don't add up to an empty slot in the airport between its operating times, then it's for naught.
xyzelement 3y ago
Let's say a gate handles 2 flights an hour and operates for 18 hours a day (last flight 11pm, first flight 5am). That's a gate capacity of 36 flights per day. Saving 2 mins per flight frees up an hour of gate time daily. That's enough to squeeze in two more flights into that gate. If United is operating 10 gates at an airport, that's room for 20 more flights a day. Now I don't know whether gate capacity is the main bottleneck but I do know "waiting for a gate" is a common problem after landing, so it must be an issue to some degree.
- ttymck 3y ago
  _up to_ 2 minutes. No mention of the actual distribution, so I'm willing to bet it will most often be 0 improvement, or an actual net negative, when you get a confused family or otherwise indignant group wondering why they can't board together.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  In theory yes but in reality one passenger fumbling around looking for a spot for their carryon bags can easily add 2 minutes to the boarding process. And the very early and very late flights are probably not full so there won't be much savings there. Each economy passenger should get one carryon that must be able to fit under the seat. If you want legroom, you can put it in the overhead bin. Nobody needs more than that for personal items that may be needed during the flight. Extra carryons could possibly be allowed for a fee, if it's high enough that we don't end up back with the problem we currently have.
  - xyzelement 3y ago
    // in reality one passenger fumbling around looking for a spot for their carryon bags can easily add 2 minutes Yes but in the new model this delay is on top of an improved baseline so you are still 2 minutes ahead on average. A good indicator that this matters is that United, who presumably knows their business better than you and I, is excited enough about it to implement the change. // Nobody needs more than that for personal items that may be needed during the flight. The goal of carry on isn’t for me to access personal items. It’s to enable me to get out of the airport and be in the taxi, half way to my meeting, while you wait for the carousel.
    - ttymck 3y ago
      > good indicator that this matters is that United My experience suggests coprorate decision making is never as data driven as it seems. I'm willing to bet there's some VP at United who is banking on the hype for this to carry them into the next echelon.
  - jrockway 3y ago
    I think the original intent for carry-on + personal item is that a carry-on is a backpack and the personal item is your purse (so only 50% of the population has one). They stopped measuring carry-ons and now people take an ordinary suitcase as their carry-on and their maximum-allowed-carry-on-sized-bag as their personal item. Neither fit under the seat. (I personally have been using a maximum-allowed-size backpack forever, and because it's soft, it can easily be crushed under the seat in front of me. It's not pleasant! But I've done it. Everyone should be like me.)
bagels 3y ago
Puts things in to perspective for me. 3/6 of my most recent united flights were each delayed by over 4 hours. That doesn't include the time we were kept in the plane for 3 hours on the ground at JFK, nor the time they moved our departure to Oakland from SFO while we were in SFO. 2 minutes will really make a large impact.

> United said that it's shown to save up to two minutes of boarding time. Incredible.

by ttymck 3y ago

> United said that it's shown to save up to two minutes of boarding time. Incredible.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

CoastalCoder 3y ago

I can't tell if that's sincere or sarcastic.

kylehotchkiss 3y ago

5,000 flights a day, 3 flight attendants = ~ 500 hours/day in flight attendant pay saved (context: flight attendants are recently getting or fighting for boarding pay)

thsksbd 3y ago
But if all the minutes don't add up to an empty slot in the airport between its operating times, then it's for naught.

xyzelement 3y ago

Let's say a gate handles 2 flights an hour and operates for 18 hours a day (last flight 11pm, first flight 5am). That's a gate capacity of 36 flights per day. Saving 2 mins per flight frees up an hour of gate time daily. That's enough to squeeze in two more flights into that gate. If United is operating 10 gates at an airport, that's room for 20 more flights a day. Now I don't know whether gate capacity is the main bottleneck but I do know "waiting for a gate" is a common problem after landing, so it must be an issue to some degree.

ttymck 3y ago
_up to_ 2 minutes. No mention of the actual distribution, so I'm willing to bet it will most often be 0 improvement, or an actual net negative, when you get a confused family or otherwise indignant group wondering why they can't board together.
SoftTalker 3y ago
In theory yes but in reality one passenger fumbling around looking for a spot for their carryon bags can easily add 2 minutes to the boarding process. And the very early and very late flights are probably not full so there won't be much savings there. Each economy passenger should get one carryon that must be able to fit under the seat. If you want legroom, you can put it in the overhead bin. Nobody needs more than that for personal items that may be needed during the flight. Extra carryons could possibly be allowed for a fee, if it's high enough that we don't end up back with the problem we currently have.
- xyzelement 3y ago
  // in reality one passenger fumbling around looking for a spot for their carryon bags can easily add 2 minutes Yes but in the new model this delay is on top of an improved baseline so you are still 2 minutes ahead on average. A good indicator that this matters is that United, who presumably knows their business better than you and I, is excited enough about it to implement the change. // Nobody needs more than that for personal items that may be needed during the flight. The goal of carry on isn’t for me to access personal items. It’s to enable me to get out of the airport and be in the taxi, half way to my meeting, while you wait for the carousel.
  - ttymck 3y ago
    > good indicator that this matters is that United My experience suggests coprorate decision making is never as data driven as it seems. I'm willing to bet there's some VP at United who is banking on the hype for this to carry them into the next echelon.
- jrockway 3y ago
  I think the original intent for carry-on + personal item is that a carry-on is a backpack and the personal item is your purse (so only 50% of the population has one). They stopped measuring carry-ons and now people take an ordinary suitcase as their carry-on and their maximum-allowed-carry-on-sized-bag as their personal item. Neither fit under the seat. (I personally have been using a maximum-allowed-size backpack forever, and because it's soft, it can easily be crushed under the seat in front of me. It's not pleasant! But I've done it. Everyone should be like me.)

bagels 3y ago

Puts things in to perspective for me. 3/6 of my most recent united flights were each delayed by over 4 hours. That doesn't include the time we were kept in the plane for 3 hours on the ground at JFK, nor the time they moved our departure to Oakland from SFO while we were in SFO. 2 minutes will really make a large impact.