AA Changes Boarding - Interesting Take

So American Airlines is changing boarding to by the time you check in.

No big deal you say?

Actually it is. Check out the local newspaper story.

Now what is interesting is two major factors. One is to do with Carry on and the other with boarding efficiency.

With carry on there are no US flights where all the bags fit. So the airlines bag fees have resulted in different behaviour. IE people try and carry on as much as they can. For AA this has resulted in an interesting characteristic. They try and load passengers quickly but quietly offer no charge bag tagging at the gate. Clearly this practice has become widely known so the resulting potential revenue loss is not insignificant lets say $100 per flight (4 bags @$25 per bag). With AA moving more than 3400 flights per day on average this could add up.

Yup that's a cool $31 million a year.

Let's now consider the airport operations issues.

The airport boarding process is one of the least liked processes for a passenger. Right up there with TSA Screening but we are not touching that one right now.

The problem is that everyone wants to board at the same time. It is a hydraulic problem. Getting the people fluid into the vessel. However if you are a long time reader of this blog - you will find that I have examined this issue before. Random boarding beats everything but some very specifically controlled boarding. So randomly boarding people at different points on the plane was one of my suggestions based on check in number.

Seems AA is a good follower of the Professor and agrees. So this is now likely to speed traffic through the boarding gate.

How well it works - TBD.

Cheers

Stupid Airline Trick #752

Like many Frequent Flyers - I spend a lot of time boarding aircraft and exiting aircraft. It is a somewhat stressful time (or maybe I am just a worry wart).

So this award goes to the whole industry for their arcane policies on boarding aircraft.

I have several examples so I am not going to pick on anyone in particular because I am just using these as examples of time and effort wasted.
EG
Air France's small boarding gates in Terminal F at CDG. Also the way they board. With special boarding pass readers where someone actually puts the paper into a self service machine.

Lufthansa's forcing you to use self service machines in smaller airports without any corresponding availability of trouble shooter people. Its hard enough for me as a FF - for a little old lady from Pasadena it could be quite intimidating.

Delta's in and out of the Red Coats at ATL. Some times they are there - many times they are not. When things get tough (both dynamically and procedurally) they seem to disappear.

Certain airports premium paid early boarding for LCC carriers. For example CIA in Rome where you pay then get on a bus ... along with the other passengers who didn't pay for it!

Air Asia's boarding herd process. I am sure someone is going to get killed at BKK.

And my favorite one above all - is the stupid boarding from back to front. All the studies show this is not the best way to board. So why do they still do it.

If you would like to trawl through this blog you can actually find a story I did on the most efficient form of boarding.

So for this reason the industry - airports and airlines get the Stupid Airline Trick award.

Cheers