Originally Posted by jjj
The real issue with boarding is luggage. People with oversized bags, 3 bags, placing smaller bags overhead with coats. A person standing up is second. A person searching for a spot can take minutes and then he fights the stream coming in to get back to his seat.
Start enforcing 2 bags the luggage size and boarding will be half the time. Even if you start with the front boarding before the back, the isle before the window.
This comment would be supported by the report of the survey in the WSJ (note NW comments):
AIRLINE* BOARDING PROCESS BEST FEATURE MOST TRYING MOMENT BOTTOM LINE
American Airlines By groups, starting from the back of the cabin forward, about one-fifth of the rows at a time. Elite passengers got a lot of time to board. All the people pushing toward the gate -- many of whom were trying to board out of turn. We wish American kept the boarding area clear of people who weren't supposed to be boarding yet.
Continental Airlines Starts from the back and boards a quarter of the plane or so at a time. Separate line for elite fliers. Thanks to early boarding, a latecomer with a large guitar didn't cause delays because passengers were already seated. The possibility of early boarding means your group could board before you get there, which happened to us.. The old-fashioned board-by-row system worked smoothly on a completely full flight.
Northwest Airlines Starting from the back, three to five rows at a time When several people brought on too many bags, attendants were quick to rearrange them. Watching dozens of platinum and first-class travelers board before us. We wish they'd enforced the two-bag carry-on limit on our oversold flight.
Southwest Airlines No assigned seats; planes board in groups of 45. A-group boarding passes available online 24 hours before flight. We paid BoardFirst.com $5 to secure us an A pass, though we got one by ourselves on the way back. The cattle-car environment at the gate, as everyone lines up to be at the front of their boarding group. Southwest seems unlikely to ever assign seats ahead of time. Given that, the system works decently.
United Airlines WilMA: Window seats first, followed by middles, then aisles. We flew two crowded flights that boarded smoothly and left on time. We flew an overbooked holiday weekend flight that boarded chaotically. Jury's still out. The system was introduced last month and could still have some kinks.
* All airlines except for Southwest allow first- and business-class passengers and certain frequent fliers to board first.