Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 512 posts

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

#291

Post by jacobolus »

ftio wrote: post #93
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…

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.

> getting on/off with my family is not optional for me

If you’re getting off with your family you should just wait for everyone else to exit first anyway unless you have a connecting flight with no time margin or something. Families are super slow to deboard planes.

If your kids are young, you should probably be allowed to board first before other travelers.

A column by column rule wouldn’t apply to you either way.

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

#292

Post by boomboomsubban »

magduf wrote: post #211
frankus wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idle thought I had a while back: Let people who don't have anything in the overhead bins get off first.

I can get my stuff out of the overhead bin in about 1 second. I have a better idea: people should have to go through qualification testing to see how fast they can grab their backpack out of the bin and start walking down the aisle. Fast people should get special dispensation, and slow people should be required to leave last. The problem is that too many people bumble around and take forever to do a very simple task.

Most people very rarely fly. Anyone can stumble doing a simple task for the first time in years while in a stressful situation.

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

#294

Post by sjg007 »

sib wrote: post #273
thaumasiotes wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Southwest's "lining up" process is not random; you get an assigned position in the line according to a set of factors. Once you start boarding, each person can sit in any seat that s/he wants.

It's psuedo-random based on when you get your boarding pass (starting 24 hours). Essentially the quest for a non-middle seat conditional on distance to the front door.

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

#295

Post by sjg007 »

cryptonector wrote: post #290
throwaway287391 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really odd to me that airlines decided to charge for checked bags rather than overhead bin storage. Even before it was common to charge for checked bags, almost everyone I've ever met preferred carry-ons whenever possible. And when they "enforce" carry-on bag size limits, the worst thing they'll do is gate-check your bag for free, which is still much better than checking a bag and having to wait there half an ho…

I agree! The airlines would do better to offer free checking for one bag and charge a fee for carry-on (and not oversell carry-on space). Then they could shave off a minimum of 5 minutes for boarding, and maybe much more (10 minutes? 15?). Saving 10 minutes in boarding time may mean one more flight/day for some routes.

Southwest should do this. They are almost the most optimized airline since you can have 2 bags free and a psuedo random boarding process. I imagine that overhead bin space is probably not as contentious on Southwest flights anyway.

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

#296

Post by sjg007 »

pnw_hazor wrote: post #66

Often, especially if I have checked baggage, I wait until the bitter end rather than getting onboard early or waiting in line. If there is no room for my roller-bag, gate checking is usually free.

I've seen this optimization. It makes more sense for the airline to just have free checked bags and charge a premium for a carry on. I think one issue is that they don't want the commotion at the gate check. I saw an airport pre-screener once tell a guy his carry on was too big and the dude was livid. This wasn't TSA and the guy wasn't an airline employee either.. I think he was just working for the airport. I would've been livid too.

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

#297

Post by scarejunba »

Invictus0 wrote: post #118
dave5104 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, there is one thing. Once I'm in my seat I don't have to pay attention any more. This is worth a lot because they won't know whether you're the guy who's missing. And if you're in the lounge there's no way you make it to the gate on time unless you time it yourself.

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

#298

Post by sjg007 »

daxfohl wrote: post #272
duderific wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 was thinking the carts would be numbered just like the overhead bins. So the bags would be transferred exactly as you stowed them. Maybe even make the bins detachable so it's just "roll them aboard and snap them in". Though that could be heavy/unsafe/whatever. 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 anot…

Too complicated. A gate is run by 1 or 2 people max.

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

#299

Post by sjg007 »

bproven wrote: post #106

The fastest boarding and deplaning I have experienced is at Burbank airport. It is done with 2 open doors: front and rear - rather than just 1 door boarding only front to rear. I'm sure it is the same at other small airports as well...

Do you exit to the tarmac or did they have two jetways? Two jetways make sense but you need the plane to come in horizontally. Might be a good idea for new airports.

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

#300

Post by billatq »

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…

Personally, I’d like to be able to exit from multiple sides of the plane. Getting people to be orderly is hard, but at least you can half it.
Post reply on HN