American Adds Alarms for Line-Cutting Flyers
Joe Cortez November 22, 2024
The airline announced a set of technology-based improvements deploying to over 100 airports ahead of the travel season starting Wednesday, November 20, 2024.
“Alarm of Shame” Part of Larger Software Upgrade Program
The customer boarding alarm is part of a larger update allowing gate agents to board flights more efficiently, helping aircraft get off the ground on time and passengers to their destinations faster. The new platform will allow ground crews to see how many flyers are in each group, along with anticipated arrival times for inbound connections to potentially anticipate misconnections. The entire view will be put together in one application, allowing agents to work more efficiently.
If a passenger tries to board ahead of their assigned group, the new software will reject the boarding pass with an “audible sound” alerting the gate agent and those around them of the error. The crews will then politely instruct the passenger to please board with their assigned group.
The good news is that more flyers will have the opportunity to advance their boarding status. The airline notes that boarding order is now based on several factors, including AAdvantage status, fare class, which AAdvantage credit card they have, and U.S. military service. At a base level, all AAdvantage members will board with Group 6 if their AAdvantage number is attached to their trip. AAdvantage flyers on a basic economy fare can board in their assigned group if they have elite status, have earned 15,000 loyalty points during the qualification year, or hold an eligible AAdvantage credit card.
While the technology will start rolling out at 100 select airports from Austin to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), American anticipates it will be rolled out at all other airports in the first months of 2025.
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So what. Such a standard at many airports already. You just get a signal "wrong group" "zone not open", etc.
Looking very much forward to putting on my Everard Proudfoot face at these cretins.
There have been many studies at optimizing boarding. After all, shaving even a few minutes from the boarding process translates into savings for the airlines. In general, airlines appear to be reluctant to use the data from these studies. I recall being on a regional flight that had 5 wheelchair passengers, military, families with small children, and a large number of people with top flyer status (like me). A small number of people left to board at the end; actually quite amusing.
AA is way behind in technology. I used to work for Delta in Atlanta and they've had this sort of technology for over a decade. As a gate agent , I could see exactly where all my inbound connecting passengers were coming from. It even graphically depicted if the plane was still in the air , on the ground, or blocked in at the gate and even color coded possible misconnecting customers.
So AA figured out how to download a new ringtone to its gate readers. Much ado about nothing. The gate agents should be checking boarding passes already.
What this does do is bring AA one step closer to completely automating the boarding process and cutting staff. It's not that far around the corner.
Great idea. Just pull all "line-cutters" (and laggards) to one side and board them as a single group AFTER all other boarding is completed.
And while we're busy paddling in the "new technology" pool, how about a alarm to stop passengers placing their carry-on bags in overhead lockers that AREN'T associated with their seat number ... eg, a cheap RFID "sticky" (or similar concept) on their carry on bag, that trips a warning if the passenger attempts to use someone else's allocated locker space ... using someone else's locker space is no different to sitting in someone else's seat.
Amen. I have had people put their carry on over a first class seat and saunter on back to economy. If that happens again I'm yanking it out and putting it in the aisle until it is gate checked.
What makes you think that the compartment above a seat is exclusively for the person sitting there? https://onemileatatime.com/insights/airplane-overhead-bins/
Would you say that about seats also? It's clear who should be using the bins and where.