The Breezeway. Is it worth it?
 

I did a search for discussions on it, but didn't find much, so I thought I'd post it up here. (Forgive me if this has been beat to death as I do not post here often).

Do you think the Breezeway is worthwhile? Perhaps it is just the type of flights I'm on (Mostly Domestic and Caribbean Delta Flights) but it just seems to be a bigger pain than it is worth.

Normally they seem to only have one Gate Agent running one scanner (and naturally the one that is closer to the regular line) so it creates a log jam and you'll have Medallion members mixed in both. Perhaps if they always had two agents to scan available (one for each lane) or if only one, it serves the Breezeway people first while holding off the regular line. I don't know.

How it is now seems far from optimal. A lot of the fellow fliers seem to not like it as well, but apparently is a requirement of being part of SkyTeam(?). I'd rather they just get rid of it if they're not going to make major changes to it.

Thoughts?

It is worth it!
 

I have found the value of it this week. I missed the Zone 1 call and when I got to the gate in ATL, there was a lengthy line waiting to board. I though why not use the BreezeWay line. I walked up the BreezeWay line and the agent saw me and he immediately stopped the line and took my boarding pass, scanned it, and I was on my way to the plane. Without BreezeWay, I would have been stuck waiting in the long line.

Sorry, it has been beat to death here.

I like it when (i) it is administered by the GA properly and (ii) all the passengers adhere to its intended use. That is about 5% of the time. The other 95% of the time, it can be very frustrating.

really beaten to death

it should be great but unfortunately most GAs don't have a clue how to use it so its just frustrating.

And those "lines" have become a zoo. It's worse than WN used to be. Soon as they call zone 1, all the zones hang out in the gate area and you have to be rude to get through them.

Sorry that this has already been a talked about point.

As far as the crowds around the boarding area, I find this is more a "cultural issue" and in certain markets/destinations it is much more prevalent than in others.

Thanks for merging my thread into this one. I appreciate it. ^

Written before the two threads were merged. Taken away when I realized it was ground already covered.

I love it!

Have never had a problem as the Gate Agent stops the line and takes my ticket. It seems like they are taking away perks all the time, it's nice to add some back.

I've posted my thoughts on this several times in various threads, all of which may now be merged into this "Definitive Thread", but I'll post an update on my experience.

I'm generally at the CRC until I notice that boarding has started, so I usually arrive sometime around zone 4. When this happens the Breezeway works great for me as I'm able to walk around the non-elites waiting in the normal line, pause at the front of the Breezeway line for a couple of pax until the GA sees me and takes my BP and lets me board. This is my experience in the vast majority of my boardings, including one yesterday using Northwest's similar system.

Occasionally I actually arrive at the gate area during Zones 1 to 3 and then I'm careful to wait behind other elite pax who are lined up to board. And then there are the times when I hang out in the CRC almost a little too long and arrive at the gate area when there is no line left over. Then I hand my BP to the GA and usually have to wait in a long line in the jetway anyway. :rolleyes:

In summary, I think the system works great and I'm seeing more and more consistency in its use. Every once in a while it doesn't work quite as well, but normally I really like it.

I can tell you in South America, the concept of boarding in an orderly fashion is entirely lost on people, who for some inexplicable reason begin lining up as much as an hour!! before the flight boards. The breezeway is useless based on my recent experiences, so I just boarded at the very beginning, by squeezing through the crowd.

Just another comment on a Breezeway experience:

Leaving out of MCI (Kansas City) yesterday. I was zone 2 (dang it). First class boards. Zone 2 people start lining up in the breezeway so I join in the Breezeway line. Single person/stand scanning tickets.

As soon as they make the announcement for zone 2, a billion people pile into the previously unoccupied, regular (non-breezeway zone) and start boarding. The agent tries to do one from regular, then one from Breezeway, then back and forth. Doesn't seem like that's how that should work (and is typical operation in my opinion of it.)

Also, with the current overhead bin situation (ie they are cram-packed these days as passengers bring on two body bags a piece it seems to avoid fees) I don't see the advantage of strolling on the breezeway at zone 8 when there won't even be enough space for a biscoff in the over head bin, let alone a smaller carry on.

When the Breezeway doesn't work.....
 

All too often do we see images like this, when the breezeway doesn't work!

http://picasaweb.google.com/flyskyte...71998531314210

This was a group of zone 7 pax's that kept running up to the gate for each zone that was called. When the GA called Zone 1, they all rushed the gate, same with zones 2, 3, 4 all the way to 7!


Ughh....... :)

that's annoying..

and oh so common.