Originally Posted by
screeton
I only remember the A-B-C variety, no numbers. It would be fun to have one or two to show how it used to be done, but I do not miss them at all. The gate lice aspect with that system was terrible, and trying to get seats together was even more of a challenge, or perhaps we were just less assertive when we were less experienced. Looking at those plastic BPs from today's perspective, what a great vector of bacteria/virus from one person to another. I feel sure that the boarding passes were never cleaned, just used until the lettering had worn or faded off, and then discarded. In this COVID era, not an optimum arrangement. Definitely museum pieces now, along with such things as the ticket dater stamp which the counter agent used to diligently stamp each paper ticket sold. The process has come a long way.
I have flown Southwest since the 80s... let me see if I remember how it worked with these plastic numbered boarding passes.
All passengers would have to check in for a flight at the departure gate where they would be given a numbered plastic boarding pass. There was no other place to obtain a plastic boarding pass - only at the departure gate.*
Check-In was only available one hour before departure and often times there would dozens and dozens of people waiting for the gate agent to show up and start passing them out.
The boarding passes were handed out in order starting with number 1. I believe the last number back then was 130-something.
If a passenger was connecting in another city, they would need to go to their connecting gate and obtain a second plastic boarding pass.
Following pre-boarding, the flight was boarded in four groups: 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91 and up.
There were no numbered posts or orderly lines... all that mattered was what GROUP you were in... not your specific number.
Passenger 30 could board ahead of number 1.... Passenger 60 ahead of 31.... The number only indicated which group you were in. They were by no means your "boarding position" like they are today.
Once you boarded, it was open seating just like today.
* (A quick bit of trivia on that - I DID learn one day back in the 90s when I was flying out of Houston Intercontinental that the plastic boarding passes were handed out at the ticket counter at IAH because they only had a handful of flights a day and they all went to the same destination - Love Field. The agent at IAH told me that they were the only Southwest city that handed out the boarding passes at the ticket counter.)