In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a worse way to board a plane. And yet somehow every time I fly that's how it happens. Maybe it's just that my company chooses horrible airlines.
The article mentions that assorted methods of boarding were tried, though it only goes into detail about "the Steffen method". I wonder what the difference between blocks-from-the-front and the obvious improvement of blocks-from-the-back is.
I think the added time/social pressure having to open a compartment would be enough to stop most people who do this.
It does cost them some flexibility, in that they can't board as soon as they arrive. But my experience is that sitting outside of a plane is generally far nicer than sitting in first class... at least on domestic flights. For international flights getting on sooner would be more desirable.
I've never flown domestic, but that's the way its been for international flights.
It's also there to keep them out of their toilets. When you have 40 people in coach waiting for 2 toilets and 2 unused ones in first the first you gotta make the firsties feel better for buying a more expensive ticket.
If you boarded last, you'd get no pre-takeoff beverage to sooth your nerves.
At some airports, they board the larger jets through multiple doors - First/Business gets their own, and everybody else crams into the other one. I've also been asked to wait to board while the first class gets situated and has their pre-flight drink. (I've also had that pre-flight drink, and it's pretty nice!).
To me it sounds far more pleasant to sit there outside reading while everyone else has to queue up, then walk in just before take-off to get into my comfortable first class seat, without being jostled by the entire rest of the plane's passenger complement slowly trudging past me and impinging on my personal space.
Perhaps I'm weird.
Besides, why look up when they're announcing things over the P.A.?
Most of the coach passengers are just glad to be onboard, like they didn't think they'd get in. And they don't fly frequently enough to know what to ask for. The F and J are usually frequent fliers, know exactly what they are entitled to and ask for every time.
I can settle into my seat, and do some work before the door closes, or even fall asleep before the wheels leave the ground.
Also, lounge access. Lounges make air travel civilized, like staying at a nice hotel (SFO international British Airways lounge excepted— it feels like being at a Holiday Inn Express).
(I'll fly 75k miles this year. AA PLT/OW Emerald, and I fly almost exclusively CX/KA/AA.)
So as if waiting in security lines were not enough, imagine waiting in a security line that was actually getting longer as you just sat there holding your bags watching first class after first class passenger go through and everyone else just standing there.
I just couldn't understand why the TSA would even care about the class status an airline gives to its passengers, I don't know any other airports that do this.