Originally Posted by
vanillabean
People do what you do, not what you say. When pre-boarding is announced for people requiring special assistance, others will pick up quickly if a gate agent lets someone through that doesn’t fit the group. And for any group. If the gate agent lets that person through, it doesn’t matter what the gate agent says later. It”s a whole lot easier to take care of the situation before it snowballs, or preferably before it even starts. I find that Alaska gate agents often aren’t adequately upfront. They let it slide in the name of being nice and have a mess on their hands at a time when it takes a lot more effort to clean it up.
And this has been the AS boarding culture (generally) for ages. For everything that's wrong with the airline, AM has a stanchion for each zone. Want to be near the front of your group? Get in that line earlier.
I've only been a FFer for thirty-something years. Boarding in the USA has always been an issue, and airlines have been trying to "fix" it the entire time. (And yes, that includes when everyone could check a couple of bags for free.)