Boarding After 5/1/2021
 

Delta has been boarding from the back of the aircraft during COVID with two exceptions, pre-boarding and D1/First Class/Diamonds. As a PM, who has been in C+ on about half of my flights recently I’ve noticed two things..

1. No gate agents call the C+ rows. They’re all just part of the final boarding call.
2. I’ve been the last one boarding a few times, and enter the plane to find it mostly full already.

With middle seats blocked this hasn’t been too big of a deal getting overhead bin space, but once they go back to filling all seats, will they bring back C+ and/or SkyPriority boarding? This will definitely start to be an issue as planes fill up again and FA’s aren’t doing anything to reserve the F and C+ bins for passengers in those cabins.

I had to travel for work last week to SEA and got half of the F upgrades, but on all of my flights most of the available seats were taken. (Minus seat blocking) I have three trips coming up in May and I think the boarding situation is going to get dicey for bin space.

Any thoughts or rumblings on when DL revised the boarding procedure?

I wish they would keep back to front. Having 4 different zones before Zone 1 is dumb.

If they do this, they need to bring back the Sky Priority zone for all medallions and DL Amex cardholders. The current back-to-front scheme rewards low fare BE pax who are likely sitting in the back of the aircraft first access to the OH bins while punishing high paying elites who will be forced to gate check their bags since they would board last due to sitting towards the front of the aircraft. Obviously this hasn’t been an issue with flights only being at 60% capacity, but will become one again with full flights resuming May 1st.

When I have been in comfort plus I go up to board right after first class has boarded. In almost 20 comfort + flights this year never been turned around.

The boarding order is pretty inconsistent. They were doing back-to-front in SJC but front-to-back in SLC.

They've yet to bring back the colorful but complicated boarding groups though.

As a senior citizen (in addition to a being PM and 3MM), I intend to avail myself of pre-boarding as much as possible (unless of course I am drinking in the SkyClub and don't feel like getting on the plane until right before the door closes, since DL has eliminated PDBs.

I think DL has to bring back priority boarding for elites and the credit card customers they induced to come on board. They are going to have another public relations nightmare if they don't.

This is the issue. SkyPriority and DL Amex cardholders have to come back. If they don’t, DL will end up annoying a lot of elites, many business travelers.
For reference I’ve flown through SEA, DTW, ATL, PBI and of course DCA in the past six weeks.

with the 20 minute guarantee, I never bring carry-on luggage any more. Makes life a lot easier.

This might not be the most popular opinion here, but I spend enough time on planes that I'm fine boarding near the end. If it means occasionally gate checking my bag, so be it. I think of it this way, as a seasoned traveler, I know much more what to do if the airline loses my bag than some rube who this is their first flight in 5-6 years. Plus if done right boarding back to front is more efficient, and with the newer planes and the larger bins it's less of an issue.

To counter. I frequently fly on the 757 and my favorite seat is 19A. This has no overhead bin and no seat in front to place bags. If I was to board last I would have no chance at all for bin space (when flights are back at capacity).

Yes, this is a case of me wanting what is best for myself, I acknowledge that. But more generally, with the present rules all of C+ would be hit or miss on being able to find bin space.

And that misses another point, typically DL would halt bringing on of rollers before the flight was completely full. Now, they either can not do that (which slows things down a lot), or it will be almost all C+, who are mainly elites, being hit by it.

I agree. I flew my wife to Hawaii two years ago on the miles gained on late bags alone.

Every time I've been C+, despite them having not called it I'll still board after F when Sky is supposed to board. No one has ever questioned it.

I think the boarding order is purely a suggestion at this point rather than a requirement.

I wish they would just implement this simple boarding process.

PRE BOARDING - Self Explanatory
FIRST - FC/D1, DMs and PMs
SKY - C+/PS, GMs, FOs, STE+, STE, and DL AMEX holders
BACK TO FRONT - with groups for every 5-10 rows.

Persoanlly I like having F/D1 be a separate boarding group from elites. Some flights you might have 50+ DM and PM and to have all that boarding with F or D1 would be less than ideal.

So I check several bags, but I travel with a television camera, and that always comes onboard. Can’t be checked, nor can the large lithium batteries. We purposely keep our status with DL for the early boarding to ensure overhead bin space. Love it when I travel for pleasure, since all I normally have is a backpack.