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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

#111

Post by pacetherace »

scott_s wrote: post #81

I'm also convinced that we exit the plane in the worst way possible. We basically do it row-by-row: as the people in front of them leave, people in a row get up, get their bags, start walking down the line, and this cascades up the plane. The problem is that there is very little parallelism: while people in the next row to leave are getting their bags, no one is exiting the plane. This is similar to a stall in a proc…

Deplaning is not a very significant problem because there are other things that are being taken care of while it is happening.

However, you can't start boarding until a certain point and from there until the plane leaves the gate, a lot of resources are locked.

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

#112

Post by United857 »

dunmalg wrote: post #107
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…

>I've always wondered why this is desirable Others have noted other reasons, but I think the biggest reason is that 1st/business class seats are more comfortable than the crappy crowded boarding area. Economy seats, it's the other way around. And as an added bonus, on something like a 787 where the boarding doors are behind business class, boarding first means you're lounging around in the front of the plane being se…

Business/1st class passengers (at least on international flights) almost always have access to lounges, rather than waiting in the gate area. As good as the plane seats are, I'd still rather spend as much lounge time as possible.

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

#113

Post by [deleted] »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #84
komali2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> put everything and the kitchen sink into over-sized carry-ons Which they only do because free checked is going away. You get what you optimize for, after all. IMO people pack way too much shit traveling anyway, but I'm sure here most are familiar with the onebag concept. I've no way to convince someone other than actually going on a trip with them and happily walking next to them while they drag their wheeled lugga…

> Which they only do because free checked is going away. I pack everything in one piece of carry-on luggage, and I'd do that even if checked luggage were free (which it often is). It means I don't have to take extra time or wait in a line to check a bag at the source airport, I don't have to take time at baggage claim at the destination airport (just walk straight from the gate to ground transportation), and I don't…

[deleted]

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

#114

Post by rcthompson »

They mention that boarding even rows first and then odd rows is also an improvement, but I've wondered whether 2 is actually the right periodicity. If we suppose a row consists of 6 people with roller bags, what we really want is to ensure that all 6 of these people can occupy the aisle without blocking anyone else from their row. So what if we used 10 instead of 2? I.e. first board everyone whose row number ends in 0 back to front, then everyone whose row ends in 1, then 2, and so on.

(I assume you could do even better by boarding window seats first, then middle, then aisle, but keeping rows together is much more family/group-friendly.)

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

#115

Post by jfengel »

stanferder wrote: post #72
paparush wrote: post #41

Boarding for the major US carriers is so broken. My solution - NO OVERHEAD BAGS - period.

Spirit Airlines actually has the right idea on this - you pay to bring an overhead bag aboard, and they mean business about it being the proper size. I'm able to get away with not checking a bag on the vast majority of my flights. I'm out of the airport like 5 minutes after I exit the plane.

Do you find that Spirit flights board and deplane faster? People struggling to get overhead bags when I'm feeling very cramped and just want to leave is one of my pet peeves.

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

#117

Post by scott_s »

pacetherace wrote: post #111
scott_s wrote: post #81

I'm also convinced that we exit the plane in the worst way possible. We basically do it row-by-row: as the people in front of them leave, people in a row get up, get their bags, start walking down the line, and this cascades up the plane. The problem is that there is very little parallelism: while people in the next row to leave are getting their bags, no one is exiting the plane. This is similar to a stall in a proc…

Deplaning is not a very significant problem because there are other things that are being taken care of while it is happening. However, you can't start boarding until a certain point and from there until the plane leaves the gate, a lot of resources are locked.

It's not a significant problem for the airline. But for a passenger, staring at people wrangling their bags, blocking those already up with a clear aisle from them to the exit, it's frustrating.

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

#118

Post by Invictus0 »

dave5104 wrote: post #95
ehnto wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I've typically had 20-25 extra minutes before they finally close the door. It's enough to get a head start on a podcast or watch a short TV episode.

There's nothing stopping you from watching that in the airport.

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

#119

Post by matthewmacleod »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #84
komali2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> put everything and the kitchen sink into over-sized carry-ons Which they only do because free checked is going away. You get what you optimize for, after all. IMO people pack way too much shit traveling anyway, but I'm sure here most are familiar with the onebag concept. I've no way to convince someone other than actually going on a trip with them and happily walking next to them while they drag their wheeled lugga…

> Which they only do because free checked is going away. I pack everything in one piece of carry-on luggage, and I'd do that even if checked luggage were free (which it often is). It means I don't have to take extra time or wait in a line to check a bag at the source airport, I don't have to take time at baggage claim at the destination airport (just walk straight from the gate to ground transportation), and I don't…

However, it's also a massive pain in the arse having to fiddle around with removing various electronics and liquids while going through the security gate.

I've actually started to opt for checking my bag whenever possible, even when I could get away with taking it into the cabin, and taking the minimum possible through security to avoid the too-frequent holdups. My experience is that this has added a maximum of about 10 minutes to my trip, waiting for luggage to be unloaded.

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