Loading cattle: is it IAD or the agent?
 

Ok, wifey and me ran our first MR this past Saturday.......DEN-IAD-MCO-IAD-DEN. Of course, the IAD-MCO-IAD was Ted (blush with embarrassment).

Nearly every United or Ted flight I have been on has boarded nicely and orderly. However, at IAD, with all the parents and whining children going to Disney, the agent announced they would start boarding, and asked for parents with strollers first. That was all she said. Almost as if everyone knew the drill, everyone else (without strollers) just got up and formed a disorderly jumble of a line and started boarding. Not another word from the agent. It was like a cattle crossing.

I have not been witness to such an unorganized jumble. Is this an IAD thing or an agent thing?

MCO is a zoo, to and from, no matter where you're leaving from. I'm doing a large quantity of NW DTW-MCO MRs (this hub captive is desperate), and I've experienced the zoo named MCO, and I presume it's the same for all carriers. The week before school started was the primer... ex-DTW, standbys, trying to seat families together, slow deboarding, people lined up in the jetway waiting for gate-checked strollers (heavy rain during deboarding). On the turn-around ex-MCO, my later flight was cancelled, and I was (thankfully) able to stand-by on the earlier return... severely deluged GAs, it's almost impossible to turn around a 757 in 70 minutes (given the type of pax travelling). I can only imagine what it was like trying to put almost 200 pax up in hotels that night. Week-day was a bit better, with road-warriors. But anything that resembles family-day (any time school is out, weekends, holidays, etc) is going to be a zoo. Too many ir-rops-type pax, too few GAs.

Steve B.

It is IAD. It borders on being an unmitigated disaster. Shoving, crowding, trying to board big jets from small gate areas, pissy people running late after a delayed int'l connection, you name it, it sucks. I've been sitting in F or C on 747s and 777s, trying to board when the cabin is announced, and probably 100 people have shoved in front at times.

fwiw, i had a great g/a at iad this past saturday. he did the std "for those w/small children or those needing assistance" speech but actually waited until he got an ok from the f/a's that these folks had not only cleard the jetway but had taken their seats ^. in additon, when he made the "first/gs/1k etc and seating zone announcement" he stated he would be enforcing it and he was vigilant in doing just that as i saw him fumigate the lice from the line ^^

Wow. . .what does this add to the conversation? :confused:

In all the times that I've flown out of IAD to or from SEA I too have noticed that it is oftentimes a free for all. Several times out of what was the G concourse, there were several people who either missed their plane or got on the wrong one. A few weeks ago while flying AS from PHX there were numerous families with small children. The GA said "for those families who have children 3 years and younger, please step up to board. . " I thought that was a nice way of dealing with all of the families and expediting matters as well.

I've noticed this happens more on my Ted segments than on my mainline segments. I'm not sure if this has to do with Ted's LCC-type image and branding or if it would happen anyhow given the high percentage of leisure travelers on the Ted routes. If there's one positive that's come out of the liquids ban (and this would appear to be the ONLY one), I've noticed that overhead bins are a lot less full recently. It makes boarding in group 1 that much less urgent.

Gate lice are an evil infestation, so the GA actually enforcing boarding order is a great thing. I watched a GA at JFK turn away a Y pax trying to board with F the other day, saying politely, "We are still boarding first class; we'll be boarding the main cabin by zone in a few minutes after we finish first and business."

If the GA just allows the lice to exist, they will multiply.

not sure what you mean by this but i was simply trying to state (and perhaps in your opinion, not very well) that where the op had a lousy experience boarding at iad, i had a good one with a good g/a who after making the announcment and accomodating those who needed to board first, informed the pax that there was a boarding order and that it would be enforced. my reference to fumigating the gate lice (picked up on by exerda) was not used by the agent but rather my poetic license to elaborate as to how the g/a worked the line. apologies if my attempt at humor didn't sit well with you but with all the craziness asscoaited with flying today (real, imagined inane, inept and fabricated), you still gotta be able to laugh.

I think it's just the agent. I flew IAD-MCO just a few days ago, and normal boarding protocol was followed.

Closed temporarily for moderator consultation.

cblaisd
Moderator, United