Originally Posted by Often1

When everyone is "elite" nobody is "elite".

It really is that simple. If there are X pax to board an aircraft, the sole question is how and whether to group them.

You can debate from now until the end of time which pax go first, but you can't do what DL did and tell everybody that they're special, when they're not.

Bear in mind that DL's problem isn't its boarding order, it's the failure to enforce carry-on policy. That is where DOT (FAA) becomes invovled and should. If DL enforced its own policy, there would be only a very few carry-on issues and the herd mentality to stampede the aircraft would largely go away.