Loganotron

Southwest recently implemented a new boarding process. It’s really stupid. They still have the three boarding groups: A, B, and C. But now, they give you a number from 1-60 within each of those groups. You’re supposed to line up by number, which doesn’t work because people are stupid and can’t count while they’re on the Blackberry. First they take A 1-30. Next comes A 31-60. Then B 1-30 and so on. The stupid part is that no one understands that the signs that say 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, etc. mean you’re supposed to line up by exact numerical order. The ticket takers won’t take your ticket unless you’re in the exact numerical order. LAME.

I get why they did it. It gives some semblance of order to an otherwise seemingly chaotic ‘cattle-call’ system. Also, now they can sell the first 30 seats at a higher price — the Southwest equivalent of First Class. But, it’s an unnecessary system for something that already worked just fine. Most people I’ve been in line with all agree the old way was easier and much more tolerable.

Oh, and they’ve also shifted around family boarding. Before, families used to pre-board, smoothing the general boarding process by getting kiddies out of the way. Now, family boarding takes place between groups A and B. Again, this is to give the ‘First Class’ something to feel good about. Unfortunately it means kids are stuck holding up everyone in B and C groups.

The one good thing is that people don’t line up for an hour beforehand. Now they just tell you when A should get in numerical order while B and C stay seated. When A is done boarding the B lines up. So, I guess there is one small upside.

In general I’m pretty annoyed by this new system. It’s lame and doesn’t actually speed anything up. If they really want to speed things up, just switch to seat assignments. Or better yet, limit the number of carry-ons that people can bring. It’s always the last 30-50 people who board who don’t have room for their bags in the overheard bins that really delay things.

UPDATE: Just I boarded the plane, a flight attendant was chatting with a guy right behind me. She was commenting that if they want to speed up boarding, the should limit the total number of carry-ons. I turned around and said that I had just blogged that exact point. I then mentioned that I thought this new “number” system for boarding was completely ridiculous. She agreed.