dliesse

I'd say the problem started with the introduction of overhead bins! Some of us remember the days when there were overhead racks which held only hats, coats, blankets, and pillows (remember those?). What you carried on had to fit under your own seat (no problems with bulkheads).

A couple other random comments on other comments:

AS can get away with their 20-minute guarantee because their bins are all non-containerized. Although there was no guarantee, another major airline once had a target of 20 minutes to deliver narrow-body bags and 30 minutes to deliver wide-body bags, solely because of the container issues. That also had an effect on minimum connection times (which are usually the minimum time to connect bags; people can generally move a lot faster, as long as they don't have to go outside security).

In the days before everyone had a "premium economy" cabin, there was at least one airline that did include the bulkhead row in the first boarding group, simply because of the overhead issue.

carlosdca

I partially agree with this.
Southwest boarding is very civilized compared to AA/DL/UA
Back when BA did not charge for checking bags on intra-Europe flights boarding was always so easy, plenty of overhead bin space.

But again, charging for bags should not be the problem.
The problem is that AA started charging for bags, but then 1) AA is not consistent about enforcing carry-on rules/boarding procedures 2) based on reports here, it seems AA is terrible at baggage handling.

aamilesslave

I disagree; it works quite well. And there's no reason to actually get into the line until right before you board even though others line up much earlier. I usually find my place in line right before or as they starting boarding my group.

rickg523

Further, ime, these WN boarding lines are self-regulating. A28 ain't cutting in between A16 and A17.
In reality, it isn't quite so rigid. Mostly people line up within the correct 5 numbers (as the indicators are based on fives) without to much regard for the individual numbers (so in a section people may line up A16,A19,A17,A20,A18).
But as can be seen by the reactions of flyers with other airlines, the whole Southwest ethos of little to no recognition of individual status is just hard for some to deal with. A-List is thin gruel if you're used to Platinum treatment on AA.

flys2much

One of the biggest problems I see that few ever bring up are the personal items. Very often that "personal item" is too big to fit under the seat and the gate agents let both bags come on instead of making the pax pick one to check. Additionally there are the inconsiderate fliers who put both bags in the overhead. I can't count the number of times I sit in the exit row and sure enough, the pax next to me pulls out 2 bags when we deplane.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Given the size of most gate areas AA would need to come down to 5 boarding groups because that's about all there would be room for. Would people actually get in the line that corresponds to the number on their BP? Not to mean but doubtful. It seems as the public know has difficulty with the most simplistic task either because they don't have the common sense to understand it or they think the rules just don't apply to them. Unfortunately the only thing that helps is the GAs to make an announcement beforehand, enforce boarding groups and limit the carry on of body bags,

Years ago when I was flying out of FLL and F was called for a 738 naturally (particularly given it was FLL) 50 people rushed forward. The GA stopped and said "Ladies and Gentlemen this is a Boeing 737 aircraft that has 16 First Class seats. There are far more than 16 of you in line. If you approach the card reader and are not seated in the First Class Cabin you will be turned away immediately." About 25+ people quickly exited the boarding lane.

AAir_head

I think the forum would sooner agree on ending world hunger by using the children of the poor as a food supply than on boarding procedure...

cheers!

LovePrunes

Did a bunch of SW flying last month after a hiatus on SW. Ugh what a Pain.

Despite checking in at 24 hours ON THE NOSE each time (starting refreshing the app at 5 mins before 24 hours even), i was worse than the 100th person to check in. B50, B40, B59 on my 3 most recent flights, thereby assuring myself of no good seats . So not only was it a nuisance and inconvenient to be sure I checked in RIGHT AT 24 hours, even when I did, I got crappy position in line and thus a crappy seat for hours of flying.

NO THANKS. I'm done with SW. I'll prefer a platinum pre-board in a reserved seat that I picked out in MCE when I booked the flight over the chaos of SW. I'll even pay a bit more for AA now that my memory of how SW works has been "refreshed." The lining up part is fine, it's the whole process of selecting a decent seat that sucks.

carlosdca

So your complaint is mostly about you not getting a good seat.

You seem to agree that there is nothing wrong with WN boarding process. I agree too. Actually , I like it and find it not stressful at all. And that's what is being discussed here, how to make the boarding process better.

Off topic. I would only take WN if it is a short non-stop, max 2.5 hours. With B group I usually don't find a problem grabbing the last aisle seat. WN is fine when it is convenient.

tomj888

Lots to unpack here, LOL. AA does make a boat load off of ancillary fees. Check
People in response to that, and I'm guessing its mostly leisure travelers overpack. Then they don't want to pay for those ancillary fees so they push the limits of what they can try and fit into the plane. Top it off, the spacers at the airport are mostly decorative as gate agents are beyond stressed and seldom check or enforce rules. Check
People mostly rush to the front of boarding lines because they want to secure a place for their luggage, especially any group after Group 3.
In some odd way, I can see that. There have been a few times when I've had to place my luggage behind me. Good luck once you land, trying to go behind you to get luggage. Enough people must have muscle memory to not ever want to do that again. Check.
Solutions are few and far between. AA will NEVER remove ancillary fees. Eliminating the number of groups from 9 to say 5 could work. Giving people color coded boarding passes would increase the shame factor of boarding outside of your color and be more visible. Right now, most people can't see if I have a group 1 or 7 boarding pass. Interesting thought, I'm going to patent color boarding passes, so please don't try to steal my idea, as this is a time date and stamped post. LOL.
Wonder if we ever just tried being civil and understanding to each other? Hell we are going to be stuck in the same tube with each other for hours so why not try to be nice pre-boarding????

rickg523

Of course, airlines with assigned seating and serious status distinctions could easily implement the WN boarding system and assign every BP a boarding number. These numbers can be prioritized any way the carrier likes. It would avoid the whole gate lice syndrome since the same line is used by successive groups.
WN boarding is orderly and sensible, and could be adapted to any airline's boarding process.

sunnn

Interesting conclusion considering DL has has the same promise and the a320 family has containerized bags so I think it's really an ops advantage not a plane advantage.

carlosdca

I have thought about this before but I don't think it would work.
WNs boarding number is fixed once you check in. WN has a single cabin, no seat assignments.

AA shifts pax around, upgrades pax, accommodates last minute seat change requests (families, couples wanting to seat together for example), etc. Boarding priority keeps getting re shuffled till last minute. No way to have a fixed boarding number.

rickg523

Well, the two issues about boarding priority are status and bin space. Accommodations at the gate are for seating. What would make a boarding number system cumbersome in an assigned seat environment is if the airline tried to accomplish a specific loading pattern (in other words, all windows first in back to front order and so on). But even then, if the great majority of boarding positions are so organized, it wouldn't really be any different than later arrivals boarding now. The object her is to make the boarding of most passengers more sensible, less chaotic.
Last minute seating changes don't need to affect boarding position, the new BP simply carried the originally number. Gate-assignedf families seated together may not board together, but is that a big deal? And for super duper elites, the GA could, if the airlines wished, issue a "cut-the-line " pass, so the VIP wouldn't suffer the indignity of up to 14 other FC passengers boarding before him.
Remember boarding group order would still be organized by status, so a late cxn would just get the last boarding number, pretty much the way things work now, except it eliminates that guy dykwia-ing his way forward in the line. Because the answer is always "Yes, you're Number 19 in the line."

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

There are 2 problems with boarding. Number one is at the gate as people in latter groups crowd the boarding lane and some rushing the boarding lane well before their group is called. Number two is the cluster .... that occurs once paxs step onto the a/c. Number one might be eased if AA cut down the number of Boarding Groups and used a lane for each group (assuming sufficient space to do so). And of course enforce boarding groups.

Number 2 is caused by the sheer number of bags and people's inability/unwillingness to quickly stow their bags and sit down. Airlines are never going back to free bags and the legacies don't seem inclined to want to charge for carry ons (evidenced how quickly AA backed off from Group 9 being charged for bringing onboard a larger bag). And people in today's modern society aren't going to get any smarter.

Most airports were built pre 9/11 and even a large number of those pre 1990s and as such the gate seating was never designed for near 100% full flights. (One primary reason I buy an AC membership).