RangerNS

Imagine being in that planning meeting.

Requirements:

• Realtime notifications of boarding
• doesn't have to work all the time
• Can use scheduled boarding times

ChrisA330

It certainly does meet the M of MVP.

capedreamer

Lol. Having experienced the dysfunction first hand on Saturday courtesy of AC856, these two comments really made me actually laugh out loud.

Adam Smith

Seemed like a few people mentioned not getting it on Jazz flights, so I wondered whether they just didn't work for Jazz, but I just got the text and e-mail for a Jazz flight.

yyznomad

This has been working like a charm for me so far.... no false BS notices yet.

canadiancow

Even when your flight is delayed?

yyznomad

up to this point, all experienced delays have occurred well after boarding has been completed.

Jebby_ca

Text message came right as they announced Zone 1 boarding for my flight this morning.

canadiancow

Hmm. I'm more interested in knowing how it works in "unusual" cases, like when the boarding hasn't started at T-15 but no delay has been posted yet.

Jebby_ca

Delay posted on my afternoon flight, received the text and email right when Zone 1 was called.

CanadaDH

Got a text message while I was standing by the gate this morning on AC132 (YYC-YYZ), 5 minutes before scheduled boarding time, saying boarding had begun. The call for Zone 1 actually started at the scheduled time, 5 minutes after the text (and e-mail) both arrived.

D582

I'm now curious what the trigger is. On UA, these messages are triggered once they scan the first boarding pass.

FlY2XS

It would be so much more useful if it said boarding starts in 5 mins. I have batted 50% on messages over my last few trips. I checked my text archive to be sure. To me, this feature isn't of much value unless I can trust it, and sit on my cushy chair in the MLL until it's time to walk to the gate even if the flight is delayed. If I have to keep checking other sources to make sure I don't miss my flight, I don't see its value.

canadiancow

How would that work?

I'd want it to either be triggered by the gate agent pushing the button for "we are now ready to board zone 1", or when the first boarding pass is scanned (like UA).

Anything that "guesses" that it will start in 5 minutes is going to be way too error-prone.

These days, I either stay in the lounge until people start dropping off the upgrade/standby list (meaning they're boarding), or if it's a MLL, I'll ask them how far along boarding is.

FlY2XS

Hard to do I am sure, I am just saying what I would like to see. Maybe even a notification at the time of the Pre Boarding announcement.
Now if I am boarding a jet with separate lanes then life is easy. BUT at least 50% of flights are short haul regional for me with a single boarding lane and I can't avoid it. I want to get on with priority so I can actually stow my carry on. If I show up even 5 mins after boarding starts, that is messed up by the single boarding lane and having to negotiate a throng of folks who aren't invited to board yet, which I can do, but prefer to avoid the stress. Even then I have had plenty of experiences of folks in Zone 3 or 4 telling me they are in line to board when it turns out the zone hasn't been called. My expectation would be that the purpose of the text is to make life less stressful. Maybe it's actual purpose is to say, "Get out of that Starbucks line, we are boarding. Don't delay the flight."