AugustusM

Watched it first hand as this woman decided to push another person in a wheelchair to the gate that she didn't even know.

porciuscato

In the last year, I've seen a huge uptick in:

1) People boarding as disabled, but showing no obvious disability
2) People with Navy ship caps (either from long-ago service or a visit to the gift shop on the Enterprise carrier in SD).
3) People with children clearly older than 2
4) People with "support" animals that bark

I can accept that some of these might actually be legit. But it's hard to believe all of this increase is legit.

manstein58

i have seen the same with the person with "disabilities" escorted by up to seven or eight family members, children who need to shave, and the crowd with the comfort pets. I, for one, very much pity those pets for their masters

AggieTexan

I actually think people are using the Dr. Dao incident to try to get their way by playing the horrible customer service card. The worst of them are trying to provoke an incident so they can plaster it on social media for a big pay day.

Plane-is-home

Had a great experience at HNL Friday night. A bunch of clearly fake "extra timer" charged the gate one Asian couple even pushing a woman in the wheelchair aside.
But the GAs paid back. They made everyone of that mob put their bags in the sizer. Non fit and they were all sent to another GA to check the bags.
Then the 2 wheelchair passengers, the lonely GS (me) and a handful of Navy service men were boarded peacefully

seat38a

Just got back from a 4 segment flight on Swiss in J from LAX - CPH and back. At LAX boarding was organized but at Zurich and CPH, it was chaos. No one lined up for anything. Think big mob of people pushing around others lingering around waiting to board plus multiple self formed lines trying to merge into the single line. This was the case for both J and Y boarding lines.

As many of you know, I've complained about United's boarding process over the years, but after my boarding experience with Swiss, I will say United's process seems more organized and civilized vs the utter chaos that I went through. Another fellow American traveling to LAX agreed with my assessment. Even Southwest, with their numbered position boarding system is much less chaotic than what I experienced over the last 2 weeks.

malgudi

Just got back from ZRH/DME, LX boarding was by priority/travel class

No issues on my flights.

SFO777

Even for First Class, ZRH is notoriously bad and one of the reasons I try to avoid.
First Class Boarding at ZRH, no doubt similar to what you experienced.

seat38a

That looks EXACTLY like [what] I am talking about. It made we long for the Group 1 line

warrenw

Same here, oftentimes on UX flights I am the only one in BG1. These outstations also usually only have one boarding lane that they call people through. As a result, sometimes the GA rushes through and is calling BG2 immediately after BG1 so even though I'm standing at the ready to board BG2 bum rushes the line and I end up in the middle of BG2......

First world problems

Hipplewm

Around here I am typically the only 1K, so they call GS and 1K as pre boarders to get me out of the scrum.

canadiancow

At YUL, I'd guess it was AC, whose policy is children under 6. The difference, however, is that they board between zones 2 and 3, so after all the elites.

I was having lunch with my team a week ago, with my roller (as I was heading to the airport after). Somehow the topic of me never checking bags came up, followed by me buying F. "Wait, you're in first class? Why don't you just check your bag?"

You've pretty much summed my thoughts up exactly.

It adds time. There's a risk for loss and damage. etc.

I fractured a toe in early December, 2015. I ended up in a little boot thingy (virtually invisible with the pants I was wearing), and optionally used a cane (I was told it would heal faster if I kept weight off it).

My first flight with it was UA SFO-YYC, in F.

I thought I'd take advantage of the pre-boarding (probably only saved me 30 seconds, but whatever), as I was definitely moving more slowly.

Well, guess what... the shallow decline of the jet bridge was the hardest thing I had to navigate the entire time I used the cane. On board, it went in the overhead bin, and did not come out until we were at the arrival gate. Without the cane, I walked a little slowly, but it appeared normal. If I'd had a tight connection, I easily could have gone back to my normal pace without the cane, making it appear as if I was a scammer. I didn't need it to walk, I needed it to heal faster.

I boarded four more flights while I had that cane, and the jet bridge (during boarding, not deplaning) was always the hardest thing to do. So I'd definitely appear to be hobbling slowly onto the plane, then walking normally on board, and reasonably quickly (though with the cane) on arrival.

I have a friend who needs to wear leg braces. He checked them on one trip, because going through a metal detector is unpleasant with them on, and he didn't travel enough to know to put them in his carry-on. He's a tough guy. He'll suffer through the pain, and you'd never know he has any issue. But I don't think we were far off from requesting a wheelchair.

I have a family member who can walk fine (for reasonably short distances, like curb to gate), but can't stand for long periods. She always takes pre-boarding to ensure she's not stuck standing on the jet bridge.

Not all disabilities are visible. Not every young kid with a can who can walk fine on board is faking it.

That is the worst reason to do it. The number of people in group 1 should not impact whether to call that group unless the number is 0.

If you're the only one in group 1, but there are 20 people in group 2, it makes a huge difference to bin space, especially on 50 seat aircraft (been there, asked the GA, and she said "there aren't many people in zone 1").

The only time they should be combined is if there aren't many people in group 2. Adding a couple people to a large group 1 doesn't negatively impact them much. Combining two small groups doesn't negatively impact anyone much.

Shoving your lone 1K into a group of 20 credit card holders has a large negative impact.

tcp1

As an aside.. "Gate Lice" notwithstanding - can someone please explain to me why United thinks it's logical to always place BG1/BG2 directly in front of the boarding door, whereas 3-4-5 is off to the side?? Wouldn't the opposite make more sense?

Every time an incoming is delayed, the GA has to tell everyone who ostensibly doesn't check the flight status (another pet peeve) to clear out of BG1 and 2.

How about this United - don't put the first to board in front of the door everyone deplanes from??? It makes no sense.

Additionally, what's an the airserv wheelchair folks consistently lining up and filling up BG1 these days. At IAD or DEN, whenever I get to the gate, BG1 is full of waiting wheelchairs "parked" with nobody present around them.

wxguy

Overheard at EWR yesterday -- a flight to ATL was boarding. "Only 35 people on our flight, so everyone is welcome to board. All passengers, all groups, please board."

tcp1

Was it then followed by a "Thank You for flying Southwest"??