Originally Posted by
Gig103
Re: ineffective preboarding, on a DTW-CDG Air France flight, the GA called preboarding and then immediately Prem/Sky (I can't remember if AF has only the latter). We all shuffled in and found a logjam on the jetway, because the FA was smart enough to block until the wheelchair assistance had been completed (including getting the wheelchairs off the plane). It would have been better to call preboarding, and then wait until it was done. Also, on topic of gate lice, there were all these people standing around the Sky area and were just blocking the way. One passenger was standing right at the entrance to Sky and was checking everyone's boarding pass presumably so he could jump in as soon as they deemed fit.
I observed a similar situation boarding a DL flight in PDX a few weeks back. Preboards were announced, and about 30 seconds later it was Prem/Sky. The problem was there were several families with kids and car seats who were with their families in the seating area. And frankly 30 seconds was not enough time for them to gather the car seat, stroller, kids, etc. (Note there was no preboarding will start in x minutes announcement, the first announcement was the preboarding is commencing announcement).
And as soon as the preboarding was announced the families started gathering their belongings and kids, so it wasn’t as if they weren’t trying. Just traveling
families need a bit more time to even get from the seats to the gate. So if the GA had waitied til the wheelchairs got off, there would have been no issue. But that didn’t happen.
Instead the onslaught of premiums resulted in families trapped behind us in the premium group, and of course that slowed the process of car seat assembly once on the plane.
Another long anecdote, but I concur. Get the wheelchairs off before boarding premiums, and things run better for everyone.