This week, American Airlines announced a new boarding policy intended to speed the process.
The Problem: The boarding process takes too long. Passengers board in assigned groups, but those boarding later often face a challenge finding space in the overhead bin which delays departure. (A problem created – or at least exacerbated – by American’s 2008 decision to charge customers to check baggage.)
The Solution (According to American): Let people who don’t need space in the overhead bin board first. (Actually, First Class, special needs passengers, elite frequent fliers, and Group 1 board first, but you get the idea.) Basically, so long as you have only your “one personal item” or less, you are in Group 2.
According to their trials, this actually did help close the doors a few minutes earlier, and American reports a positive response from crew and customers, but there are plenty of Doubting Thomas’s. Many industry followers quickly pointed out that Virgin America instituted and abandoned a similar policy in 2011. Among other issues, there were instances of passengers ignoring the new rule, boarding with only their personal item to go under the seat but putting it in the bins anyhow. Virgin America CEO David Cush admitted it was hard to police, and the last thing flight attendants and gate agents need is one more chore during the boarding process. This also opens the door to argument as to just how big the “personal item” can be. If I have only my rolling carry-on, does that qualify since it (sort of) fits under the seat? Since there is no “your item must fit in this space” gizmo at the gate, what or who is the deciding factor?
Possibly adding to the mayhem, gate agents can offer passengers “early boarding” if they will gate-check their carry-on. On one hand, I welcome this as I no longer have to upgrade my seat to get into Group 1. I also get to check my carry-on without paying a baggage fee. Certainly, this can’t be good for the airline’s bottom line but perhaps the improved on-time performance compensates. But there seems to be no rule governing who can be offered this privilege or when, which may add to frustration and anxiety. Let’s face it; even with group numbers printed on their tickets, passengers tend to crowd the gate in hopes of getting on early as it is.
Small items always find their way into the overhead bins where they don’t belong.
Once on the plane, this plan will require attendant intervention in order to work properly. The rule in place today on virtually every carrier (minus those who have started charging for carry-on bags) has been very simple for a very long time: Put your carry-on bag in the overhead bin, and your one personal item under the seat in front of you. Yet, somehow, an amazingly large number of fliers manage to not understand or outright ignore this rule and put as much as possible in the overhead bins. Nobody will stop them so why not? Of course this slows things down, and it creates even more problems when bins fill up and bags have to be checked. American’s new process appears to address this symptom but we’ll have to wait and see if it cures the problem.
The Better & Easier Solution: Enforce the current rules. They have not failed; we’ve just been allowed to ignore them. In order to succeed, this new rule will need to be enforced so why not just do the same for today’s rules? Another solution, which I call the “not bloody likely” option, would be to roll back the baggage fees and get the luggage out of the cabins in the first place. A third option, employed successfully by Spirit Airlines, is to let the people who need the extra time – those with carry-on luggage – board first. Of course, Spirit charges for carry-on, but that also gets you Zone 1 boarding; you’re first on the plane so you have someplace to put that bag. Their idea wasn’t just to make money, but to depart on-time and the policy did both. In Spirit’s world, you’ve paid for that privilege whereas, at other carriers, it’s a privilege you’ve paid for whether or not you want to – or get to – use it. This is not to say we support carry-on fees! It’s merely a suggestion that American’s tactic might be backwards.
What do you think? Would you be willing to “fly naked” in order to board early? When you fly American, do you think other passengers will play by the new rules or will “business as usual” continue? Let us know with a comment.
Related Story: Frontier to Charge for Carry-On
Interesting post on the topic of overhead bin options by Tim Hodern.
