They always confiscate mine at Security. I'm forced to use the boarding elbow or step on heels with my boarding sh!tkickers.

So the real story about how/why you lost your cell phone comes out. ;)




That would be me, "Ms. I Won't Check in my Bag and I Have to Get on First to Get Overhead Space."




Either am I. In fact, today is the first I've opened this thread; prior to today I thought the title of this thread referred to the fairly new jetways they have in ATL for CRJs.







I haven't seen a Breezeway in ATL yet, is it still only on Concourse A?

I passed through ATL A last night and I'm not impressed. Somebody needs more training. The sign was sideways indicating VIPS should march across the concourse. And the agent included all SkyMiles Members and "SkyTeam members" in her invitation to board. No zones were called. And no one stepped on the carpet, they all stayed to the right to have their boarding passes scanned. Just a mass of people trying to get on the aircraft all at once. Sell the rugs back to CO now.

:DThis is a great move by Delta.

This is my problem too, not because I'm trying to get in one last drink, but because I'm usually trying to recharge my laptop and/or download my email to my laptop or otherwise using the internet. I try to leave the CRC just as or just before boarding starts so I arrive at the gate shortly after it starts, so I don't have to wait in line at the gate or on the jetway. This will hopefully make it much easier.

This is definitely a potential problem, which caught me last night. We (2.5-year old son, his nanny, and I) waited at the CRC for our delayed ATL-TPA flight to get further delayed then finally start boarding before we headed out. When we got to gate A29 last night and saw the Breezeway mat and everybody neatly lined up on the other side, we went straight to the front of the Breezeway area. The GA didn't stop other passengers but took our boarding passes when I looked toward him and reached my arm his way.

Then when we boarded the plane, I noticed that there were only about 5 coach passengers on board and FC still had several empty seats. As I took my FC seat, I noticed that the man that I had "cut" in front of was seated behind me.

After reading this thread, I now understand what happened. They must have made an announcement as mersk862 describes above (that Breezeway isn't used for zones 1, 2, and 3), then I arrived after the announcement and inadvertently cut in front of other medallions and FC passengers.

I suppose at gates where there are scanners on both sides of the door, things will be a bit easier.

So here's my public apology to all of those passengers who I cut off last night. :o In my defense, I truly thought that we were arriving at the gate later in the boarding process that we did - I assumed that we were well into the zones. On the other hand, I could have easily looked up at the screen to see what zone was boarding. again :o

-Michael

No, American is testing the concept (First/Biz/Elite boarding lanes on red carpet) in several cities for a couple months now, including LAX. Works great.

That policy makes no sense to me. If you're in F or elite, then DL should tell those pax to line up on the F/elite side to avoid awkward missteps by those who, as you point out, are unlikely to be present for such announcements. AA's system isn't so complex. If you're in F or elite, you use the VIP lane.

Last week at the AA terminal at LAX, a doofus (sp?) and his colleagues were in F yet lined up prior to boarding in the unwashed masses line instead of the proper side. When the agent announced F boarding was beginning, my kids and spouse (all of us in F) jumped in the F/elite line and were boarded first over the protests by Doofus that he and his bunch were in line first.

My 10 year olds then pointed out to him while the BPs were scanned that he and his crew appeared to be nobodies (unwashed masses) since they weren't in the proper line. If they were seated in F, they shouldn't have been slumming it in the Nobody line.

If 10 year olds can figure it out, how come Mr Type-A Doofus can't?

<deleted>

Yikes! My upgrade hasn't cleared yet for tomorrow, but I'll be sure to take a shower anyway before my flight.... I'd hate to be called an unwashed mass. :D

I agree, the policy makes no sense. Why not use the Breezeway for all zones. In my situation last night, the "normal" line was closer to the scanner than the Breezeway line. If they used Breezeway for all the zones, they could just put another little retractable "barrier" across the front of the "normal" line until zone 3 is done. This would help keep other zone people out of the way of elites. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard a GA say "we're only boarding zone 1 (or 2 or 3)", I'd be a rich man.

I suppose the only problem with this proposal is that Delta's zones don't entirely line up as we normally think of them (Zone 1 = FC, Zone 2 = Medallions in some parts of plane, Zone 3 = Medallions in other parts of the plane). For example, the row 10 bulkheads on most aircraft are boarded in zone 1 (although I haven't sat there in a while so I don't know if this is still true).

One more thing I meant to put in my original post in this thread. I was a bit surprised to see that DL called this new program "Breezeway". As many Atlanta Delta flyers (and others like me) know, MARTA's (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) new extended use pass/card for using the MARTA rail system (and probably buses too) is called the "Breeze Card".

Thus I'm surprised that Delta would name their product "Breezeway" since ATL is their biggest market. I can't imagine that they did it on purpose. It seems like a poor "branding" job by somebody IMO.

The Kinks Need to be Worked Out
 

I've only been through ATL once since Breezeway was implemented and it didn't work as planned as far as I could tell. I like the concept, however, of being able to walk up at any point and board without having to cut the line or wait for zone 6 to finish boarding.

When I arrived at the gate for my connecting flight, the lane was full of families with strollers. It appeared they were queued for the standard pre-boarding ("families with small children," etc.). Wheelchairs were pre-boarded, stollers were not.

The GAs didn't seem to have a good grasp of how things should work and ended up calling Zone 1 as they had before. As the Breezeway lane was clogged, I went the regular line. The families started to board, cutting across the regular boarding lane to the BP reader and one family had Z1 BPs, but the others didn't and were told to wait until their zone was called.

I boarded as I would have normally. I didn't see any advantage because the GAs weren't managing it like I thought they should have. That is, they should have educated people in the gate area with announcements of how it worked, but they did not. It's not going to work unless people know how it works.

Then again, I've lost track of the number of Zone 7 pax I've seen walk up when Zone 1 is called even though announcements about zone boarding and how it works are called out repeatedly before boarding. :rolleyes:

Worse, imagine being called a "doofus" in public! :D

...and by a 10 year old :p

I didn't see a breezeway today when I flew out of ATL. However, I did see Traveller. If she was unwashed, it wasn't apparent from across the table :D

Good news.... I showered and got the upgrade!

It was good meeting you too, LT! Thanks for buying me those 2 drinks in the CRC. :cool:

No breezeway tonight on concourse B - and boarding was quick and painless. Ditch the carpets. :td:

I was thankful for the Breezeway the other day. I was flying DCA-ATL-TPA and my DCA-ATL flight was late. I disembarked as the first passenger off of that flight at 8:17 PM, with my scheduled departure to TPA at 8:30. I literally sprinted through the terminal, setting a new record from B8 to A7 (across the taxiway, but for me down the hall, down the escalators, on the train - dove in as the doors closed - up the escalators, and down the hall), arriving at 8:24. Fortunately, the flight was a bit delayed and there were still about 30 or 40 pax waiting to board, although the screen said Zone 1-9.

After my now pointless run, I wanted nothing more than to head to seat 1B and relax with a drink. Everyone was neatly lined up on the non-Breezeway side so I went straight to the front of the Breezeway line and stood patiently, looking at the GA while she boarded several other pax. Since she didn't seem to be moving to hold up the other line to serve me in the Breezeway line, I reached across and handed her my boarding pass. I didn't hear any negative comments behind me, although I didn't bother looking to see the expressions on their faces.

I like the Breezeway, but clearly the GAs need to be a bit more proactive about serving the elite customers who are using it.

By the way, Later that night I got an email telling me that my upgrade had cleared on the first ATL-TPA flight the next morning. It's nice to know that they had automatically rebooked me. When I touched down in ATL and checked the Delta flight schedule on my PDA to identify the next flight out to Tampa that night, so I could call SMS and secure a seat, I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that Delta doesn't fly the late-night ATL-TPA flight on Saturdays.

-Michael