Originally Posted by bdschobel
As a GM assigned seat 23D on a 737-800, my boarding pass said "Zone 3." I didn't think that was possible and tried to board with Zone 2 (the group immediately following first class). Really, I thought that my zone assignment was an error. Well, it was not! And the gate agent made it quite clear to me that Zone 3 was ZONE 3, not Zone 2. I had to wait a couple of minutes. I never did figure out who the Zone 2 people were, but they seemed to be in front of me on the plane. Isn't that the opposite of most airlines' boarding procedure? Shouldn't people in the rear board earlier? Can anybody explain?
Bruce
The reason you boarded later is because you had an aisle seat.
I'm not sure EXACTLY how zone boarding works, but it's similar to the 'board from the rear of the aircraft forward', but with a few twists. First, people in the bulkhead are allowed to board earlier since they have no under the seat storage space.
The way I understand it is it's not just rear going forward, but also outside going in. In other words, window seats board before aisles.
Delta tried this with Delta Express years ago and discovered they could load the plane MUCH faster. With Zone boarding, you minimize people having to get up to let the people in the window and middle seats get to their seats, which delays boarding.
So as was said - Zone 3 may still be an 'elite zone', but you go later because you are on the aisle so that those sitting in the middle and window seats can be seated first.
Or something like that.