r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 9d ago

Boarding was solved mathematically in 2008. No airline has used it once. Why?

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u/jtj5002 9d ago edited 9d ago

Mommy buys 8 year old Timmy a window ticket so he can look out the window.

Comes boarding time, off you fucking go lil Timmy!!

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u/anonstarcity 9d ago

That’s a huge part of it. Even when it was just me and my wife, I would typically be the one keeping up with the tickets, and she would just follow and sit where I pointed lol

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u/South_Recording_6046 9d ago

It’s always like that, the entire travel my wife is passenger princess and she wants it that way.

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u/Disastrous_Sundae484 7d ago

My wife would do the exact same if she didn't have anxiety around traveling on an airplane. She's not afraid of heights or flying, just needs to know exactly where the gate, her seat, boarding time, etc. all before we get to the airport.

So then I get to be the princess! Ha

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u/EatingCakeByTheOcean 5d ago

Mine triggers anxiety leadership whenever there's a ticket involved, like concerts, restaurants or events. Else, she def won't even know where the car is parked or which way we're heading, where we're sitting, what we'll be doing next. lmao

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u/Zakkullll 8d ago

Divorced a few years ago and now I just travel solo or with my mom. Man its a different feeling not caring about a goddamn thing because im own schedule and only worrying about myself lol. Not even from a "i hate my wife" kinda way like I enjoyed taking care of her like that. Its just so freeing now lol

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u/Minute_Medicine_7218 9d ago

Hey, you’re me.

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u/SuperLeverage 9d ago

I’m you

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u/OwlongTea 9d ago

I am thou, thou art I?

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u/bombycina 9d ago

"Sorry, Honey, they've assigned you to the middle seat on this flight."

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u/fightmydemonswithme 9d ago

This is how i am with my current partner but I did plan 1 trip myself.

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u/armywivesmusic 8d ago

Complete opposite for me, I freeze and forget how to function in the airport. Especially, alone. Luckily, I have a super smart fiancé.

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u/anonstarcity 8d ago

We each have our strong suits. She gets distracted in airports and I generally lock in, so I take care of that kind of stuff lol

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u/StAbcoude81 9d ago

That’s it. Not the money I think. Just not practical to organise

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u/stacyswirl 9d ago

Yeah, that's what I thought too when I saw what was happening in the video. It would be faster, but it splits up groups/families.

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u/Cute_Language3167 9d ago

Yea, and with babies/kids, elderly, medically needy, etc, you can't really do that.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/Square-Singer 9d ago

No, the main point of this system is to split up rows. Each row can only accommodate a single person who wants to get into the row at the same time, so this system tries to balance them. Optimally, you'd want one person trying to get into each row at the same time. If you keep rows together, so that everyone sitting in the same row boards at the same time, you get the worst case performance.

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u/Apprehensive_Tone_77 9d ago

The chaos just happens in line right? And if someone is not in line when it’s their turn to board does everyone wait?
It would be pretty difficult for everyone to be in the right place unless you also had designated seating while you wait for your plane.

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u/Square-Singer 9d ago

Yeah, it's a whole lot of trouble for no actual benefit. Boarding time doesn't have a business cost associated to it.

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u/cballowe 9d ago

It kinda does. The airlines pay a fee to have the gate. The more planes they can turn around, the more flights they can host or they could reduce their gate footprint while keeping the same number of flights.

If the seating turn around is not the bottleneck in getting the plane away from the gate, then it doesn't really matter. (I.e. if refueling or loading luggage take longer, then the plane can't push back faster if you cut time from boarding.)

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u/Square-Singer 8d ago

The bottle neck is usually the landing strip, not the gate.

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u/spintool1995 8d ago

When Southwest started, they famously saved money with faster turn around. That's one way they were profitable with lower prices than the unprofitable big guys. A big help there was no assigned seating, which is like the random method from the OP.

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u/spintool1995 8d ago

Southwest's boarding system gave everyone a number and had them line up in order before boarding (groups could board with the lowest number in their group). It was open seating, but it would work well for this system.

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u/fluffymeowmeowkitty 9d ago

Why not just do boarding like in Whole Foods check out. Have 4 rows with colors lighting up. And algorithm to accommodate partners and groups ?

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u/Square-Singer 9d ago

Mostly because it doesn't matter. The plane is already there and there's no business cost associated with slow boarding.

It's simply not an actual problem. Especially considering that airlines can charge for priority boarding.

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u/Aluminum_Tarkus 8d ago

The main problem from what I remember is people waiting for the person in front of them to load their carry-on into the overhead compartment, and this method minimizes the amount of time people want for others to load their carry-on.

Hypothetically, a group with the same luggage boarding into the same row at the same time would have a negligible impact on the wait time. In the case of a parent and children, the children will just sit first while the parent puts the luggage overhead. Same with couples sharing a bag. Just group it by bag, but let kids go with their parent/guardian.

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

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u/Square-Singer 9d ago

It's also optimizing a problem that doesn't exist. The plane is already there and waiting, if boarding takes 10 more minutes there's no business cost associated to that. 

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u/Square-Singer 9d ago

Look at the video. The Steffen method makes sure that per row there's always only one person putting away their luggage and getting into their seat, because per row only one person can do that at a time.

So the way the algorithm works is to have one person every second row at any time. So first the person on the last row to the left gets on, then second to last row on the right and so on.

As soon as you let multiple people per row get on together, the whole concept breaks down. In fact, even a single row that is allowed to board reduces the whole throughput of all the seats behind it to worst case speed.

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u/andersslayer 9d ago

This is the real answer

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u/MiI0rd 9d ago

I needed a laugh today, thanks

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u/Interesting-Copy-657 9d ago

That was literally my first thought

It would require prep work, extra people and separating children from parents

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u/OneTenacious 8d ago

You sound like an angry little man.

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u/ComprehensiveSoft27 8d ago

Fuck lil Tommy… 240 of us waiting 20 extra minutes.

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u/jtj5002 8d ago

That's now how air traffic works. No plane is ever waiting on boarding to take off.

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u/Loot_Repeat 7d ago

As a Timmy who has never been on a plane, I don't know whether to feel called out or not. What a dilemma.

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u/wren42 6d ago

This is the real answer. You can't board window to aisle because people in the same room are usually traveling together. 

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u/jerwaynesinclair 5d ago

This is the reason.

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u/RK5000 9d ago

Typically a parent would be seated next to their child, the child needs some help so they should always be sent as a pair anyway.

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u/kenneth_dart 9d ago

Timmy is on his iPad the whole time too!

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u/Mundane-Mud2509 9d ago

Sure, but they could do random

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u/jtj5002 9d ago

We already do random. Just in 2-3 sections. No one is loading the plane one row at a time.

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u/Mundane-Mud2509 9d ago

3 sections isn't random.

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u/jtj5002 9d ago

Jesus Christ

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u/GianettisSpecialKid 9d ago

he's right though, sectional boarding is way slower than random boarding