Boarding for the major US carriers is so broken. My solution - NO OVERHEAD BAGS - period.
Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
41–50 of 512 posts
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#42Airlines don't just sell the tickets. They sell convenience and comfort. And they have to mediate a limited resource shared by passengers: overhead bin space. So they want premium customers to get dibs on overhead bin space, which means letting them board first. The slowest part of boarding sometimes is the tail (economy and late-arrivals) looking for bin space, or worse, having to bring their carry-on back to the door for gate checking.
To make boarding faster the airlines will first have to commit to not letting economy passengers have carry-on. Until they are willing to do this, there will be no improvement.
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh, I've always found deplaning fast except in the case of the person who's overhead is three rows back. There are ways to make it all faster but require some systemic changes to how we travel.
I wish airlines and airports would work at getting the checked bags off the damn plane faster. Whenever I check a bag I could have carried on, it feels like I'm being punished for it, as inevitably it comes out 1 minute after the every-30-minutes train departs.
Alaska Airlines has a 20 minute guarantee for bags; essentially, they promise to have your bag out and on the carousel within 20 minutes of the plane making it to the terminal. In practice this means (at most airports) that your bags arrive within a few minutes of you deplaning, using the restroom, and making your way to the baggage claim.
I've only been failed by them once, and they gave me a hundred bucks for the hassle ($50 per bag). Not a bad setup.
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#44Can't wait to get to the airport and hear them call for boarding: "At this time we'd like to welcome all our slower passengers to the boarding process. Again, our slow, lazy passengers are welcome to board the aircraft." "Group 1..."
Another way to do it. Open the doors on the other side of the room. Wait until half the people are there. Quickly close the door and open another door to the plane.
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#45There's a lot of focus on improving boarding times. But I haven't seen any attempts to improve deplaning. It's always via the slowest possible method.
Huh, I've always found deplaning fast except in the case of the person who's overhead is three rows back. There are ways to make it all faster but require some systemic changes to how we travel.
I've been on flights where the attendant comes on and says, "Ladies and gentlemen, several passengers have connecting flights that they are in danger of missing. When we reach the gate, please let these passengers to the front of the plane." As soon as we're at the gate and parked, the seatbelt light goes off and every-freaking-body stands up in the aisles. Animals.
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#46The conclusions are pretty obvious, I guess they just needed to simulate it? The fastest boarding I've ever experienced was something Cathay Pacific did a few years ago. In the boarding area they had three lines with a bunch of section signs and an a couple employees hassling/sorting people between the lines. The rear of the plane sections were at the front of the line. I'm guessing they were just counting how many p…
> Quite a shock given the hour long boarding AA can sometimes pull off with their messed up boarding order based on miles and cabin front to back...
Not to mention the people who just say "F it" and board whenever they like it. For as often as I've seen them "rejected", I've equally seen them just waved on.
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#47CGP Grey has a great video examining different boarding methods and why some are slower or faster than others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAHbLRjF0vo Also noting that the way we deplane (front to back) is the slowest method, heh.
I love CGP Grey's animations, and you can clearly tell this one involved a lot of work.
The problem with his analyses is that they're frequently wrong because he look at problems in a very academic way and severely oversimplifies them.
For example, his video about cars going through intersections makes perfect sense in a simulated world on a computer. But it falls down instantly in real life because it presumes that every car is identical, with the same mechanical characteristics, the same acceleration capability, the same connectivity (for the magic fictional traffic control signal), the same latency, they never break down, there are never any external factors at an intersection, and on and on and on.
Similarly, his plane boarding simulation falls down as soon as someone shows up late, or in a wheelchair, or with a bum leg, drunk, a baby, luggage that the wheel has fallen off of, etc...
He seems to live in a world where there is no difference between theory and reality. I still watch his videos, but I consume them as entertainment, not as documentaries.
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I took a RyanAir flight a few months back, and while there were many things to justify their reputation for being super-budget, one thing I did like was that they did boarding from both sides of the plane - They had a ramp at the rear exit as well as the front. It was one of the most convenient deplaning experiences I've had.
I've only encountered that once in the US but it was great as well -- Southwest at LGB (Long Beach, CA) had a separate set of air-stairs at the back door for boarding. I would guess it's not done more here because there are few airports that both board with stairs on the tarmac rather than a jetbridge, and also have non-regional (737+) jets where it would make sense.
You expect Americans to -gulp- climb stairs???
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#49The US airlines’ system of roughly allowing people to board in the order corresponding to how much they pay (with up to 9 distinct groups) looks a little silly now.
If you are the airline it seems to work out since you are actually turning this into a money making opportunity?
The real issue is if the slow boarding is costing the airline more than the money than they earn from charging from upgrades. Also consider that the people paying for expensive seats might be sad if they don't get to board early which again might affect airline revenue.
I think airlines is pretty happy with the current situation, and that the passenger boarding speed is not costing them money so this is all good. This is just an (somewhat educated?) guess.
Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds
#50Related: CGPGray made a great video about boarding methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAHbLRjF0vo