Originally Posted by
newyorkgeorge
Without a massive reconfiguration of gate areas that would effectively segregate paxs by boarding order gate lice are here to stay. What pisses me off more than gate lice are the F paxs that 20 minutes before F boarding are already in the boarding lane as though the a/c is going to leave without them. I've seen crew and wheelchair coordinators being blocked by some blockhead in the Priority Lane. Of course one or two F paxs leads to more F paxs lining up way early and unless you want your bags over row 6 while you are in row 3 you need to join the same fray. Moreover, IME this trends seems to be becoming much more prevalent.
I've also noticed recently that on the 737/32B/757 the F cabin is now being served by one F, which was the way LUS served the LUS 321/757 F cabin. Not a biggie on a longer flight. Most FAs keep Y paxs out of the F lav while they are trying to get the service completed and a little afterwards so that F paxs get a crack at the F lav first. Given the never ending rise in human crudeness I doubt that inflight will bet much better in as far as politeness and civility. Welcome to the world of 2016.
The best AA approach to the gate lice was an experience a few weeks ago at DFW. At T-35 or so and before any boarding announcements, The GA asked her F pax to line up inside the priority tensa-barrier (only about 10/16 did so), then she preboarded wheelchairs through the normal lane, then she closed that lane and boarded F already sorted in the priority lane. Then she made her first boarding announcement.
I don't mind lining up when requested, but I don't like the scrum when F boarding begins, with people (possibly intentionally) trying to block boarding out-of-sequence for called passengers. In an ideal world, F would board last with all of its bins empty and the jetway clear.