I flew for the first time in many, many years last September and I didn’t find it difficult at all the find out about the TSA guidelines and the boarding zones and checking baggage and what not. I did see some of the zone jumpers, but they were not allowed and had to return to the line. I quickly figured out to just hang back and wait for my zone to be called. I figured that big number meant something and was proven right when the gate attendant explained it. Easy peasy.
A better way to board airplanes has already been invented, and it’s pretty damn obvious when you think about it: window seats first, then middle, then aisle, starting with even rows, then odd. This method spreads people around the plane and maximizes the use of the aisle, while also giving people enough space to hoist their bags into the overhead bins. It nicely avoids the current situation, where everyone crushes toward the back and then has to stand in the aisle while people are struggling to put their bags in the bins, clogging up the only narrow pathway through the plane. There’s even a video showing how it’s done.
Airlines don’t use it because they think it’s too complicated for people to understand.
It was either $50 or $70, I can’t remember. It wasn’t really first class, but business class. I wonder, because it was so last minute, if they were trying to fill those seats and so brought the price down.
It was definitely more comfortable, but it was a really short flight. Not quite worth it. For a much longer flight, I’d definitely do it again.
Sadly, they’re probably right.
I commonly get first class upgrades at the airport for $45 (American Airlines). If I do so, I won’t have to pay the $25 baggage fee, and I get to “skip ahead” in a lot of lines (TSA, boarding.)
Another advantage to being the last to board (and I do this whenever I’m not flying first/business class) is that you have your choice of seats. My ticket might say “34F”, but if “8B” is open, yeah, I’m sitting in 8B.
Of course, there are times when the person who sits in 8B actually shows up, but just mumble something about “oh, this is the seat for my connecting flight, sorry” and no harm done.
Let me rephrase. Many people become afraid that they will lose their seats when the plane is overbooked and they (the passengers) have to get on last. If you don’t fly often, the plane has stated it is over booked and you are getting on last it is not unresonable to worry that your place might be lost. Especially when the airline so clearly has its head up its exhaust in other respects.
Like I said, I rarely fly these days but I’ve gotten on a plane only to find that someone else had the same seat reservation as me. Fortunately, that plane wasn’t over booked.
Whereas if you had taken the seat assigned to you, take-off wouldn’t be delayed another five minutes while you played musical chairs.
Can you please quote some of this “contradictory” information? Because as much as I have flown, I have never seen anything contradictory about what the TSA does and does not require. It may be stupid, but it’s consistently stupid.
I wonder if the reasoning behind it is this: Whan you board from the back, everybody gets bunched up in one section of the plane. When they board by groups, you have the same number of people dispersed thoughout the plane. When they get seated, another group comes in.
It’s not because it’s too complicated (though it might be; people are stupid) but because it inherently separates groups. A family of 5 would have people boarding at different times and the inconvenience for the passengers generally outweighs the inconvenience for the airline.
Nevermind that the plane is unlikely - at busy airports - to ever leave a gate early or if they do, they will simply be held back in the takeoff order until their slot, which was scheduled months ahead of time anyways. If boarding is happening on schedule, it is happening with plenty of time for the pilots to do a walkaround, do their pre-flight checklists, verify the passenger and cargo manifests, etc. While passengers are pushing and shoving and getting settled in, the flight crew are doing the other things that need to be done before takeoff. They’d need that time anyways - and, from a safety perspective rather than an airline financial one - the more time they have, the better.
Case in point: some of the posts in this thread. 
:rolleyes:
I’m trying to remember my last flying experience.
I couldn’t find out whether or not I’d be able to take my walking stick on board with me. I was prepared to have it stowed in an inconvenient place, but the website didn’t say whether or not I could take my stick on board. After I got back home, I bought a cane, but the stick is still easier for me to use to walk.
The website said that I could take my medications and devices with me, in an additional carryon bag, at no extra charge. However, when I arrived at the boarding gate, the woman there insisted that I check either my purse or my medication bag or my carryon bag. She didn’t care that I had several hundred dollars in medications, supplies, and appliances in my med bag, nor did she care that I didn’t want to check my purse. When I got home, I complained about this to the airline, and the CS rep said that no, I shouldn’t have had to check one of my bags if I had to have a med bag with me.
So, in my experience, the website doesn’t cover all of the things that I need to know. And sometimes, even if I find out what I want to know, a worker might not have read the website or the rules. IF I ever fly again (and it looks like I’m going to have to in the near future), I’ll make sure to print out the pages that say that yes, I’m allowed to have an additional bag for my meds and supplies.
That would be the look on the face of the guy while you got your stuff together and got out of his assigned seat, right?
It sounds like you had an ignorant employee working the gate-- a shame and something the airline should apologize for, but hardly the fault of a TSA guideline. Remember: the people at the gate taking your ticket before you walk to the plane are not TSA agents, those are airline employees. The TSA agents are the ones working the scanners, patting you down, etc.
While I heartily endorse the OP, the airlines have brought this situation on themselves. If you’re going to encourage people to carry on everything they possibly can by charging baggage fees, then PLEASE enforce your own fucking carry-on rules! You know those little test bins where you can see if your bag will fit in the overhead? Ever see anybody using one? Me neither. People bring these enormous oversized suitcases on board and cram them sideways into the bins because they won’t fit wheels-first, people bring three bags and refuse to put any of them under the seat, and nobody ever calls them on it. But if you’re unlucky enough to be in the second half of the boarding process and you can’t find anywhere to put your one reasonably-sized bag, you can bet then there’ll be a pissy flight attendant telling you you’ll have to gate check because they weren’t speaking up when the inconsiderate jackasses* in front of you were taking up all the space.
People aren’t jumping the line because they’re worried about their seat. They’re jumping the line because they’re worried there’ll be no room for their stuff. And they’re not wrong about that.
*Not everyone is an inconsiderate jackass, of course. But there are more of them than there used to be because such behavior is rewarded more often than not.
What I get a kick out of is watching people scurrying to deplane, only to stand in a crowded line with people bumping each other and struggling to retrieve their carry-ons without smacking someone else in the head.
Unless you’re near the exit and have a reasonable chance to make a quick exit, just what the fuck is your hurry to stand in a crowded line and get jostled about? I don’t get up until the line is moving or the plane is nearly empty.
Same deal for leaving concerts, theaters, and such. It’s also the same phenomenon as the people who hurry and weave through traffic in order to get behind a large group of cars stopped at a red-light.
I’ll never understand those people! :smack: Herd mentality is truly a strange thing.
I tend to agree, although there does seem to be some inconsistency in the way that the rules are enforced.
In my post-9/11 flying experience, for example, i’ve had to take my shoes off at some airports and not others. Not only that, but i’ve seen different policies at the same airport, depending on when i was flying. I would fly out of BWI and be told to take my shoes off, but then the next time flying out of BWI, a few months later, i was allowed to keep them on. But then had to take them off again the following time. I’ve seen similar inconsistency with laptop-in-case versus laptop-out-of-case requirements.
I don’t really buy this argument.
They allow families with small children to board first, meaning that just about any group having someone who needs to stay together can stay together. If there are no young kids, then it really shouldn’t be an inconvenience for a family or group to be separated for five or ten minutes during boarding. I am perfectly capable of finding my seat without my wife next to me, and she’s perfectly capable of doing it without me. About the only reason a healthy adult should need help is if they are too short or too weak to get their luggage into the overhead bin, and in those cases there are flight attendants or other passengers who can assist. Over the years i’ve helped dozens of elderly women get their bags into or out of the compartments.
Yes to all of this. I think flying would be far better if all airlines enforced their carry-on rules properly. And this isn’t a problem unique to the checked-bag-fee era, either; it was happening even when you could check your bags for free.
Hint: if your rolling suitcase can’t even be rolled down the aisle without crashing into the seats, it’s probably too big for carry-on. Also, put your cases in wheels-first, you selfish douchebags.
I think it’d fail because you’d have couples or families travelling together whose heads will explode that the suggestion that they have to split up to board.