jeffjohnvol

Funny experience I thought I would share.

Boarding BWI/ATL last night I was in the cattle heard shuffling to the blue carpet along with the other PREM zone pax, and this guy pushes real tight to the guy in front of him. Normally people take turns, but this guy was almost breathing down the neck the guy in front him. Okay, whatever, go ahead.
He was holding his smartphone with the BP on it, and the seat was 12B and the zone was SKY. No big deal I thought, he may have been upgraded. He gets up to the delta dias of entry and puts his phone face down. No paper slip comes out, he shuffles past. He goes back to his seat in 12B.

The funny thing is, SP zone was right behind me. He got ahead of one person LOL. If he wants to board early that bad, why not just limp and go ahead of PREM? I don't really care as he didn't really delay me that much, I'm just incredulous why you would take the chance of being embarassed if the GA stopped you.

mattp1987

I had a similar experience last week with a guy aggressively pushing in front with his zone 1 boarding pass during Sky Priority boarding. I just assumed he was a FO trying to catch up with the DM whose bag he was carrying. It's annoying, but this is really on the GA to enforce these things. In this case, she took a good look at his BP and went ahead and scanned it and let him board. I see that all the time, but usually the people doing it are quite so pushy (literally) about getting into the line.

Navig8R

Ever boarded a flight in Tel Aviv? Everyone is PREM

KDCAflyer

Enforcement really depends on the airport that you're flying out of. I've never seen an ATL or DCA gate agent enforce the boarding zones. It's the complete opposite in NYC. Don't ever try to board outside of your zone at LGA, haha.

DTW, MSP, and CVG are all pretty mixed. I don't have enough data points on other airports for me to comment on them.

SYRRDU

Nothing new here. What gets me is the gate lice guy that stands on the Priority carpet like he owns the place and when FC/PREM is called he barely moves out of the way. Dude,... if you are that important and an FF, you know the boarding process, move out of the way, move way back so you don't block the boarding process.

duluthDL

This is pretty much the scene at every domestic DL gate everyday.

WheelsFirst

One downside of not letting F board exclusively.

MEMLawGuy

I like the new "3 lanes" boarding process they're trying out at some gates in ATL. Seems to help alleviate some of this problem. Or at least it gives a clear(er) lane for PREM to walk through when called.

Tibs

Or BOS....agent stopped the whole process dead in its tracks, told the passenger in a different language politely she was not boarding yet, opened up the blue side boxed off area walked her back through the empty box she set up and closed her off. It was like watching a penalty box in hockey.

KDCAflyer

International departures are even worse. This was me back in May, trying to shove my way through a horde of Y pax when Delta One was called. It didn't help that the automated announcements were completely contradicting the gate agents' announcements.



ATL-AMS
747

CollinsCochran

FC should board last. The FC pax should show up last, have overhead space reserved, and not have to sit there while the zone 1-2 crew shuffle past.

Of course that would never happen. But oh what a world that would be. Last on, first off.

TrojanTraveler

I was boarding a flight at LAX and the LAX-PVG flight was boarding next to it, and the "lines" were side by side. What a madhouse, even by LAX standards.

clr4t8koff

I have often wondered if any airline would ever do this. Why does F have to board first and wait for 90% of the rest of the plane to board, as opposed to Y waiting on F and getting through their PDB's?

ross123

We did this a number of years ago with TAP (20+ years now) on a flight from Lisbon back to the US. They had business in a separate area and then bussed us as a group to the plane, we boarded the front of the plane and put our bags away, they closed the doors and off we went. I looked behind us and the rest of the plane was full.

krlcomm

The DL boarding process is horrible, beyond horrible IMO. This is one area where AA is so superior it's laughable. DL has a lot going for it, the boarding process is NOT one of them.