canadiancow

I hadn't seen this compiled anywhere, so I thought I'd take a stab at it.

I have no idea where rouge falls into this, but I'm pretty sure I have the numbers right.

Feel free to correct anything.

eigenvector

Wow, didn't realize they padded the times at DEL. Good on AC. More airlines should do that, DEL is probably the slowest major airport on earth to board an aircraft at.

Sean Peever

OMG you have NO IDEA. But yes, I fully support starting boarding at T-60 because even then you'll be lucky to leave on time.

SKYEG

Awesome! Thanks

jaysona

I have almost never boarded any earlier than 10 minutes before departure. I hate sitting in the plane longer than I have to. I love being the last to board and hearing the door close while I'm still getting into my seat. ^

Adam Smith

Moo cow, this is presumably AC's SOP for when to actually board a flight as opposed to what's printed on a BP?

Lucky you. I was once denied boarding on a flight where they closed the door right before I got there at 21 minutes before scheduled departure and left me stranded overnight in IAH.

canadiancow

I thought this was what got printed on the BP

jc94

They should implement zonal boarding first. Zone 1 boarding doesn't mean a thing when they are 200 people crammed like sardines before you. And thats after they kick everyone out of the lounge at T-60.

I've waited intentionally a few times. But only when I have a tiny carry on, which is rare. Otherwise I want to be sure it's going on. I also have no problem sitting in a J seat for longer, it beats the waiting area; though I'm not a fan of the ones where the entire plane walks through J to get to Y.
I've also made tight connections, nothing quite beats walking past the Zone/Group 3-5 boarding line, does that make be a bad person?

Did you know UA claims they close all their doors at t-10?

I once got a flight at t-20 having been eating breakfast (the airport decided that all food places should be closed before 5am) and the waiting area was completely empty. Turned out we were the last two people and they were waiting for us. No status, in Y. Curiously this wasn't AC, and there was no announcement.

IluvSQ

And I thought that AC's standard operating procedure was NEVER to start boarding
until at least 15 minutes after the boarding time printed on the boarding pass...

YHZ_Flyer

At Christmas time was flying YHZ-YYZ-NAS, and the YHZ-YYZ flight was delayed quite a bit due to a broken baggage loader in YYZ. Had to sprint the mile from Domestic to INTL at YYZ. Made it to the gate at T-10, and they didn't even give my gate cleared Eup away. Boarded the plane and immediately after heard "boarding complete." They were a little behind sched but no delay posted. I could see they were still catering the plane when we were landing on the previous flight. Might explain why the door was still open.

CZAMFlyer

This sounds about right. Boarding, in my experience, never begins at the published time, but generally is completed on schedule (India notwithstanding).

They knew you were coming, and your ETA from the first leg.

gcashin

Except that it being AC, it can be wildly inconsistent.

I showed up at the gate at T-40 mins in LAS for a AC rouge flight only to find they had started the boarding around T-60 on a 319 and were pretty much fully boarded at T-40.

There was no overhead bin space left for Zone 1's boarding at T-40 mins, so we had to gate check our carry-ons, and then sat on the aircraft for 40 mins while they waited for a pax who eventually no-showed and had to offload their bag.

Adam Smith

Presumably this is based on your huge collection of paper BPs?

I thought destination had something to do with it though.

I'm pretty sure that on YYC<>IAH the BP shows more than 25 minutes.

But I definitely don't have a big stack of BPs to go back to

Jasper2009

Random observation: Boarding seems to start at ~T-60min for any YVR-YYZ flight operated by the 77P/777HD (although my sample size is <10)

Jasper2009

Interesting and potentially useful thread!^

My general rule of thumb is:

- regional jet with sky-check service: board at T-20min
- narrowbody aircrafts without skycheck service: follow boarding time shown on BP and deduct 5min
- wide-body in Y/PY: follow boarding time shown on BP and deduct 5min
- wide-body in J: T-30min