:D

Give it a rest, will ya!
 

This thread makes me want to puke. Can we stop it?

Come on guys! A group of allegedly educated adults behaving like high school kids in a social clique. It’s amazing what a stupid Medallion status can do to otherwise normal people.

Do you realize how shallow this makes the FT community look? Wouldn’t it be great if USA Today would get a hold of this thread and expose the arrogance that Frequent Flyers and FT’r have? Good thing most of you hide behind the anonymity of a handle to post your vile.

Great job moderators.

could someone please summarize this thread? I've no idea what people seem to be rambling about and I don't have time (or patience) to wade through 8 pages of innuendo. As near as I can tell, Mr. Blurrycam (dude, at least get a decent camera) took a picture of a gate area and everyone is terribly amused. I had no idea that blurry pictures of gate areas could provoke so much interest.

There is a reason my camera phone picture was blurry. Read the OP, it was clearly spelled out.

20 minutes before boarding dude was camped out on the breezeway line.

Y'all need to lighten up

Blurriness was done to protect the innocent.

Note the knucklehead standing in the carpet...

The main point is that educated adults (as Pepeborja put it) are standing on the "carpet" a full 1/2 hour or more before boarding. These people will stand on the carpet and otherwise hover by the boarding door for, in some cases, an hour or more. I (as reported by others here) have seen people standing on the carpet before the INBOUND PLANE HAS arrived! This is usually done by supposed frequent flyers and they are commonly referred to as "Gate lice".

They call FC first. There is no need to stand on the carpet...the carpet in not there for that. The blue carpet is there for you to use AFTER boarding starts and you want to board before the rest of the folks in the regular line.

I saw a GA get a round of applause (from non-elites I think) one time when she made the FC cabin board through the regular line because so many people were in the "carpet" line that she KNEW it could not be all first class.
of course I was out in front (about where the picture taker is) and walked right up and boarded ahead of all the folks queued up on the carpet and they were NOT happy. Funny part is maybe only 1/3 of them were actually in FC so they had to wait anyway.

Gate lice make the boarding area a mess.

LOL! I think you are the one that need to lighten up. THIS IS A FREE INTERNET DISCUSSION board LOL! What exactly would be acceptable to YOU?

USA TODAY! LOLOLOL! The have and do use FT all the time for research. What, exactly, would they think was wrong with this thread?

Some of you people take yourselves way to seriously. The only ARROGENCE I see is your passing of judgement on what should be posted here. Sorry, if you want to discuss Skymiles in a dry and business like manner you found the wrong site.

BTW, No anonymity here. You can find who I am easy enough and if you PM me I am happy to tell you who I am, what I do, where I live, whatever.

This is a social networking discussion board not the Harvard Business review (I do get the HBR though ;))

Isn't this the last scene from The Blair Witch Project? :D

Nice! :D

+1000..... Like my signature says.. :)

Simple suggestion - don't like it, don't read it.

Don't sit in coach that often, but I have been on a few flights (especially 767 with their small bins) where they had to gate-check some bags. I would definitely not want to be the last one aboard with a carry-on. On the other hand, most of us should be in zone 2 anyway, which i've never seen as a problem, as long as you can find your way through the herd that gathers when they start boarding the flight.

I do try to get in early in my zone because i always have a window and it makes boarding overall go faster. It's irritating getting on board and seeing all the aisle seats full and no windows yet (I have actually seen this). The resulting game of musical chairs is nothing less than frustrating.

SR

On the other hand, many times there aren't many convenient seats, and if you're going to stand, why not stand near where you're going to board?

I stand a lot, because I prefer to most of the time, and since I'm going to board with the first group anyway, I stand near the gate. I do leave room for wheelchairs and cabin crew to pass.

EXACTLY!

That is the issue. Gate lice actually cause the issue. I have never had a problem in zone 1 or 2 with carry-on's. The issue is that the swarm in front of the gate make it very difficult to fight your way to the boarding door. If people actually waited until they were called it would not be an issue. There are many airports where this does not happen and I find many of them to be non-elite heavy stations. I think the problem IS with elites who feel they absolutely have to be the first on the plane. They stall boarding after FC so FC has time to stow carry-ons, get a drink order in, etc. They call zones for a reason and the Louse-if-ication of certain airports is making it completely ineffective.

Edit to add: LAX on the Narita departure is possibly the worst I have ever seen. There is an Airtran (I think) gate right next to it and the overflow and cross-lice swarming cause an unbelievable mess. The GA NEVER do anything about it either.

I don't think anyone has a problem with "staging" near the area (I do it) it is the actual camping out that occurs right in front of the door. That is what makes it impossible to get to the door when zone 1/2 are called. I thing GA's could fix this by announcing several times to not line up until your zone is called...and yes, that means elites too.

That's the way that most conscientious adults act, unlike the bozos in the photo.

BOTH SIDES OF THE BREEZEWAY have people standing there, camped out, ~ 25-30 minutes BEFORE BOARDING BEGINS.