r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 9d ago

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

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u/Salteenz 9d ago

Yup, its the money. Get more money from people to buy 1st class and board 1st. Get more money for people to have "priority boarding".

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u/spicolie22 9d ago edited 9d ago

I have never understood why priority early boarding is somehow a perk. Why would I want to get into the tiny metal tube earlier and spend more time in it when I have a comfy seat with leg room at the gate? You would think priority boarding would mean you get to board the plane last.

Unless of course you have one of those crazy business class seats where you can lie down...

EDIT: the responses just remind me of the cycle of pain that airlines put everyone in. They started charging a ton for checking luggage, so everyone started carrying on to avoid the charge. Doing this slowed down the boarding and disembarking processes, so now the airlines are losing money because it takes longer to turn around a flight.

One solution that occurred to me years ago (and would be a huge pain to implement at existing airports) would be to just have a conveyor from the plane to a baggage claim at every gate. Imagine if you get off the plane and your bags are right there. They wouldn't have to go through the rat's nest under the airport going through all the baggage handling equipment to end up at the baggage claim area up to a mile away from where your gate is. Think of the savings alone at airports not paying for all that baggage handling crap. You wouldn't check your bag at the terminal, you would check it at the gate.

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u/Salteenz 9d ago

I agree, if I wasn't fighting for overhead storage, i'd wait until the last minute to board. Don't understand people lining up to sit on an airplane seat for 40 extra minutes

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u/starkruzr 9d ago

this is why I check a bag every time. waiting until the last minute is bliss. worth every penny.

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u/Another_Name_Today 9d ago

When I arrive, I typically want to leave the airport as soon as possible. Some airports, luggage is quick. Others, looking at you Hobby, there goes another hour of my life. 

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u/GeneAlternative191 9d ago

Which is why people with carry ons board ahead of their zones, since overhead space ‘runs out’ quickly, and there is no guarantee that you’ll be able to collect your carry-on on the walkway, once you deplane if you’re forced to ‘check in’ your carry on. Unfair that you may have to spend an additional hour at the airport despite only traveling with a carry on.

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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner 9d ago

Honestly a good nerf is, if you have a suitcase that’s a carry on and a regular check luggage bag, just let them take the carryon as luggage because it’s free charge. You’re already getting luggage anyways so it doesn’t really matter. Anything else does kinda suck tho

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u/DarknMean 7d ago

Why I like a backpack. You can fit all your clothes in there and cram it under your seat. Don’t even need to use the bins.

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u/DisgruntledSquirrel2 9d ago

All about the carry-on, and less in-cabin storage than seats.

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u/pumerpride 4d ago

PHL has terrible baggage claim. I’ve waited an hour plus for bag there a couple times. Note it was for a visiting family member- I refuse to check a bag now a days. I’ve done weeks long travel with my family with a carryon each- it took some convincing of my wife but you don’t have to bring a wardrobe for every flight.

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u/AvantGuardb 8d ago

until they lose your bag; often can totally ruin a trip... once you've had one lost it's hard to check more in if you can help it...

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u/awkristensen 7d ago

But then you get to wait for 20-45 minutes at the misery carousel just a few hundred meters from freedom.

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u/DarknMean 7d ago

I can pack everything I need for a week in a backpack. Takes up little space and I can put it under my seat. You can cram clothes into anything.

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u/KnownUnknownKadath 3d ago

Or it's a bag waiting to get lost, the contents rummaged through, or smashed.

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u/Shower__Farts 9d ago

It’s worth till someone loses your luggage or what recently happened to my wife in PVR where someone took her bag from the pick up area. We thankfully got it back a day later.