There's the long walk from check-in to gate. There's the increasingly tight seat on the plane. And, increasingly, there's the boarding line, with its long list of groups, priorities, privileges, and often just plain unmanaged crowding.
It's not that the airlines aren't doing something about it—it's just not clear that what they are doing is helping much. Just this week, for instance, American Airlines muddied the waters with a new boarding plan that now has 9, not 5, boarding groups, plus a super-elite 'Concierge Key' group that gets on before the boarding process even starts.
The boarding area is a part of flying that's gotten worse and worse in recent years, for a variety of reasons.
- Since the 2008 recession, airlines have been carefully controlling capacity, so planes are a lot fuller, meaning a bigger crowd at the gate. Especially for larger planes.
- As the airlines have added more and more fees for baggage, more flyers are trying to carry on everything...and getting on early means a better chance at limited overhead space.
- Airline marketing efforts have found another place to make money, either through actually selling priority boarding directly, or as a part of credit card benefits.
- And, as much as anything else, there is just no real agreement on how to efficiently load a plane. Different airlines have followed different theories and even academic studies have produced no consensus.
However confusing all that may be, it's made even worse by the inability, or unwillingness, of nearly every airline to use personnel outside the actual boarding lane to keep groups and lines in order.
You've probably all seen how hard it is for each group to board as its called, because of a crowd of people in the next groups mobbed up near the entrance. United has made some attempt with signs for each group to queue behind, but it's minimal.
Before we take a look at the different boarding strategies airlines use, let's take a quick look at strategies for us, as individuals, to try (other, of course, than becoming instant elites or first-class passengers).
- If you're in one of the earlier boarding groups, try to choose seats near the entrance. Since planes, depending on size and load, are now boarding 30 to 60 minutes before flight time, rather than the 20 minutes or so of past years, this may mean heading to the gate earlier than you're used to.
Keep an eye for when people start queuing near the entrance, and get on line as it forms. On the other hand, if you aren't planning on using the overhead, you have no reason to rush on. - If the overhead is critical for you, think about picking a seat near the rear of the plane. Most plans fill the back early to avoid crowding at the front during boarding. You'll get off later, but you'll have an easier chance. Unless the aisles are blocked with eliters getting into front rows.
- Organize ahead: if there's stuff in your overhead bag you want to have at your seat, separate it before you board; you'll be faster, and out of the aisle quickly.
Boarding Systems
Each of these methods of boarding has a rational basis, at least in the minds of the airlines. And each is, in some ways, sabotaged by the system of privilege that the airlines depend on: That is, the exceptions to the rule are usually blocking the aisle as you head to your seat.
Most popular: Rear to Front
This one is used, in some form, by nearly all U.S. airlines with the exception of Delta, United and Southwest. It's based on boarding the elites, earned or paid-for, first, followed by groups of "regular" passengers, starting from the back of the plane.
A weakness is that while passengers headed for the back of the plane pass by already-seated first/business class, the economy aisles will still be littered with passengers with priority boarding and seats near the front, trying to get their bags overhead.
AirTran, before it was absorbed into Southwest, used a variation in which it rotated zones after the elites: First the rear zone, then one near the front, then another in the rear, and so on.
Delta's blocks
On Delta, being in Zone 1 means little, because it's actually the 4th group to board. Something like that is going to happen with American's new groups, too.
Delta starts, like most, with pre-boarding for customers needing assistance. Then come first-class and top elites, no matter where they are sitting. Then next-level Delta elites, and top elites of their partners. Then, in Zone 1, the rest of the elite flyers and premium credit card holders. Zone 2 is everyone else, except for people with Basic Economy tickets...they are Zone 3.
Outside In: What United Tried
Like all the others, United has a list of elites and special cases to board first. But United has also had two distinctions: Clear lane signs at the gates to tell each group where to wait, and a boarding system called WiMAi, for Window, Middle Aisle.
Both have their controversies. While I've found the signs appear to help create orderly lines (or at least keep the later groups out of the way of the earlier groups, some critics complain that they encourage people to get up early and stand when they should sit. As for WiMAi, it's not clear how much United is actually using it at present.
But here's how it works—or should. First the elites get on. Then those requiring assistance. Then window seat passengers board and get out of the aisles. After them, the middle seats, and finally the windows.
That has similarities to a system US Air tried before switching to a more or less random system. US Air's was called a reverse pyramid. General boarding had window passengers in the rear first, then rear middle together with front window, then rear aisle with front middle, and finally the aisle passengers for the front. Logical, but difficult.
And then there's Southwest's random method
Southwest famously has open seating on its planes. Passengers are assigned boarding numbers in the order they buy tickets or check in, lettered with A, B, or C and a number. When it's your number, you get on, and take any open seat. Or, if you've paid for business, any business seat).
That sounds simple, even though it mixes people with preferences for different parts of the plane—but once again, there are exceptions. Business passengers are guaranteed A. Elite flyers get A. People who pay for A get A. So, it's not nearly as random as it starts out. But people do seem to love Southwest!
So, is there a perfect solution?
Probably not, as long as the airlines view seats and boarding priorities as profit centers, rather than focusing on the most efficient boarding systems. With present crowded skies and planes, the fastest ways to get planes loaded have taken backseat to increasing groups of entitled passengers—and I've never said no to being included when I have been—who, frankly, gum up the works.
One of the main reasons none of the engineering solutions to loading planes has proven itself absolutely superior is that no airline has been willing to test loyalty or lose revenue by saying, simply, you'll get on when it's best for all.
Seating plan illustrations from SeatGuru.com
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