Originally Posted by
RatherBeInYOW
Boarded an A321 yesterday at an outstation with the dreaded Z1 / Z2 combo line. When I walked up to the gate a minute or two before boarding there had to be at least 60 people in the line by my count, the dreaded elk migration....So how about you take a seat and line up when Z2 is called instead of elk-ing up the entire ....ing boarding area and making the boarding process even more miserable than it is already.
The annoying thing here is that each of them is being individually rational. E.g. the first zone 2 who wanders up thinks 'wow, I can be first among the zone 2, that's nearly as good as being in zone 1. In fact, since zone 1 folks are mostly competing for J bin space, being first in zone 2 is actually better than being even second or third in zone 1, let alone middle of the pack or near the back of zone 1, since I have virtually all of Y bin space to choose from with no competitors'. Similar reasoning applies to the next few who show up. But then a line has formed and it becomes reasonable to think 'oh heck, I would rather we all just sit and wait but clearly a line is forming and if I don't join, it's inevitable I will be the very end of zone 2 and so basically zone 3'. The irrationality attaches to the herd but not to any particular elk.
Which is why AC shouldn't have these dumb combo lines.