With AA, there really aren't any queues. There's a sign with 1-4 on one side and 5-9 on the other. Even worse, in many cases you would logically think that the "priority" side should be where the 5-9 sign is. There is usually not much of a barrier between the sides. So people are just gathered around in a clump when they start calling the groups.

I'm either group 1, if upgraded, or group 4, if not. I fly AA enough to know that groups 2 and 3 are usually small. It's basically a few un-upgraded Plats. Group 4 is the Golds and I'm guessing some of the other people who have "priority" boarding for whatever reason. So it's a larger group. But Group 4 never forms an orderly queue: we're just a clump. So when the GA is calling 2 and 3 (usually quickly, as there are few people in those groups), I move into position, careful to not block the way for any lingering Group 1-2-3 people coming through. I'm then usually in the first couple of Group 4 people boarding.

If I saw someone else doing the same thing as a Group 4, I'd just let them go first. Getting an overhead bin as a 4 is never a problem. But...I don't linger in the back expecting a queue to form, because I know it won't...and I certainly don't want to be back there when they start boarding the rest of the groups.

Other airlines seem to do a better job of marking out more discrete single-file queueing areas. It's possible AA does for widebody departures out of some airports, although I don't recall it being much better at any gate at ORD.

Southwest has the *most* orderly boarding process of all - almost zero gate-licing, very rapid loading that I like much better whether I have elite status or not. Sort of ironic, considering that the first 30-ish years of their existence was some variant of the "cattle call".