Originally Posted by
WiscAZ
I've seen both sides of FAs helping or not helping. Sometimes they will save space for an empty F seat assuming they will have a bag. Sometimes they will police Y passengers using F space. Sometimes they don't pay attention and it is a free for all. As a poster above said, the bulkheads create a bit of a logjam both in F and Y. You also have all the elites up front who for the most part carry on versus checking. I always get to the gate about 15 minutes before boarding (T-45) to ensure I get a decent bin spot for an eventual quick exit.
My observations and my habits, too, although I'm more in the T-40 to T-35 range.
We've had discussions here about when people like to board F. Although in theory one should be able to linger at the Club and then stroll onto the plane at leisure, and although many times this does work, there's enough variety in enforcement of overhead space (and help with same), as described above, to make it a strategy that will result in frustration a non-trivial amount of the time. No surprise that on US flights, F fills pretty quickly at start of boarding. Once burned ....