I've been flying Alaska quite a bit and have started getting upgraded. I've found the AS boarding process not exactly ideal at many airports and I flew out of SMF on Friday. The boarding was a complete mess.

Alaska seems to have the highest preponderance of gate lice of any airline I've seen. Everyone for the flight seems to crowd the immediate boarding area for 10 minutes before the flight. The gate staff don't seem to ever do anything to discourage this.

For my particular boarding experience, I was sitting up front and in the gate area I had a seat near the door and was ready to board. They called the pre-boarding and they helped some elderly folks along. Then the guy at the gate called for "MVP Gold and First Class". By the time the First Class came out of his mouth, the MPG's moved towards the front of the lice pool. I started making my way through the crowd as quickly as I could. I got maybe a third of the way there and then he called MVP's. This was quickly followed by 13-20. All of these people moved in from the sides of lineup.

There was no MVPG line. It was just a mass of people crowding the main boarding area. By the time I got near the front he called everyone else.

I had a first class ticket, was ready to board and by the time I got on board, the plane was 2/3 full. My bag went way in the back. This meant that not only was I, with my first class ticket, one of the latter people to board, I was also one of the latter to exit.

I know the plane was painted like a salmon. Are AS trying to make me act like one swimming upstream when I my boarding and exit experience should be easy given the class of ticket I had?

Several people, who weren't MVPG in the main lineup at the gate noted that this is what makes lowly Southwest's boarding plan seem organized.

Is this common for Alaska? Do they do anything about it? It seems to me like it's a self-perpetuating situation. Given that nobody even tried to keep the gate area clear, even the MVPG's line up. They along with everyone else just crowd the gate area. This leads to people who wouldn't normally do this, to actually line up in advance.

It's the least organized boarding process that I've seen and ease or boarding/deplaning is supposed to be one of the features of first class is it not?