271–280 of 512 posts
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That's why the crew should be enforcing the bag limits. One person is only supposed to have 1 carry-on, and it's supposed to be a relatively small size.
Generally it's one carry-on and one "personal item".
How about everyone deposits their carry on bags on carts in the gate waiting area, of the exact dimensions at the overhead bins. Then workers transfer them to the overhead compartments while cleaning crew is working. Finally everyone takes their seats without fuss.
Cool idea. Wouldn't the carry-on bags be all over the plane though, and not necessarily anywhere near where you're sitting? De-planing in that scenario would be a nightmare. There would need to be a separate system to mark your carry on bag with your seat number, so it could be in the bin relatively close to where you're sitting.
I think it would unquestionably make boarding more efficient. Though thinking about it more I don't know if it would make it better, since it's now yet another extra thing that you have to do.
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I think boarding was covered in Freakanomics. Column boarding is technically fastest, but too impractical to coordinate. Just letting everyone randomly line up and enter the plane turns out to be the most efficient practical method, but no airlines do that. Edit: looks like my memory is poor... https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/11/theres-...
> Just letting everyone randomly line up and enter the plane turns out to be the most efficient practical method, but no airlines do that. Doesn't Southwest do that?
Once you start boarding, each person can sit in any seat that s/he wants.
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It really depends on the size of the airplane. Just a couple weeks ago I was one of the first 10 people to board the plane and was in "Premium Economy" on a 777-300ER for a full flight from Eastern Europe to the Midwestern US. I'd guess I was on the plane for nearly an hour before we pushed back from the gate. But this is for a plane with 300 people that boarded through a single door.
That is mindblowing. Even on an A380 that was only boarding through a single door I've never experienced an hour on the ground in the plane before pushing back. That would be super annoying.
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We do row-by-row because, generally, people with higher status and/or fares sit closer to the front -- and it feels more fair to let them off (and on) first, even if it costs minutes.
Huh? No, that makes no sense at all. The fares are exactly the same in the entire section of the cabin, and only differ by section (i.e., business class costs more than economy, "economy plus" costs more than economy, etc.). Planes don't have different costs by row within the same section. We do row-by-row because we intuitively think that people closer to the exit should be able to get to the exit faster, even thoug…
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…
My 2-bit idea is that we let passengers with no overhead luggage board and exit first. Let those who want to move at glacial speed do so, without slowing everyone else down.
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This sounds like it might be faster, and I might like it for solo business trips, but getting on/off with my family is not optional for me. Assuming most multi-passenger groups feel similarly, and assuming solo business passengers represent only ~40% of the population, the impact of such a system (which would require substantially more passenger discipline/planning) would be pretty limited.
There's a documentary on Netflix, I think it's called "Speed" or something because it's about fast stuff, had an episode about doing Monte Carlo simulations of plane embark / disembark sequences that were optimal. They came up with optimal boarding processes but it required individual seat assignments which was a problem for kids (not to mention a ton of explaining). I forget if Southwest's semi-randomized approach w…
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One option that isnt discussed is having the overhead bins be seperately ticketed and a box. So if you want a bin, you pay $40 and one gets asigned to you. It would streamline boarding because people would put their stuff in the bin and be done.
Overhead bins tend to be under provisioned for the amount of passengers boarding.
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Sure, the legroom is considerably lacking in economy class. But aside from that (a small price to pay for a trip that would otherwise take days to months, no?) what makes you call being on a flight being like "damn cattle"? >But on the other hand, when you treat (and pack) your customers like a bunch of damn cattle, don't be surprised when they act like a bunch of damn cattle.
I don't get the gripe with leg room, unless you are oddly shaped. I'm 6' and I don't care about leg room or leaning back, because in every flight you can just push your bag under your seat and stretch your legs fully under the seat ahead of you. I find a 5 hour flight more comfortable than 3 hour sporting event on an aluminum bleacher.