In today's MSP-SFO 11:45AM, on a 757-300, they did need assistance, first class, then jumped to row 40-48. Beforehand they said they'll pre-board exit row and elites, but didn't seem to follow thru. I was Delta FO with Exit row (40), so boarded anyway, along with everyone else on those rows. Not sure what happened afterwards. Too many kids on the flight.

The primary reason I want priority for boarding is to ensure space for my roll-aboard. If I didn't have one, I'd rather hang out in the WorldClub and board at the last possible moment.

Are the airlines trying to make flying as frustrating as possible?

And that's exactly what happened with my DTW-BOS flight on Friday. Even though the gate agent explictly said "small bags that will fit under the seat," several times, the overhead bins filled up with backpacks and coats before the passengers with roller bags (all 4 of us) boarded.

I ended up putting my bag in a bin about 10 rows behind my seat. (The FA had to move around a lot of stuff to fit it in all.) Since I'm not enough a jerk to push my way against traffic, that meant I ended up being the second-to-last passenger off the plane. (There was one mobility-limited senior citizen still waiting for her wheelchair when I deboarded.)

I'm a pretty mellow guy when I travel, but I swear, people who won't put bags under the seat are the only thing about travel that makes me want to yell at people.

I cannot imagine anyone wanting to further limit the space in sardine can sized coach seating area. Being tall anyway, I need somewhere to put my feet.

Sounds like an interesting idea, but totally not going to work in the winter in the Northern States. Everyone has coats, there's a higher level of stressed out leisure travelers.

Of course they could just *cough* get rid of 1st bag fee.

This would have irritated me to no end. I would certainly report it on TTU with full specifics about flight # and the agents name if you got it. No one other than handicaps and first class should be boarding in front of elites.... let them board before general boarding, sure but not in front of elites.

I wonder why the maximum size of a carry-on piece never seems to be enforced. If they did, a lot of space would be made available. To me, it is frustrating to see how people ignore the luggage size limit to harass people that do. Nobody should be allowed on the plane with an oversized piece of luggage.

The most frustrating experience is to board and find your overhead space crammed by someone way in the back of the plane. At times, I have been tempted to just pull a bag out and leave it in the aisle. I am a tall guy too, and I am not willing to sit with my knees next to my ears just because someone else does not like to wait for his/her luggage.

Same experience (checked bags gets boarding priority) was done yesterday on a DTW-MCO flight...I wasn't fussed b/c I had only a small backpack on a mileage run.

DUMB idea....IMHO. Its like my mom taught me...always put the big tinker toys in first...then the small ones can fill in the cracks. Flying on business, I have not checked a bag with the exception of ski trips (don't think my downhill skiis would pass the gate agent) since 9/11, including week + trips to Europe. This and select seating are the main reasons I be sure to keep my status.

Agreed, but this is clearly not going away. The airlines need all the cash they can get and other threads indicate this is making them a lot of money.

The problem as I've stated numerous times in this forum is NWA's (all carriers for that matter) lack of enforcement of the 1 carry-on policy. Second problem is all the folks who can't seem to understand how to put a rollerboard in the right way (not sideways).

I personally wouldn't have issue with this if that was their only carry-on. I don't want folks checking bags only to put their small bag/purse in the overhead so I can't have rollerboard space. Did they pay the $15/$25 here?

Rules about big bags first is ridiculous, why do you want to encourage big bags brought on board???

Any word if DTW is still doing this "evil experiment"??

Ugh... We have a connection there on Friday. Our carryons are legal size/limit & cannot be checked (fragile expensive camera gear & a TSA that likes to rifle through our luggage b/c of tripods that show up on x-ray, and yes, we have photographer friends that have had things go missing after that - good luck proving it though).

This crap is making a "trip on the Dog" look better & better.

Bumping this thread to ask if this is still going on. I got so torqued up reading this and would love to hear what they are up to now.

At DTW they seemed to have come up with an even better boarding method called "free-for-all."

Traveling on 12/26, I did not witness if they were ranking ppl by carry on size as we had purchased exit row & were seated ahead of that chaos. On return, we connected through DTW & did not have an exit row. They announced the usual preboarding of babies, elites, etc., then literally said, "all passengers in coach cabin may now board."

I usually feel like an a$$ for lingering around the gate door waiting for my row to be called, but with this new "method," I no longer feel so bad.

Oh, and yeah, total cluster in the aisle as you might expect. Now that was over xmas/new years week, so I have no idea if they've gone onto something even more creative now.

Doing MKE-FLL now with wife. She is Gold and we have 7 month old baby.

Going MKE-FLL I was upgraded both flights she only MKE-DTW.

MKE-DTW No pre-boarding of families with small children. we both boarded with First class; back of bus had only 20 seats sold.

DTW-FLL No pre-boarding of famileis with small children. She boarded with me during FC and one agent tried to stop her but the other agent said she was with e so it was ok.

On way back I've been upgraded both segments, she has not cleared either. EF shows 0 "R" class.

Maybe NW does not pre-board families with small children anymore.

Even though I'm at 100% (10 segments) this year, it looks like she is going to be 1/4.

With me leaving, going back to AA, it does not matter, but I can see the upgrades getting more difficult especially where DL had RJ for parts of an itinerary where NW had mainline.

Free-for-all is standard operations. Apparently reduces boarding time: less crowding in aisles is spread out rather than clumped in rows.