# People who pretend to not understand boarding groups for airplanes. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 13, 2012, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686 "2012-02-13T06:43:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686/121 "2012-02-20T14:31:28Z")
Y’know, actually I have found myself holding major US-domestic airline boarding passes that \*don’t \*include the boarding zone on their face more than once (often codeshare connections). Annoying since ideally I should then line up at the gate station to get new passes from the new carrier, but often my bag claim sticker was adhered to the back of my original pass from the partner carrier, so now I have to keep track of both. And although I’ve always heard the gate crew announce the boarding by zones, quite a few times that announcement has been kind of perfunctory and I can see how someone could miss it. But it gets suspicious when it happens repeatedly on busy routes. Now, we’ve all been wondering what is the “system” behind the zones, but according to [seatguru](http://www.seatguru.com/articles/boarding_procedures.php), for most airlines, save for United mentioned above, they are by and large primarily rear-to-front systems (apparently those who tried a more elaborate but efficient algorithm, e.g. USAirways, eventually gave up). I can imagine people will be :dubious: about this, and that may be because in some heavy-traffic routes you can end up with all those tiered/privileged priority boarding customers making up such a significant part of the passengers, taking seats all over the airplane, that by the time the commoners show up it looks like it was half boarded at random. Notice that for instance USAir regular coach gives a lower zone to those who check in online vs. those who check in at the airport - that can mean 31B boards before 31A thought their ticket fare type is the same. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686/122 "2012-02-21T00:42:00Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Perhaps you got to the gate late? Perhaps you were reading? Perhaps you were smashed? (Not that I’d blame you.) I have also heard it every time I’ve flow. It is one of those automatic airline things, like telling you how to put on a seatbelt as if all our cars didn’t have them. Have you considered maybe it’s a US thing? As I said, the one and only time I’ve heard it, it was on a flight that began and ended in the US. (My flights to and from the US didn’t involve it, nor did a shorter flight within the US.) Also, what **mnemosyne** said. If that’s the case, it’s doubly foolish to get impatient, because airports are one of those places where you might meet a foreigner from time to time, whose country may not use your odd system and who consequently may not be as familiar with it as you seem to expect. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686/123 "2012-02-21T01:47:07Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > Have you considered maybe it’s a US thing? Considering I’ve had boarding groups in England, the UAE and India, it’s unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686/124 "2012-02-21T02:05:53Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Considering I’ve had boarding groups in England, the UAE and India, it’s unlikely. I’ve _NOT_ had boarding groups in England, Germany and Cuba. Boarding groups are not universal. It might not be solely a US thing, but it’s certainly not worldwide and it’s silly to imply that your experiences must be correct when other people are explicitly saying otherwise. It _might_ be a code-share thing. I have no inclination to do the research, but it’s possible that Star Alliance carriers do things one way while SkyTeam and Oneworld (and other alliances) do something else. Or it might simply be airline-specific. It might even be _airport_ specific, as the realities of loading planes in some facilities cause challenges not found in others (such as temporary jetways versus permanent ones, rental space versus hub operations, etc). ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686/125 "2012-02-21T02:14:50Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > It might not be solely a US thing Might? It’s definitely **not** a US thing. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686/126 "2012-02-21T04:03:13Z")
Um…yeah… I think we just spoke past each other there. It is not a US thing. It is not a universal thing. Some airlines do it. Some don’t. Not everyone will have experienced it. Right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-pretend-to-not-understand-boarding-groups-for-airplanes/612686.md?page=6)