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Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

arstechnica.com

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Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#61

Post by MereInterest »

mcmoose75 wrote: post #19
majormajor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why boarding first is desirable, except for scarcity of overhead luggage space (heightened by checked bag fees and growing rollaboard bags) and those few first class folks getting a free drink while they wait. Fix the storage issue and I'd want to board last - don't extend my time in those seats!

Overhead bin space is the big reason- give the somewhat (last 5 years-ish) changes to charging for the 1st checked bag, many who would have otherwise checked a bag are bringing on as carry-ons. Many flights I've been on in past several years have had a real shortage of bin space, meaning getting on board early to make sure you're not the odd man out IS important (waiting for baggage carousel can take an extra 45 minu…

It wasn't that recent. I was flabbergasted by an advertisement in an airport in 2013, which was trying to entice people into a membership with "Free checked bag? Don't worry. You'll get used to it." Advertising as extravagant exactly what used to be standard with the ticket.

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#62

Post by ehnto »

reaperducer wrote: post #51
virtuous_signal wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great video. This is one of those phenomena, like how to fix traffic jams, that everyone has an opinion on because of firsthand experience, but few people know about the actual research on. Despite there being known fast methods, I think 2 things stand in the way of implementing them: 1) Business and 1st class make a lot of money for airlines. Not letting them board first (although personally I've always wondered why…

although personally I've always wondered why this is desirable When I was fat, I paid extra for first class tickets so that I wouldn't be the slob jerk who overflowed into my neighbor's coach class seat. Because of that, I had a lot of coach-mindset first-class seats. Boarding first in first class gives you an opportunity to get some work done, to relax a bit before the plane takes off, and almost always you get to h…

How much longer do you get typically? I never have to wait that long to board as economy so I am curious if my economy boarding is atypical. I could totally see how an hour sitting in first class might be nicer than poking about a terminal. Is it ever that long?

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#63

Post by throwaheyy »

kmonsen wrote: post #49
throwaheyy wrote: post #37

The 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 wit…

The thing is, people are not paying extra just to board early, they're mostly paying for the bigger seat, more space, more personal service. The "priority boarding" is just icing on the cake, a "cable channels package" tactic thrown in to make the customer feel like they're not getting ripped off as much. Assuming that boarding is not in the critical path, airlines could adopt a faster boarding system and get the plane turned around faster without turning down that extra revenue.

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#64

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

reaperducer wrote: post #47
undefined1 wrote: post #4

CGP 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…

> 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...

All of these things occur in non-ideal boarding scenarios as well. I don't see how they affect his solution more so than what we currently have.

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#65

Post by rolltiide »

StillBored wrote: post #18

The 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…

That's pretty good, its a shame all the optimal solution theories are only considering single aisle planes.

This article and CPG Grey's dont even factor in dual aisle, or multiple boarding doors.

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#67

Post by ghaff »

munk-a wrote: post #29
xmodem wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I just wish they would reverse the trend of making checking luggage so damn expensive - once upon a time people most people didn't have wheely bags and it was much less unpleasant to board a plane. Now a-days a lot of travelers will try and cram their entire luggage into a single wheely bag that they struggle to lift into the overhead bin.

I tend to side with the parent that it's more about the extra time than the extra money. Most of us who travel a lot get free checked bags with status on our preferred carrier or can usually expense the fee in any case. It's the waiting 30 minutes that's the issue. (Also reduced flexibility if travel goes sideways for some reason.)

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#68

Post by Rebelgecko »

StillBored wrote: post #31
xmodem wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is very airline/airport dependent. I used to marvel at how fast my bags arrived at ABIA. Then I stopped flying for a while and when I resumed it seems like my bags would take nearly an hour. At first I thought it was some kind of additional security/whatever, but then I noticed that Southwest passengers that were deplaning at the same time I was would have their bags at the claim by the time they got there, whil…

Fast turnarounds is actually a big part of Southwest's business model

Re: Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

#70

Post by jacquesm »

ehnto wrote: post #57
StillBored wrote: post #18

The 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…

I booked 4 flights with Cathay not sure what to expect, but it was a pretty good experience all round. Boarding was a non issue, fast and on time. Everything else was perfectly functional, if economical. The staff were excellent. I didn't appreciate the mid flight catalogue advertising for beauty products though. Talk about a captive audience. That only happened on the leg between Japan and HK, I hope it's not common…

AirBaltic did this until very recently in the most annoying fashion. I wrote them a nastygram about it and I suspect many other people did so too because the last two flights I was on were pleasantly quiet.

Whichever junior marketeer came up with that campaign should be forced to listen to their own work product for a day or two in succession. I'm sure that would get them to change careers.

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