I do 3). I'd be too embarrassed to push past other people, and besides, even if I didn't feel embarrassed, I wouldn't do it.
However, if I feel that the flight will be full-ish and I have the risk of not having the space to put my wheelie bag, with ET pax often dumping their bags in CE without directed by cabin crew to do so, then I (pathetically, I know) hang around the gate early to make sure that I can join the boarding queue early so that I can definitely put my wheelie in the overhead bin.
BA, please note! Even some LCCs are doing a better job of priority boarding. They have a separate queue for those who paid for priority boarding. I know paid priority boarding is a revenue stream for LCCs and so they need to enforce it to keep that stream going, whereas BA doesn't, but it shows that it can be done pretty easily.
Last edited by LTN Phobia; Feb 28, 2010 at 5:42 pm