Rebelyell

A few years ago I was getting ready to board a flight that was late leaving CMH. The gate agent explained that we were going to have a quick turn around and asked us to line up according to our row numbers. She actually checked, and had it so that the people in the back of the plane boarded first and so forth. We weren't just in groups, we were in pure sequential order.

I have to say that boarding went surprising fast. I read somewhere that the scientific best way to board would be for people to line up in two waves, with people boarding on opposite sides of the aisle. For example, first wave would have row 25 ABC, 24 DEF, 23 ABC and so forth, then the second wave would have 25 DEF, 24 ABC, 23 DEF.

I'm just curious what people would think about being lined up to board like this. I've only done it once, but I thought it was great. But we did feel a little like a kindergarten child in lining up before boarding.


ADDENDUM: I meant to put this in the general folder. I guess I'm too dumb to post!

cactus47

US does this for the shuttle flights between DCA/BOS/LGA. You'll find strong opinions on this board from people who don't like that system.

Every boarding system has tradeoffs. HP/US used to have a system similar to the one you described, but now chooses to use the boarding process to give perks to several types of travelers: preferred members (including *A), credit card holders, and people who pay for the privilege. Combine those with others likely to board first (first class, exit rows, family, military), and already half the plane has boarded.

US has decided that it's acceptable to lose a couple of minutes of boarding time to give those people boarding priority. It's probably a fair compromise -- on a full flight, boarding early to get overhead bin space is a nice perk for having preferred status.

Beckles

People have often criticized Southwest for having a 'cattle call' and you'll still hear some uninformed flyers crticize them for such a boarding process, but the reality is they make everyone lineup now (like young school children as you say) and although you still choose your own seat when you get on board, so it's not quite the same as boarding in seating order, I find it to be a more civilized process than the crush of humanity experienced at the gates of most legacy carrier flights. Sure I can board on a the nice Priority carpet, the problem is fighting through the masses huddled around the gate to get to that Priority carpet.

tommyleo

That's because the GA's don't bother to tell people to STAY THE %#&@*! AWAY from the boarding area until their zones are called.

CPRich

Only in my head, when trying to figure out how to optimize boarding. I would think that lining up, on a 20 row plane, as 20, 17, 14, 11, 8, 19, 16, 13, etc, would minimize boarding time. I think the inverted pyramid and use of zone boarding attempts to do this.

But actually expecting the cattle and gate lice to do this correctly is beyond overly optimistic.

jmastron

Virtually every airline (except WN of course) boarded this way, by rows back to front, until sometime in the late 90s/2000s. It was a lot more efficient not having to push past the "elites" sitting in the front as they stored their bags and slowly sat down (and back then all of economy was open to all). They did generally board First class first. Depending on the size and fullness of the flight, the GA might do 3 rows at a time or 10.

It certainly had its pros and cons, but I'm not sure today's systems, with multiple aisles, tiers of worthiness for people to argue over, and endless announcements of exactly who is in what group, are all that much better.

Beckles

I've heard plenty of gate agents ask passengers to do that, many passengers do not comply.

BoeingBoy

It goes back a lot further than that for most mainline type carriers (the "commuters", as they were called before the branded Express type operations, flew smaller aircraft (mostly below 35 seats). I remember back to front at PI in the early 80's and US used that method at least as far back as the US/PI merger.

HP had a study done to find the best way to board and the reverse pyramid was the 2nd best. First was WN with open seating - people left to their own devices boarded quicker than those with assigned seats.

The problem with the reverse pyramid is the number of people that get priority boarding and sit in various locations in the cabin. You end up taking much of the efficiency out of the reverse pyramid.

Jim

Often1

1. USS can board a 320 in 15 minutes. It takes UA 40 minutes to do the same thing. And, they don't tolerate DYKWIA's gate lousing.

2. I've seen carriers do this on quick turns for exactly this reason. Sometimes, impending WX, ATC or flight restrictions mean getting out of dodge quickly really matters.

seratonin7

I used to fly to PDX frequently and the inbound aircraft was always running a little late. The station manager would always come down to the gate and do something similar to assist in a quick turn. After the last passenger got off the incoming flight they started boarding in a similar fashion, but we even lined up down the jetway until the aircraft was serviced. Once that was done they boarded a full A320 in 10-15 minutes, bringing the turn down to about 30 minutes or so. The aircraft that arrived 30 minutes late into PDX always ended up getting back to PHX early. Great US team up at PDX!

thomwithanh

United is going to a WN-esque boarding process - five boarding groups, five separate lines:

• 1: Global Services/1K/Platinum, Premium Cabins
• 2: Gold/Silver, *G/*S, "You're in" (CC holders), purchased Premier Access
• 3-5: General boarding

I'll be experiencing it on a transcon back to New York tomorrow... I'll let you know how it goes. Man I'm glad US still allows preferreds to board before USDM MasterCard holders.

BoeingBoy

Not saying you're wrong about perks for FF's but this shows how FF friendly harms efficiency.

Jim

geo1005

The other big variable when trying to optimize the boarding process is that not everyone flies solo. If every passenger is flying alone and has no carry-on and you eliminate any pre-boarding for elite or familial status it becomes pretty easy to 'optimize' a boarding process.

The real world is never so simple. Add in elites and moms and dads and kids and business partners flying together etc etc etc... and then recognize that this mix will differ with every flight. That gives us what we have today.

Air Houston

I have witnessed the seating chart based boarding on Allegiant when they are making quick turns. Maybe US is trying to be more like a real low cost carrier.