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Old May 7, 2010, 1:38 pm
  #30  
mike_plat
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: SFO
Programs: DL DM/MM; UA Premier 1K; AA EXP; ICH Plat Ambassador
Posts: 1,565
Originally Posted by CJKatl
Yesterday, while trying to SB for DTW-ATL, I observed Flight 2210 with 78 of 128 Coach Passengers on the UG list. Was fascinated at the swarm of people when Zones 1 and 2 were each called. Was more fascinated by the mid-fifties woman who insisted on standing at the end of the boarding rope letting each person get in front of her while she waited for Zone 4 to board.

Other observations from watching four flights board while I tried to do SB:

The GA did make an announcement that people's bags would have to fit in the Size-Wise, but they didn't make anyone actually do this until Zone 3 started boarding.

The flights actually boarded very quickly. Hats of to the DFW gate crew, who handled this crush perfectly, never let anything get out of control or any customer get upset. MSP and DTW crews should be sent down to DFW to observe how the boarding process should happen. Expecially noteworthy is how good the DFW team is at keeping everyone in the gate area aware of what's going on in terms of when UGs and SBs would clear, getting people to volunteer to gate-check bags and making sure that everyone was ready to board when they got in line to board.
I would imagine SkyPriority is part of the problem on the DTW-ATL flight. How do you maintain order when there are at least 78 people in Zones 1 and 2, not to mention the speed bump/gate louse you mentioned?
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