Starting boarding almost an hour before the flight is absurd; in a lot of cases, the plane isn't even there that far in advance. That the extra time allows GAs to "measure" bags and collect baggage fees is the only plausible reason for that change. It's almost like they heard the outrage from passengers about GAs unfairly targeting bags (even ones that clearly fit in the sizer) and, instead of doing something about it, decided to double down on the tactic.

Just opining a little bit... I've seen similarly seemingly bad-for-business decisions in various industries in the past, and almost always they were extraordinary measures designed to get short-term revenues up to make the company look like a profitable target for takeovers. I wonder if, post Sprit merger, F9 is looking to make themselves attractive to a buyer?