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Comment by mdorazio | Hacker News Reader

As a frequent business traveler, I've long thought that slow boarding could be fixed by two things: 1) Standardized luggage 2) Not letting passengers handle their own bags

If you watch while boarding to see what slows the process down, it almost always seems to be related to people trying to cram oversized bags in the overhead bin, or being unable to effectively manage their own bags in the aisles. If you remove that from the equation entirely, the passenger responsibility becomes solely to get into their seat quickly.

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I always thought it was weird since the advent of checked baggage fees starting from the first bag that the airlines were effectively charging you to speed up their boarding process.

Either airlines are terrible at cost optimization (unlikely), or the cost to them of having the plane sit idle while people screw around with their luggage is much lower than I would have imagined.

As someone who flew weekly for years, I'd immediately refuse to use any airline that required checking bags. Airlines have completely lost my luggage before, ripped it open and taped it back together, and sometimes only delivered the luggage days after I landed.

There's no way they could be trusted with checked luggage beyond things you don't mind losing or arriving late, like extra clothes or something. If you need to bring product samples or equipment there's really no option but to bring it yourself or ship it ahead of time.

What I've seen a bit recently is that people with standard wheeled carry-ons were asked to put them right next to the plane when boarding and the crew put them in a separate compartment. When leaving the plane, you would pick it up at the exit. It's a compromise between checking it and having it close to your seat at all times, and seemed to work quite well.

I avoid checking my luggage precisely because I don't want anyone else handling it, nor do I want it ever leaving my sight.

I do think that baggage causes a significant delay, but primarily because people don't board in exactly the order of their seats, and the aisle only supports one person (and their bag) at a time. So, with people boarding from the front of the plane, you have people in row 12 waiting with their bag behind a person in row 10 stowing their bag; after the person in row 10 stows their bag and sits down, the person in row 12 can move forward and start stowing their bag. And after they finish and sit down, the person behind them can go back to row 14 and start stowing their bag.

And the same situation happens in reverse when debarking the plane.

If everyone boarded and debarked in exactly the order of their seats, then everyone could load their bags in parallel, and boarding and debarking would speed up significantly.

Carry-on luggage is already standardized, it is usually just not enforced.

With ground crews not being paid properly, I would not trust them with what I currently have in my carry-on luggage: laptops, camera, important paperwork (WHO vaccination certification, TANs etc). So your option 2, if implemented by an airline, would make flying with them unacceptable for me.

Since one cannot change people - and I'd like to add to your list of problems with them a) checking every single row number because, just maybe, row 42 might come right after row 23, not 19 rows ahead b) stowing away luggage in the overhead compartments the wrong way, thereby maximizing required space and c) before sitting down on 3C, taking your time to stow away your luggage, then realize that something important is in there and retrieve it again etc.. all while, of course, standing in aisle, blocking passengers who try to get to row 4 to 47 - how about looking for technical solutions?

a) personal guidance system that one gets just before boarding: A small, cheap handheld device that is configured when the boarding pass is swiped that shows a simple arrow to guide you to your seat? It could even double as the key to unlock the entertainment system (and if not removable from there will not accidentally be taken off the plane after the flight).

b) high tech voodoo called "paint" - actually mark how much space one has per seat in the overhead compartments, maybe even with the seat number.

c) All airlines could adopt the concept of boarding groups, a lot of time could be saved as well. Last 5 rows first, then leave 5 empty, next 5 rows, repeat until at head of plane. Then fill the empty rows following the same schema. If currently boarding rows are displayed prominently at the gate, staff does not even have to deal with passengers who did not get the announcements and passengers don't have to deal with unintelligible gibberish that qualifies as announcement (esp in 2nd or 3rd languages).

Carry-on luggage definitely is not standardized; each airline has its own rules [1]. And if you're on a commuter plane like a Bombardier CRJ, you'll be lucky if you can fit anything into the overhead bin.

[1] http://travel-made-simple.com/carry-on-size-chart/

True, but there's always some dumbass with a "carry-on" that they've expanded (so it no longer qualifies). Or, they don't know which direction to place the bag. Or, they jam their suitcase, plus their briefcase and jacket in the overhead, taking space that should "belong" to somebody else.

I'm far from a frequent flyer, but the number of passengers incapable of not screwing up the boarding process is amazing.

> each airline has its own rules

exactly - "has rules". Very few actually enforce them. And while I don't know whether the aircraft industry agreed on some standard, my pretty huge, hard-case backpack always perfectly fits in. And most airlines have actually the same rules how large items may be to qualify as carry-on: Worldwide you see the same measuring cages at check-in counters or the gate and trolleys are advertised as "carry on compatible" - both would not be possible without a maybe unwritten but pretty well established standard.

Edit: And you of course are right about very small commuter planes - but they are, IMHO not really relevant in the discussion because they are used less and less due to economic disadvantages of making something airborne for just 50 people.

Yes, and this also eliminates the need to have "priority boarding", which is really just a way of ensuring that the frequent traveller customers don't end up without overhead space for their bags.

I think the elder, people with disabilities, and families with small children would be the biggest losers here as they really need the right to priority boarding to avoid weird looks from the eventual self centered pricks that happen to be in the cabin.

Every airline I've flown always calls for "people who may need extra time boarding" or similar at about the same time as first class, before everyone else gets to board.

I speak from my experience flying in Europe, every airline that I've flew with boards first slower customers, business and the rest of the customers. I figured the US would be the same, wrong assumption.

US is similar - slow passengers (elderly, kids, etc), first class, business/priority, then the rest.

What flights are you on that priority boarding fills all the bins?

I think brk was just saying that everyone in priority will have room for their bags. Without priority boarding, they would have to fight with everyone else.

This I think would be a very nice improvement. It would be interesting to see what regulations prevent such a model. After all we are just Self Loading Freight; why rely on the passengers for any part of the logistics chain while shipping people between airports.

Instead of waiting in a open concourse with availability to starbucks, overpriced food, room to spread out, neck massage stations, proper restrooms you are exchanging it for waiting on the tarmac situations in a confined seat.

this in my opinion is the real issue, when i fly international people tend to check bags/the planes have ample overhead bin space i always find that the boarding process goes surprisingly fast. On domestics inevitably someone boards the plan sitting in row 6 but all the overheead space is full until you get to row 10 and they stand there confused for a few minutes

Another thing that can improve things significantly: more than 1 entrance into the plane. What if people entered through the back, too?

Certain airlines (e.g. Norwegian) do this. It's usually a more unpleasant experience because you can't use a jetway and have to use the stairs and be exposed to the outside elements.

Jumbo jets also often have multiple jetways (e.g. for the upper deck or the business vs. economy sections.

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