Originally Posted by
tornado163
Personally I think it makes more sense to board back-front than window-aisle (which also separates families and other companions sitting with each other), but I also quite like Southwest's approach of having each person get a specific number and just line up totally based on number, though I don't like Southwest's complete lack of seat assignments. Maybe United could combine back-front and window-aisle and do it that way. If you miss your number, you have to wait until the very end to board.
WILMA has been shown to be faster than pure back-to-front in studies, though, and IIRC, PMUA used a modified WILMA which is a bit faster (not quite the inverted pyramid which beats pure WILMA, but similar).
PMUA also didn't separate companions or family members in groups; though they may have had different #s on their BPs--and I'm not sure they did if they were on the same PNR--PMUA nonetheless invited pax traveling together to board with the lowest # (e.g. a group with a pax in a window and in the middle would board with the window pax).