“Group 1 passengers may board now. You have 75 seconds, at which time the Air Marshall will shoot anyone still standing.”
“… together with those who put their luggage anywhere else than in the luggage bin directly over their seat.”
Business Select is nearly a no-brainer over Anytime fares, but it’s not as good of a deal when compared to the Wanna Get Away fare. With Wanna Get Away, you can purchase Early Bird Check-in for $12.50 each way which usually will get you in the A group, but not in the first 15 or 20 spots. And no free booze.
Agreed. If you think about it the “boarding by groups starting with the back of the plane” makes the most sense for boarding efficiency.
But with all the mergers, airlines like United had to also “merge” all these different FF systems. So now there’s this ridiculous sequence before they get to the “group” (aka “cattle class”) boarding. It’s “platinum club members”, “gold club members”…“zinc club members”…“lead club members”, then “boarding group 1”.
The problem is that even though these FF memberships allow for “advanced” boarding, it does not imply that their seats are in the appropriate back-to-front order. So this advanced boarding screws up the whole back to front system: FF club members having “forward” seats thus clogging up the aisle for the people who need to get further aft.
The mythbusters actually did a full segment* on this, and actually discovered that a couple of the most efficient loading mechanisms actually felt slower to the passengers.
iirc, the most objectively and subjectively fast way (for a single-aisle arrangement with 3 seats either side) was windows - middle - aisle but done in blocks with each group taking the middle and aisle seats at the rear (or rear-most empty section) and the window seats in the section forward of that one, so it looks like this:
CDD DDC
CDD DDC
BCC CCB
BCC CCB
ABB BBA
ABB BBA
Tail
*There 2 segments in each 40 minute (hour-long w/commercials) episode.
I have flown AirTran a few times recently and I have been allowed to choose my seat when booking. I was presented with a map of the aircraft and I could click on the one I wanted. I chose an emergency exit row seat on an Atlanta->San Juan flight and a flight attendant questioned me before takeoff to check if I could fulfill the requirements (speak and read English, lift 50ish pounds, not a complete moron) and we were off.
I think the larger driver of group-1, group-2, etc, is being able to provide preferential treatment to frequent fliers. I travel a lot for work and have the expected “platinum” type status. That certainly results in me getting upgraded to First Class a lot but when not upgraded that means I get to board early (Group-1) and am always guaranteed the coveted overhead bin space as a result. I also prefer an aisle seat and the airline always assigns me to one.
Now in the boarding by window, middle, aisle - that leaves this frequent flier f-coed. I’m in the last group because of my aisle preference and guaranteed there is almost no overhead space left by that point either. Not exactly a great way to treat the customer who flies over 100K miles every year with that airline, right?
I imagine the airlines weigh slightly less efficient but acceptable group boarding strategies against a slightly less efficient strategy that gives preference to those that spend the most amount of money annually on the airline.
It’s Airtran in my case as well.
Thanks! We never even look at business select, being cheapskates who don’t drink on planes. Good to know, though. SW could do a better job marketing this.
I was on a flight where they actually loaded through two doors. Via the jetway through the front of the plane, and via a staircase through the rear door. You boarded through the door closest to your seat, and they announced many times who should go through which door.
It was an absolute clusterfuck. It only took one or two people who got on the wrong end of the plane, and then they had to cross through every single other person, and the aisles in an airplane are just not wide enough for two people with suitcases to pass each other.
I’m pretty sure it would have been faster to let one person on the plane, let them find their seat and stow their bags, then let the next person on the plane…