Repooc17

All narrow body jets. It may not be apple to apple, but the point is the boarding process itself.

bocastephen

I just flew 3 segments on Delta and can concur this was the case. The lanes, announcements, and screen information (and placement of the screens over or close to the boarding door) were clear, concise and unambiguous.

No chutes or crowds and it’s made clear you’re either privileged or cattle and when you can step up to board and through which lane. No crowding, no stampeding and no chaos.

Each and every boarding call and announcement for each flight was absolutely identical and followed their published policy exactly.

Tomorrow I’ll board my United flight home from Group 1 and we’ll see how that goes in comparison. At least I’m not 1K anymore so when they skip 1K pre boarding or announce “Our activemilitaryGlobalServiceFamiliesWithAnyChildren 1Kcustomers can board now” I’ll be able to skip the scrum.

Kacee

No, it's lowlife scum taking advantage of airline policy not to challenge anyone who claims a disability because of the risk of an ADA lawsuit.

The GAs are just following policy. The airlines are just following their lawyers' advice.

And on the UA specific topic, I fly DL, AA, and AS plenty. IME boarding on AA and DL is just as bad as UA. AS seems to attract a more civilized group of passengers, possibly a PNW thing (drivers in Seattle are relatively courteous as well).

jimmc66

We've all seen this. And I've seen the opposite, a swift and orderly boarding process. I have my own observations on why this occasionally happens.

In my view the predominant driver of disorderly boarding is the stress-level of the passengers. Early morning flights when the airport seems orderly engender the same at the gate. Later in the day, with late arrivals, long connection gates at hubs, the stress-levels go up and so does the chaos.

Also in my observation, the clear communication from gate agents to the waiting passengers has a direct impact on the situation. At ORD where I often depart, there are a couple gate agents who's English ability and speaking style make them unsuitable for pre-boarding announcements. And yet they're allowed to do it. They are garbled, disorganized, and don't impart a level of confidence to those waiting. The agents that do it correctly are clear in their directions, instill confidence in those waiting, and follow-up with a walk-around the boarding area to clear out the gate lice.

We live in a time now where, for a variety of reasons, everyone is looking for an "edge". The family of six with no infants demanding to be in early boarding. The wheelchair passenger (who mysteriously is "cured" at the arrival end and can walk sprightly again) who boards with her family in company. The passenger in group 4 with too many bags. Combine this anti-social behavior with a reluctance by staff to confront the
miscreants, and you have the inevitable boarding chaos.

FlyingHighlander

Problem is the people, which is a reflection on American culture in general. Most countries airport boarding experience reflects their culture. Airlines can tinker around the edges of their process, but impact is trivial. It's well known that the stresses of travel, and your lack of control over outcomes, can show the world who you really are under the facade.

VFR

There's another group that is not blameless: the airports. Since planes have gotten larger, most gate areas do not have seating for all of the passengers on the plane, especially not within earshot of the gate announcements, and heaven forbid anyone be more comfortable while sitting at the gate than in a hard-backed airport chair. Passengers thus stand around at the gate waiting for their group to be called. There also is limited room to line up, which causes problems when GS/1K need to get to the scanner.

halls120

My exact experience on DL earlier this month. We stayed in the Centurion Club longer than usual because we knew there would be an orderly process at our gate.

While the above is true, the airlines share the blame on this one. An excellent example is UA at IAD - the gate areas in the B terminal are large and have adequate seating because the airlines that use that terminal didn't say no when MWAA came looking for their share of the new terminal. UA's failure to pony up their share for a new C/D terminal to replace the "temporary" mess that has been there since 1985 leaves UA customers in a concourse that is simply not big enough. UA's refusal to contribute to the construction of a replacement has been well documented.

lincolnjkc

Boarding Mexico City-IAH yesterday was an excrement show... Partially with the physical location of the gate, partially with bizarre configuration of stanchions, and partially due to AA setting up sanctions for their gate in the midst of the blob waiting to board the UA flight (which also suffered from a late arriving aircraft).

There was an announcement for people with disabilities (while all of the wheelchairs had been queued under the Group 2 banner and seemed to be processed efficiently).
Then there was an agent who checked passports for a few people standing outside the Group 1 banner (as it was not possible to actually queue within the sanctions) and let them through.
Then a half-hearted shout/mumble from a different agent for "any Premier 1K?" and she seemed a bit surprised when Ms. LincolnJKC and I waved (but were then summoned forth, only for me to be swabbed with a random bag check [they couldn't do this before actual boarding?].

No GS announcement, no families with children announcement, no military, just seemed very odd/ad-hoc

I've seen a lot of places where UA boarding could use improvement but I think this reset the needle for the low end of calm and order in my experiences.

physioprof

I saw this happen waiting to board a EWR-PBI flight about a month ago. GA told the passenger, "Oh, if you are pre-boarding based on a condition that requires extra time to get down the jetway, then we need to move you from your exit row seat." The pax started to go ballistic & then said, "OK, then I won't pre-board." GA responded, "Now that you have already asserted that you need extra time to get down the jetway, we have no choice but to move you from the exit row." Then the pax really went ballistic...

gaobest

it’s so ymmv. At DCA for AS, the gate agent’s voice was so low and soft that I only knew yo board due to checking the display board which had green lights for the boarded boarding groups and red lights for the later boarding groups. That voice was just too soft.

beautiful karma. Such pax should get a special mark so that they cannot book an exit row seat. Let the exit row be one’s reward for boarding in their actual assigned group number.

exerda

To be fair, needing extra time to board doesn't necessarily mean you wouldn't be physically able to assist with the exit row.

On general boarding inconsistencies, I've experienced quite a bit of recent inconsistency in terms of preboarding. Just the past few days, I saw it go GS->extra time->military->1K, extra time->GS->military->kids under 2->1K... and had a couple where the 1K to Group 1 transition was made so quickly the 1Ks hadn't even been able to all get to the gate before the surge from Group 1. Also have had an amazing amount of clueless (deliberately or otherwise) pax push through and ahead of the rough clump of GS and 1K pax, then ask, "What group are they on now?" Seriously, if you see the lines full and see people standing in front of the gate but no one moving, maybe realize boarding hasn't even started yet? At least the GAs did turn back several pax during the preboarding call, saying, "You have to wait until your group is called."

Finally, more of an interesting (to me) observation than a glitch in boarding process, but on TUS-DEN Sunday, the GS call yielded quite a few pax--including what appeared to be a family group of 7-8. That explained why at one point, I was #7 on the upgrade list with 6 people with the same last name ahead of me! (At least 2 of the party was indeed in F, as was I soon after... though my sitting there was the result of refaring my ticket to F as I knew I was never going to clear either that or DEN-IAD based on the waitlist...)

lincolnjkc

Correct -- but it does tend to indicate that you may not meet exit row criteria for other reasons, e.g. "The person has a condition or responsibilities, such as caring for small children, that might prevent the person from performing one or more of the applicable functions or a condition that might cause the person harm if he or she performs one or more of the applicable functions."

Until you mentioned the GS/1K clump I was going to debate this [slightly] -- There have been what I expected to be a tight connection due to a delay or just airport geometry and the general limits of physics where by the time I got to the gate I thought they may have been wrapping up boarding and have asked to make sure it is the right flight and figure out where I am in the priority scheme of things...sometimes agents will "pause" boarding between groups to let the jetway thin out or to check overheads, etc. so "no one moving" isn't necessarily a sign... But the GS/1K clump is a give away.

DELee

"Excuse me, are you part of the clump? Can we join you?"

David

uanj

I had the exact same thought.

Now I am getting confused, is it scrum or clump for those of us who can pre-board?

Recently it seems like all my hub-to-hub flying on UA is on widebodies, even the 777-200. The gate agents invariably announce the flight is full, it's a large plane so be ready to board when called. Then they call all preboarding with a 1.5 second pause between groups resulting in a tangling surge of strollers, wheelchairs, GS, 1k and families with small children.

I had the same happen in PTY. Just a mess of additional passport and security checks and no one knew what the heck was going on and could we actually board or not. If you did not board you got sent back to one of the passport check lines. Ridiculous. Never heard a single announcement I could understand.
That's great. Now I can say to the GA "Is this where you would like us to form the clump?"

narvik

Boarding process at GVA yesterday:

Three 'official' lanes:
- Premier 1K/Polaris
- Group 1
- Group 2

Boarding process:
- Passengers in wheelchair boarded without an announcement
- Pre-boarding announcement for GS only
- Boarding simultaneous of 1K/Polaris and Group 1 each through their own respective scanner