DYKWIA2014

Exactly!!^

Often1

The problems on DL (and other carriers as well) would be solved:

1. By providing a Zone # for everybody except perhaps those with disabilities who cannot be identified in advance. If you had Zone 1 on your BP would you presume that you were first to board? Get rid of the silly marketing terms such as Sky Priority. If that is Zone 1, call it that.

2. Enforce carry-on and Zone rules for everybody. That eliminates most of the need to jump the zone boarding. If your bag is over-sized, it gets gate-checked and the fee (no matter status, CC or other) + a penalty is collected in the bag office at the other end. People will learn quickly.

davie355

Are you aware the 2 line system is the norm in other countries?

Navig8R

Not for Delta it isn't, which is the whole purpose of this thread. Not sure what point you are trying to make.

JeffCO

IMO most of the time suck issues stem from the need for overhead space. I prefer an aisle seat either in C+ or just behind it, and in general I would be happy to board last. But knowing the overhead space will be gone if I wait compels me to board as early as possible.

Though, I agree that the Zone process is kind of goofy as it stands now. Having two lines, one with a special carpet (!), but only one GA means you're still not getting on any faster than that one person can process BPs.

LonghaulCommuter

I'm in F most of the time on domestic flights (either company pays or I'm upgraded). It's not a devaluation at all that DM boards in Prem. On most flights, there's just a small handful of DMs who don't get upgraded so it makes little difference to the people in F. Also, because they are in economy, they go right back so they don't slow anyone down in F unlike the guy in row 1 with three bags. In addition, their luggage don't compete with F either. It just makes more sense. It's like a consolation prize when you don't get upgraded as a DM. Having DMs board earlier reduces the SP crowd so it's less chaotic overall. Definitely a good no cost idea for Delta.

mapsgl

Every time boarding process comes up. I go to this.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-li...airport/n41324

DCAproducer

**While not always the case** I think airports have an impact on boarding. When I say airports the specific gate area being used for the flight.

Few have enough space for adequate lines to form.

I just got back from two weeks in Europe where I got to experience DL service as well as Vueling and Alitalia.

1- Delta's boarding process at MAD was good, mainly because they are in T1 and had a HUGE boarding area for the two lines to form. While I have no issues with DM boarding with Premium, on D1 flights I think D1 should board first. With (40) seats that's a large group to board first, not counting DM's who are in back.

2- My Vueling flight BCN-NCE was efficient. They board rows 15+ and then 1-14. They did do pre-boards and people who paid for early boarding (which was like 3 people) This flight was out of the gate on time.. to the minute!

3- Alitalia was a disaster. Part of this is because of the fire at FCO and lack of gates. A HUGE line formed 30 minutes before boarding and they did call SkyPriority, but there was no second lane. We were all getting on buses to go to remote stands, so priority meant nothing. Our bus first stopped at the wrong plane before finally figuring out where it needed to go. This flight left 30 minutes late because of the boarding process.

I will say on all of my Delta flights, including domestic connections, the gate agents enforced the premium boarding zone. I saw several people turned away. This is what DL needs to do across the board and people will learn.

CJKatl

The problems would be solved if DL built trap doors next to the BP scanners. If anything other than the current or an earlier zone is scanned, the trap door would open and the offender would slide down a razor lined tunnel into a vat of lemon juice. OK, maybe that's extreme. The tunnel could be lined with pillows and go into an enclosed waiting area. After all zones are called, the waiting area could rise back in the gate area, via elevator, and the offenders could be allowed to board.

Or they should adopt the boarding process currently being tested at the end of the B Concourse, where people line up by zone.

CJKatl

For me, another issue is I don't want to stand in the Jetway for fifteen minutes. Boarding early gets you on the plane faster. Boarding last gets you stuck in line behind people who tend to take longer getting in the seats.

And when you use the blue carpet, the people in the regular line stare at you with daggers, and you still wind up in the Jetway line that often stretches all the way back from the plane door to the gate door.

DYKWIA2014

Yeah, but you did get to use the blue carpet, so you have that going for you

Pi7473000

There boarding is awful!! Had to fly Delta in F on an old 767 from SFO to MSP on a red eye and it was chaos. It was much worse than United which has organized lines for zone boarding. The Delta agents did nothing to try to control the chaos. I was in F and boarding near the last zone as I could not get up to the gate and ended up having to check a carry on. I do not like to stand in the boarding line 45 min. Before boarding, but I learned on Delta you need to stand around the gate as the boarding on Delta is awful!!

Widgets

One tip I would share (but I bet it's not news to most here) is if you don't need overhead bin space, boarding very last is just like boarding first.

You can chill at the gate sitting in a wide seat with unlimited leg room playing on your phone. If possible, I always sit facing the jetway so I can see when it clears. When I board last, everyone but a few are seated and I don't have to wait in any lines at all.

If the GA is super cool, I tell him/her that I'm going to wait until the last moment to board and they tell me to board just under 10 minutes before departure.

brocklee9000

Saturday night, last flight ATL-SLC. The upgrade list has 54 people on it. So 26 plus the 54 comes out to about 45% of the 757. Sure, some on that list were FOs and would have boarded with Zone 1 instead of Sky. That's almost half the plane in PREM and SKY, not to mention whoever preboarded (so probably at 50% by now). With FOs it was probably 60%, and everyone in zone 1 likely had the plany 70-75% full. That still leaves like 40 people left for zone 2. But still, that's only like a quarter of the whole flight.

Widgets

From feedback here it looks like hub-to-hub flights have high HVC concentrations.

I was wrong with applying those numbers to all flights. For the flights I work, all passengers except a few originate at my airport and Medallions+their companions make up 24-26% (actually measured) of our enplanements. I relied on my own niche experience and should not have applied to systemwide.

Has anyone seen boarding SKY split up into PMs, GMs, then everyone else? That was part of the new boarding process; GAs would get a pop-up when there are an extreme amount of Medallions (about half the aircraft) and they would be told by the computer to board in that manner.