canadiancow

I can't recall the other airline, but either AC was able to print a zone number on their BP stock for another airline, or vice versa. But I've only seen this once.

I've definitely heard announcements (though maybe not from AC) along the lines of "If your boarding pass was not printed by [airline], please come up to the desk to see an agent."

Your second point is not strictly correct. Back to front boarding is not efficient. Or in other words, AC's implementation is not efficient. Zone numbers allow them to do organized random boarding. They just choose not to.

jc94

My LH (Y) boarding pass had a Z2 on it - printed by AC, but LH ignored it and told me to wait with general boarding. They don't seem to board by zone though.

What would be efficient is to let everyone who knows what they are doing board first and get out of the way. Of course that doesn't help if everyone who boards first sits in xxC and then has to get up to let xxA in.

AC's system isn't ideal but it beats the likes of those low cost carriers who don't even assign seats. Not to say it couldn't be drastically improved; but I think the main area for improvement would be if AC staff actually followed the correct process.

Time for another I work at the airport quote

24left

I was referencing something someone else posted.

I have no theories of my own related to using zone theory to board aircraft.
I only watch the process in the gate areas. Fascinating social experiment.

eigenvector

All things being equal, random boarding is more efficient than back-to-front. But, there's many other variables that can be improved to make back-to-front faster if airlines don't want to take the leap to random boarding. They could begin by asking why ANA - which has a very similar boarding priority to AC - needs 20 minutes to board a 777 while AC needs 40 (and United 50).

yyznomad

Why do I feel this thread should be renamed: "Air Canada introduces zoned hording"?

24left

Further to cow's post about the new "enhanced" 9 boardings zones at AA, I wonder if this now makes AC Zone Boarding look like fun

I thought this quote summed it up nicely, and part of what he says also applies to AC pax.


"Conclusion

This won’t go down easy. Passengers (especially leisure travelers) aren’t used to such complicated processes and making people feel they’re being pushed further and further down the line as it inevitably happen with such a long boarding process will lead to frustration and tension. Especially if you pair it with flight delays and other customer service issues that are common occurrence when flying.


No doubt this was cooked up by some smart focus group and product managers who try to invent the wheel new every now and then but all it will accomplish is the intensify work for the gate agents and annoy customers. Of course part and cause of this ‘solution’ is that American starts to sell boarding privileges as a separate products and also assign them to credit card holders. Of course once you have to accommodate all of these different groups you end up with a mess like this."


http://loyaltylobby.com/2017/02/23/b...complete-mess/


Somewhere in the 9th circle of hell, someone will come up with a NO-ZONE boarding concept and all the airlines will jump on it thinking it's the best thing since sliced cheese.

eigenvector

pls delete posted in wrong thread

24left

I think you posted in the wrong thread.

They are discussing contact dermatitis here and other fun stuff

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...s-cabin-2.html

eigenvector

Too many FT tabs open at once.

canadiancow

This is actually an interesting point.

Let's say AC added a zone 0.5, just for me. SE in J boards first. Well, this would actually mean you now have:
1. SE in J
2. SE or J
3. "Priority"
4-6. "Non-priority"

There are still the exact same number of people boarding before the fly-once-a-year-to-see-grandma bunch, but their zone number has been incremented.

Likewise, if you put knock down credit cards to 4, then regular becomes 5-7.

It wasn't that long ago UA had 7, and they reduced it to 5.

I actually wonder if "perfect" enforcement would fix most of our issues. But to see issues, I only have to think as far as Thursday night's AC 754 where you have 28 J, and probably an equivalent number of SEs in Y, plus all the E75Ks who feel they deserve to board in the first 40 people.

Actually, I know the solution. Separate 1 and 2 lines. Done. My biggest issues come from 2s crowding up the 1/2 line, and me having no idea whom I should cut in front of.

YEG_SE4Life

Just get a tee shirt that says you're a widget salesman and then you can cut in front of everyone

songsc

I suggest making a 450 zone boarding for 773s. Based on the status, fare paid, check-in time, physical appearance, DYKWIAness, etc, everyone boards in a different zone. GA will call out each special snowflake's name to let them board. I am sure everyone will be pleased and find it easy to follow.

24left

Ok, LOL.

But you gave me an idea...head over to the dollar store and pick up some of those gold star stickers and hand them out at the gate. I could have so much fun with this and I'll report back if AC Zone Boarding had improved.

macleod199

Air New Zealand printed the correct AC zone on their stock for our connecting flights when I flew with them in late 2015. Of course, the AC GA tried to tell us it wasn't the right zone and wasn't valid (possibly because we were a little rough looking from the 14 hour flight from Auckland to YVR). I also had checked in with the AC app and got the same zone number, so they were just being difficult.

ANZ also seemed to get our flights credited to Aeroplan faster than AC, which I found amusing. They're on their IT game.

yyznomad

This goes for most other *A carriers when crediting toward AC/AP.