InkUnderNails

I don't fly a lot these days, but in the past I was A+ and flew as a COS and preboarded. II do remember the 1-30 camp outs. Now that I am a regular traveler, I do early bird and board late A or early B, In my experience, B has a lot of people already on the plane from preboards and family boarding. My last flight I was B-4 And it was just me and one other. I did not see anybody in B6-10. The value of boarding order is at its maximum the earlier the position. Also, with full flights, the last boarders also have an increasing value to position.

rsteinmetz70112

I beleive that many "infrequent flyers" are gaming the system, not all, but enough to be skeprical of the large numbers of pre-boards (20 a flight the other day) the people who apparently don't understand the system but somehow always err in their own favor, the various little scams which seem obvious or the sheer gall to assert they're somehow entitled.
I don't mind helping those who are obviously confused and polite but too many times there seems to be petty dishonesty. I do admit to being frustrated when I get stuck behind a groups of people who seem to be trying to bring their entire household on to the airplane. And obviously don't know what they are doing, but usually I just wait it out. The other day there was an entre party of people going through security with small children and none of the adults had any ID.

Just my observations.

screeton

I have no disdain for infrequent flyers, at one time I was one of those myself, and will never forget the embarrassment of trying to put an older hard suitcase above the seat on a United flight in the 1970s when those padded above-seat spaces were largely reserved for coats, hats, and other minor things. That said, I do appreciate people who can handle the 1-60 math. For truly obviously confused folks, I am more than happy to help out. For those who want to act bewildered to "coincidentally" wind up in a more advantageous position, I can play that game too, in terms of asking about boarding number and "assisting" them in showing where to stand. I have also wondered about the increasingly large number of preboards - I was on a flight with 15 or so a few weeks ago. I wonder if SWA should start marketing their service as "Miracle Flights" since a large percentage of those wheelchair preboarding passengers seemed able to deplane without assistance. Again, no problem at all for folks who truly need that - I'm glad that the service is available to allow them to travel. The problem is the ones who seem to be gaming the system.

Lomapaseo

agree, but the photoshopped boarding pass with the single digit "A" numbers is only displayed to those who politely ask why there are 20 people ahead of his A10 he just paid $50 for at the gate

m907

People who only fly once or twice a year, or less, are somehow experts at gaming the system and outwitting frequent flyers? Doesn't make much sense.

Lomapaseo

I take it that you don't fly with teenagers or college kids on break

lil Gophee

To always defend myself from "gate lice," I tend to take the friendly approach. If I am A39 and I see someone with A47 in my zone ahead of me, I will see try and find someone in the A36, A37, A38 range and ask them what number they are even if I saw it on their phone or print out. Then I will say I am A39 and you are ahead of me and I make room for them and solicit more lower numbers to go in front of me, creating a train of consecutive numbers.

If the gate lice goes for the line cut, I will drop my boarding pass over theirs and let the gate agent know WN boards in the numeric order and we are next.

NextTrip

Funny how the position jumpers are usually the ones saying "line order doesn't matter"! Well then, they won't mind me getting in front of them!

Peoriaman1

I think what he's saying, is those people aren't really as infrequent and innocent and sweet as they're trying to make us all think they are. That's just part of their act.

danielonn

And just because you are Nichole Kidman does not mean you have the right to jump ahead!

737MAX8

lol best post. I will remember this