halls120

In most cases (especially away from ATL) DL's boarding process is very orderly, especially compared to the usual UA scrum.

rucksack

A DM boarding with FC takes all of 5 seconds to walk past FC into Y. It’s not really about the waiting, is it? It’s the feeling of “I paid more and therefore I’m special and deserve to be treated better than everyone else.” And, hey, maybe that’s true. But getting bent out of shape about others interrupting your rare air shows a sense of entitlement that is DYKWIA-ish.

moodh

I am mostly short haul domestic. DM and get upgraded maybe 40 percent. Pay for first class or D1 on transcon or TATL. Having said that when I pay….I don’t want to wait on jetway with other of my DM friends when first class or D1 boards. When I don’t pay….happy to hang back and wait my turn. You should get what you pay for…..not entitled…..just get what you pay for

resolute

Sounds like a frivolous waste of money to me. If one is looking for a "special experience" flying FC on ANY airline, including DL, they are looking in the wrong place. All of this debate of when Diamonds board is silly. I'm DM and just consistently board whenever I want.. Actually my preferred boarding order is to be the absolute LAST person on the plane. I board, someone takes my bag because they are in a rush to depart on time (if I can't stow it myself..), they shut the door and we leave. No parade of idiots coming by my seat for 30 minutes bumping my knees and breathing on me either. And I am on the plane a good half hour less time than all those people who HAVE to board first in line. Now THAT IS special and and exclusive!! 😉

chipbennett

Again: Delta thought it enough of a concern (for whatever reason - this one or something else) that they changed the boarding order.

And also again: who's the bigger DYKWIA: the FC pax who is boarding in the proper boarding group and expecting to do so with others in the proper boarding group, or the DM who ignores the boarding order?

Firstboss

Think of it this way: people who overpay to sit in FC make airline travel affordable to those who cannot afford it.
in general, the cost of Main cabin tickets doesn’t yield any profit to the airline (unless passengers pay for baggage / ticket change, etc). At the same time, the economy class passengers justify the costs of operating that many flights, out of which the overpaying first class passengers select scheduling convenient for them.

It is similar to multi-player online games where the non-paying customers create a bigger community, and those paying from extra features make the business profitable.

NotHamSarnie

You really have no idea what you're talking about. Some of us travel without caring in the slightest what others think of them but like the extra bit of comfort F buys, which involves not waiting in line in the terminal and jetway before boarding.

rucksack

The FC passenger that boards in their assigned boarding group isn't a DYKWIA. It's the FC passenger who is so bothered by someone boarding out of order that they come to an online forum to complain about it that's the DYKWIA. That's the point I'm making.

emma dog

Can y’all please stop arguing over this and focus on what really matters? Shades belong to the window passenger and DL wouldn’t let me recline if it was WRONG.

zitsky

You don’t wait in line? What if another F passenger is in front of you? You shove them out of the way?

chipbennett

I'm starting over a decade late and am trying to read through this epic thread in order. I'm only up to page 128 of 678, so I have a long way to go. That said, I've already seen plenty of similar fodder of DYKWIA anecdotes about people crowding the boarding area/boarding out of order. It seems like a fairly typical issue for this thread.

GagaPilot

Reading these last few pages of when DMs board vs F passengers reminded me of a mini DYKWIA that I encountered last month.

My spouse and I flew AA for the first time in years, so admittedly wasn't too familiar with their boarding groups. We were in F, so had group 1. I noticed they tended to offer pre-boarding first, then lumped "military, group 1, and group 2" all together in the next announcement. These seemed to be the most common on almost every AA flight we had on the trip. Boarding our last flight, DFW-ANC, they announced it as such. We started moving with the crowd of people in those groups and a guy and his presumably wife abruptly moved in front of my husband and I. My husband remarked "Wow, this many people in groups 1 and 2? And I thought it got crowded boarding Delta." The guy who had cut in line turns around and said "Oh and military too. Which you guys obviously aren't. We go first." It took all I could do to hold my tongue. I'm appreciative of anyone who serves but I'm over the entitlement. I let it go. He was promptly asked to step aside when he could not readily produce his military ID at the scanner and we breezed past him. About 10 minutes later they passed us in F on their way back to Y.

coke cans and winglets

You got the last laugh for sure then, the official policy on AA is active military boards with group 1, they do not pre board on AA like they do with DL and UA. So that guy and his wife who cut you had just as much priority in that line as y'all did. Real classy on his part for sure! What I'm more surprised at is the fact that the gate agent even bothered to check ID, glad to see agents like that who properly enforce the process and actually cared to check ID there.

WillBarrett_68

lol are you serious?

ok, fine... how would a DM boarding with FC prevent THEM from getting PDBs?

chipbennett

I never claimed that it would. What I actually said was: "Isn't this a good thing, though? Isn't this part of the soft product and service for which DL is known? Back around 2016 or so, I remember FC would board first, and get their PDB, before the rest of boarding proceeded."

I commented on the order and timing of the boarding process. Not sure how you inferred that I said anything about FC not getting PDBs because of DMs boarding with FC.