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Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

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Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#71

Post by count »

kemayo wrote: post #10
jbri wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is generally that higher-paying (i.e. first and business class) passengers get seated first (because having your higher-paying passengers wait for the lower-paying passengers is undesirable), and they're also generally seated at the front of the plane so they don't have to wait when getting off either.

Though back-to-front means that the expensive passengers can arrive closer to the departure time, and don't have to suffer through everyone in economy shuffling by them and hitting them with their carry-on. It does cost them some flexibility, in that they can't board as soon as they arrive. But my experience is that sitting outside of a plane is generally far nicer than sitting in first class... at least on domestic…

You board first as first class, because you have time to put your suit jacket up, and get your first free beverage, before they have to confiscate the cups for takeoff.

If you boarded last, you'd get no pre-takeoff beverage to sooth your nerves.

At some airports, they board the larger jets through multiple doors - First/Business gets their own, and everybody else crams into the other one. I've also been asked to wait to board while the first class gets situated and has their pre-flight drink. (I've also had that pre-flight drink, and it's pretty nice!).

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#72

Post by mturmon »

mikeash wrote: post #34
______ wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the reason that people could justify the expense of first class is exactly this -- the ability to sit there with a smug look while the rest of the plane exasperatedly waits to be seated.

I once got bumped up to Business Class and the experience sorely tempted me to spend the extra money in the future. It had nothing to do with smugness and everything to do with a seat that isn't painfully small, enough legroom to avoid being horribly cramped, ability to recline more than five degrees, and food that didn't make me want to vomit in terror.

All that you said, and also that the staff is much more willing to cater to your needs.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#73

Post by rquantz »

mwsherman wrote: post #61
aurelianito wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first part is easy, color code the ticket (e.g. first red, then blue, etc). The second issue is trickier, but it happens now anyway. I would say that they already know how to handle it.

Doesn’t even need color coding, just call it “Group A” etc, as they do now.

Also, what percentage of the populations color blind? You'd have people boarding for red when green was called, etc. Letters give us 26 possible boarding stages. Even without keeping accessibility is mind, you'd only be able to reliably use, what, %w{red blue green yellow orange}? Purple is out -- too ambiguous.

So yeah, no color codes. Have I beaten it to death enough?

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#74

Post by [deleted] »

davvid wrote: post #53
colonelxc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the main problem with this method is that it is socially unacceptable to split up families and groups while they wait to board and are boarding. I think a slightly less efficient approach would be to somewhat batch up rows. So instead of having all of the people in the window aisle on one side of the plane enter, how about have 1 row of people (typically 3) on one side of the plane. Instead of doing every row at…

Another simple solution would be to board from back-to-front. Right now it's front-to-back: the business-class passengers (at the front of the plane) board first. Economy class boards last and each passenger has to walk through the congestion. Getting business-class travellers to give up their sense of entitlement and board last could be a little tricky, though. I'm sure there's a psychological marketing trick that c…

[deleted]

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#75

Post by xxbondsxx »

vacri wrote: post #58
aurelianito wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first part is easy, color code the ticket (e.g. first red, then blue, etc). The second issue is trickier, but it happens now anyway. I would say that they already know how to handle it.

Colour coding the ticket is not trivial - current monochrome printing is easy with thermals. Ever run a colour printer in an office? It's a nightmare to manage just in an of itself. Then there's a lot of investement in creating a system that works across all models of planes. It's doable, but it's not trivial. Then on top of that is the issue that despite all this, a lot of people ignore what's on the tickets anyway…

I'm not sure which airline you flew, but Southwest will actually turn people away (mainly because it's first-come-first-serve seating).

So it happens. Start being strict and people will learn.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#76

Post by vitalysh »

dantheman wrote: post #69
joeyh wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always board last. I'm going to be spending too many hours on the plane anyway, why would I want to spend yet another hour sitting motionless on the tarmac when I could be out where there's power and wifi and restrooms? So I book an aisle seat and ignore the zone calls and get in line near the very end. Then I make up for being in some way possibly antisocial by helping someone with their luggage or something. (As…

The only problem with boarding last is that there may not be any space to store your baggage, and you'll have to check it.

You can always ask air hostess to store the luggage in their compartment. Did that number of times with Lufthansa.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#77

Post by roel_v »

vacri wrote: post #58
aurelianito wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first part is easy, color code the ticket (e.g. first red, then blue, etc). The second issue is trickier, but it happens now anyway. I would say that they already know how to handle it.

Colour coding the ticket is not trivial - current monochrome printing is easy with thermals. Ever run a colour printer in an office? It's a nightmare to manage just in an of itself. Then there's a lot of investement in creating a system that works across all models of planes. It's doable, but it's not trivial. Then on top of that is the issue that despite all this, a lot of people ignore what's on the tickets anyway…

You don't have to print the colors, you can have pre-printed tickets in two colors and have two printers at the checkin counter (likely much cheaper in ink, too, and much better-looking).

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#78

Post by roel_v »

rquantz wrote: post #73
mwsherman wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t even need color coding, just call it “Group A” etc, as they do now.

Also, what percentage of the populations color blind? You'd have people boarding for red when green was called, etc. Letters give us 26 possible boarding stages. Even without keeping accessibility is mind, you'd only be able to reliably use, what, %w{red blue green yellow orange}? Purple is out -- too ambiguous. So yeah, no color codes. Have I beaten it to death enough?

But you only need two colors, and it's not impossible to select two colors that are recognizable by everybody including the color-blind.

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#79

Post by roel_v »

cliff wrote: post #2

I remember seeing this before. I think it's really cool, though in the article I read before one major block to implementing this is that you'd be splitting up group boarding (of even 2 people travelling together). I feel like that might be a tough message to try to explain to everyone at the airport, since in general people are worried about everyone in their party making it on the plane safely and with all their st…

But you don't have to implement to scheme perfectly to get major efficiency gains. Just give everybody in the same party the same color / let them board in the same group, and swallow the minor hit that it causes on boarding times.

OK it still wouldn't work for groups who don't check in at the same time, but those would likely have seats in other parts of the plane already anyway (unless they checked in online, in which case you could group them there...)

Re: Physicist cuts plane boarding time in half

#80

Post by hermannj314 »

______ wrote: post #17
kemayo wrote: post #3

Boarding by blocks starting at the front is ridiculous. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a worse way to board a plane. And yet somehow every time I fly that's how it happens. Maybe it's just that my company chooses horrible airlines. The article mentions that assorted methods of boarding were tried, though it only goes into detail about "the Steffen method". I wonder what the difference between blocks-from-th…

I think part of the reason that people could justify the expense of first class is exactly this -- the ability to sit there with a smug look while the rest of the plane exasperatedly waits to be seated.

Not to diverge too much from the topic. At JFK, the first class passengers have a priority queue through the security system as well. I flew through JFK once on a Holiday (4th of July) and TSA was so understaffed that they barely had enough staff to handle the 1st class passengers that were arriving.

So as if waiting in security lines were not enough, imagine waiting in a security line that was actually getting longer as you just sat there holding your bags watching first class after first class passenger go through and everyone else just standing there.

I just couldn't understand why the TSA would even care about the class status an airline gives to its passengers, I don't know any other airports that do this.

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