I don’t get the rush to get on early either. The waiting area is much more comfortable that the plane. I prefer to minimize my time in a small, uncomfortable airline seat.
Some people are worried about losing out on overhead bin space, but this hasn’t happened to me. I think newer planes have larger bins than in the past.
Only reason I prefer to board as soon as allowable is that I always get a window seat and I’d rather not have to disrupt someone who’s already seated.
I seem to recall that some years back one airline (United?) tried boarding by tier rather than row — window, then middle, then aisle — but it didn’t last. Possibly because of squawking from people who wanted an aisle seat but also wanted to stow their household goods in the overhead. Which reminds me of something from a Dave Barry column:
Flight Attendant: Sir, you can’t put that in the overhead compartment.
Passenger: But I always put this in the overhead!
FA: Sir, that’s a LAWN TRACTOR!
It also breaks up people travelling together, which annoys them, as discussed above with reference to kids and wheelchairs.
I’m one of those “hang back in the boarding area” types. My boarding pass has a reserved seat printed on it (I don’t fly Southwest), so there’s no issue. My seat will be there, even if I’m the last SOB on the plane, as long as I make final boarding call. I hate lugging stuff around the airport, so the most I’ll have on me is a small briefcase to hold my reading material.
On the off occasions I’m toting actual carry-on, they will always gate check it for free. This is not checking through the baggage carousel, but right at the gate. You get off the plane, and your bag is sitting right there on the jetway waiting for you.
I just have no inclination to be a part of the cattle stampede for boarding NOW NOW NOW!
I agree with those who would rather maximize their time waiting at the gate where you have room to moved around, and minimize their time in a cramped airplane seat. I don’t care about overhead space, because I always check my luggage, because I hate having to stick to TSA-size-approved toiletries, not being able to bring my pocketknife, etc. What I usually do is wait until they start boarding, then head for the men’s room.
Not necessarily. Once, I had bought a window seat, went to board the plane, and there was a woman seated in my seat, and a man in the middle. I politely said “I’m in 19F” or whatever, whereupon the guy said to me “my wife here is disabled, they used a wheelchair to get her on and put her in this seat.” So I accepted my fate, and sat in the aisle. I mean, in one sense, I get it. If they go to put this little old lady who can barely walk on the plane, and her ticketed seat is in the middle or aisle, and the person with the window seat isn’t seated yet, they’re going to stick her there because she can barely get up, and I can’t hold anything against a little old lady who can’t walk without a walker. But I hate the fact that air travel has become like this. I’m an adult so I can let it roll off me, but still, I picked the window seat because I wanted the window seat, dammit.
Count me among those who would rather wait in the boarding area as long as possible, especially if I only have a backpack and not a small suitcase (Southwest Airlines). Sure, when my group is called I will get in the queue, but I wont be fighting anyone who wants to get in front of me - altho I prefer a window seat if it’s a daytime flight - the only reason to get on when my turn comes. I think they call the people crowding around the gate ahead of their boarding group “gate lice”.
Also, I am not sure why the first class/upgraded boarding/business class (or whatever airlines call it), where you sit in the larger seats in front, people with an aisle seat wish to board before everyone, other than to show the little people who’s in charge. I mean, once you are in your seat, you have to endure 120+ random fellow citizens slowly proceeding by you, with their assortment of body odors or perfumes, small children staring at you, oversize luggage hitting your arm and shoulder, oversize bodies, and dirty looks (from the little people). If I were ever in that group, I for sure would be the last person in the door.
My Mom worked for the airlines for decades, ending with Continental/United. She worked in the disabilities department and wrote/updated a lot of their policies. I learned two things:
No one from the airline can ask you about your disability. HIPAA, against the law, etc.
Disability includes mental disability (as long as it requires that you need additional time to board).
Add those up and it’s easy to cheat. Basically, if you say you’re disabled, then you are and no one can really question you about it. You don’t technically need to ham it up with a wheelchair.
Until his condition deteriorated further my father could manage to get out of most airports walking, but he couldn’t manage waiting in the security queue for twenty minutes or more and then go through the security process, take off his shoes and jacket, etc.
He’d get a wheelchair to board, but not on deplaning. He had no desire to board early and sit in a cramped seat for an extra 15 minutes, but the wheelchair attendant had to leave as soon as possible.
Just one datapoint. I’m sure all the other people really were assholes trying to cheat the system.
Sometimes we get a nice glass of champagne while we wait.
ETA: It’s nice that they give it to us. The wine itself is mediocre
There’s a term for folks (like my wife) who hang around as far forward as possible waiting for their group to be called - Gate Lice. I hate it, but we travel together so I’m standing behind her with a sheepish expression on my face. She wants to board at the first possible legal moment we are able.
In my experience, you can drop off a gate-checked bag at the gate but will have to pick it up at the baggage carousel. Only things like assistive devices or strollers will be available at the gate.
This is true about 10% of the time that you gate check your bag.
50% of the time your bag will appear on the jetway, but only after you and 40 other passengers have waited for 10 minutes.
40% of the time, your bag will be delivered at the baggage carousel. As just posted by @Dewey_Finn.
I flew to Shreveport and back in June; I went via Dallas on American. Because of my cancer -and a somewhat tight connection - I booked a wheelchair to go from gate to gate. On the way back I decided not to as I had more time and, frankly, that service is time-consuming.
At the gate in Dallas back to Tucson to my surprise they announced who was eligible for early boarding by name, and they mentioned me. So I said what the Hell. It was nice; I took my time down the jetway and one of the flight attendants stopped by to make sure I got settled.
Years ago we were headed to Italy and some woman travelling in a family group of six or so kept having to yell at the 10 or 12 year old -the lone kid in the group - to behave. He was definitely being a little hoodlum. Which led to loud whining from him. She finally reeled him in, telling him him it was time to preboard since he was a kid. Whoops. The gate agent told them he was too old for them to get a preboard for families with small kids; we heard the arguing. They had to board in their group, which was after ours. I may or may not have giggled as I passed the entire ticked-off family.
I remember I was on a flight that was literally 20 minutes late taking off because we had no-joke TWENTY people in wheelchairs alongside their associates. I thought this would at least mean deplaning would be easy because usually people in wheelchairs wait until everyone else deplanes first before leaving. No dice, the moment the wheels of that plane hit the destination runway suddenly everyone jumped out of their seats, grabbed their bags and stood around the aisles until the gate actually opened to let us out.
did you mean “hordes”
An airline recently sent me a coupon offsetting my next flight because a cabin steward argued with me about having a medical issue for which I requested an easy and legitimate accommodation. Specifically, I asked her if she’d move a small piece of luggage I couldn’t reach in the bin, putting it in front of another piece of the same passengers’s luggage so I could put my bag in as well. She argued. Other passengers then mocked me and insulted me because the beta monkeys long to be bullies. So satisfying to hassle someone who’s vulnerable! As I told the airline in my complaint, I didn’t take the medical preboard option because it usually isn’t necessary, but from now on, I will always take it on this airline.
Whores? Hoards? Hordes?
For the last few years I’ve been having problems with anemia which, when coupled with my occasional knee pain, makes it difficult for me to walk through the airport. Getting to my gate at RDU usually isn’t as difficult as it has moving walkways which run from security to my gate, but the long walk through O’Hare from my gate to baggage claim and then to the transit area is usually more than I can handle. So if I’m having a bad day I will ask for a wheelchair to be available when I get to Chicago. This means that I automatically get tagged for pre-boarding even though I don’t have any problem getting to my seat.
I’ve never been on a flight with large numbers of pre-boarders (I think the max was four or five) so I don’t feel particularly guilty about taking advantage of this perk.
When my wife and I used to fly on Southwest she had a scooter. SWA was great about letting her drive the scooter through the jetway right to the door of the plane, and then having it at the door when we reached our destination. We did occasionally get a kick looking out the window and seeing a baggage handler driving her scooter to the baggage space.
Can you explain how all these other passengers “mocked” and “insulted” you?
For example, “God, get over it! What a dumb bitch you are!” “God, you’re so stupid!” “Bitch, just sit down!” Nudging each other and laughing. Like that. But only after the cabin steward loudly announced that she’d never heard of such a medical issue and that I was lying.