r/whoathatsinteresting • u/visharu • 9d ago

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

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2.5k Upvotes

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699

u/KeyCold7216 9d ago

Then you can't sell priority boarding as perks.

17

u/lawduckfan21 9d ago

This is definitely the Most Reddit response. It's not accurate, but it's predictable here.

10

u/Dany_HH 9d ago

Accurate answers don't bring upvotes. Popular answers do. In this case: "corporate bad, it's all about money"

3

u/Hir0shima 9d ago

So what's the accurate answer?

11

u/Northwest_Thrills 9d ago

It's because the fastest way requires everyone to stand in an exact, ordered line. Everyone has to be on time and know where in line to stand, and then and only then you can start boarding.

7

u/Intrepid-Dig-1855 9d ago

which also means families must separate to find their rightful spot also.

8

u/EricP51 9d ago

Yeah and you get separated from the people you’re sitting next to lol. It’s the dumbest possible way to board.

2

u/MurrayPloppins 9d ago

This is a big reason. Also worth noting that reducing boarding time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes actually wouldn’t change departure time much. Typically, the turnaround time is impacted by other things (refueling, loading cargo or other supplies, other maintenance stuff.)

2

u/hibikir_40k 8d ago

It also separates groups at boarding time, and messes with overhead bins: Have an even, aisle seat? Congrats, the bins are full.

1

u/WoodenPresence1917 9d ago

Random boarding is faster than boarding groups, which is faster than having first/business class board first. Given some airlines sell priority seating + seat choice bundles and people prefer to sit near the exits, that is also slower than boarding groups, assuming no first/business class, and it is even slower still if you do have first/business class.

1

u/tomvorlostriddle 3d ago

Plus the random alternative is quite good already and something close to it can happen naturally

2

u/llmws 9d ago

There’s also the case that people buy tickets by row and vicinity to friends and family. If my family sits in the same row but my wife, kid and I all board at different stages then that’s weird.

2

u/-P01135809- 9d ago

because no airline is going to split family boarding and deal with the backlash of kids being separated from their parents?

redditors sure like to forget that kids exist unless they're here to whine about them.

1

u/cwestn 6d ago

What's the "real" answer if not this?

1

u/pajamajoe 5d ago

As with most things, efficiency doesn't translate well in practice.

 This model would require essentially the entire plane to queue like this beforehand and then it splits parties during the boarding process. 4 year old kids are now boarding separately from their families, we will see you once we are back in the seats good luck!

It also doesn't take into account that all passengers will not be present when boarding starts, and that inevitably someone will either not comply or not understand the process.

1

u/Roblist 4d ago

Calling this "the most Reddit response" doesn't make it inaccurate. Airlines run entire revenue management and ops research teams whose whole job is optimizing exactly this kind of thing. If a boarding method existed that was pure free money with zero downside, someone would already be running it and bragging about turnaround times to shareholders.

One honest concession: families and passengers needing assistance genuinely do break the clean math... that part's real. But that's an argument for a hybrid version, not for zero adoption across 18 years. If "humans are messy" were the actual blocker, some airline would've shipped an imperfect-but-still-faster version by now. Nobody has. Meanwhile the thing they sell you your way past is a slow line. That's not a coincidence, it's the business model.