You can say that again!

A while back I flew FRA-ARN (yes, on LH, but the story nicely illustrates your point). Fortuitously, the gate was just around the corner from the lounge, so I ambled over when I expected boarding to start. I was not at all surprised to see that two lines had already formed, one for each BC scanner. The pax were even maintaining the prescribed "social" distance of 1½ meters. All available seats at the gate were also taken by waiting pax. Assuming that boarding would start any minute, and not seeing any vacant seat, I figured I might as well join one of the queues. At that very moment an announcement was made that boarding would be delayed by 10 minutes due to late arrival of the crew. Oh well, I decided I might as well stay put.

As we waited, two further announcements were made, loud and clear and in both German and English. The zone boarding system was carefully explained, and all pax were asked to check their boarding cards to ascertain which zone they were to board in. Any pax without a zone number on their BC were asked to come to the podium to inquire about their zone number. As far as I could tell, nobody did.

First in line were two girls of about 20, apparently so eager to board first that they had placed themselves at the head of one queue each. God knows how long they had been standing there, but it must have been for ages. The second they heard the word "boarding" in the next announcement they rushed forward. Needless to say, both scanners flashed red and the agent supervising them sent the girls off to the side. The look of dismay and bewilderment on their faces was a sight to behold!

In the meantime the seated crowd has started a stampede. Some tried to insert themselves in the "social" distancing gaps in the lines, others just rushed directly for the boarding cards scanners. Of course these mostly flashed red, so a logjam ensued. Directly in front of me was an elderly lady. When her turn came, the scanner flashed red. This she took as a signal to try again, with the same result. That upset her mightily, so she literally pushed herself in front of the pax at the other scanner, but didn't get a green light there either. Surprise, surprise! The supervising agent was about to ask for her BC and was then no doubt going to tell her to wait for her zone to board, but he didn't get a chance. Waving her BC in the air, she started to loudly berate the unfortunate agent. By that time I was already through, and did not stay to see what happened next. I was sorely tempted, though.

Bottom line, no matter how many clear and unambiguous announcements are made, no matter how plentiful, big, clear and unambiguous the signs are, you will always get people that just don't get it, or who willfully don't want to get it.

Johan