Originally Posted by
amolkold
Recently flew LAX-CLT on an A321. I showed up to the gate at the boarding time listed on my BP. They were already on Zone 4 and gate-checking bags. I walked over to the agent, showed my BP, and was let through. (There's no priority line here, why not?)
Got on board and all the F bins were closed. I was sitting in row 3 and began opening bins to see if any space was open. None. Keep in mind I'm now in the midst of zone 4 boarding despite only being 5 minutes after boarding should have started. I ask the FA for help but the only option is to gate check. I explain to him I'm a First Class passenger and that there's no reason for bins to be full this quickly into boarding. He shrugs. I gate check
Worst part -- upon getting down in CLT, I notice two pax in row 2 take 4 bags out the bins ABOVE ROW 3. On AA/DL, I've always had FAs help me find space for my bag, especially when seated in F.
You should have been offered a blue valet check tag which would have your bag delivered planeside at your destination. This almost certainly would have worked out in your favor vs having to wade through a crowd back to wherever in Y they might have found space had they offered to try and track space down for you.
The bins in F are almost always entirely full on 321 flights in my experience. Most F travelers come on board with two bags since they don't want to check (despite it being free), the 4 pax in row 1 need to stow all their stuff overhead and the bin over 1A/B is taken up with emergency equipment. Often a couple F bags end up over row 5, which causes its own problem for the 6 bulkead passengers in Y who need to stow all their stuff overhead. There's not enough overhead space in general for the quantity of bags people are trying to carry on.
I have found boarding for 321s to often start 5 or sometimes even 10 minutes in advance of the posted time in order to make sure they are boarded in time for an on-time departure. On the other side of the coin, boarding for Dash 8 flights starts 10 minutes after the posted time since those planes can board in about 10 minutes most of the time. Unfortunately in both of these cases the BP still reads T-30 boarding time.