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Here's a clever idea I just thought of. The airline could keep the overhead bins locked while everyone boards. So everyone just comes in and sits down, keeping their belongings on their lap. (It seems like that would be a lot faster)

Then once the plane starts taxi-ing the overhead bins unlock and people can put away their belongings (since you have to wait at least ten+ minutes to taxi and take-off it seems like this wouldn't cause a slowdown.) Plus you'd get an extra efficiency because the person in the aisle can load the bags for everyone in his row.

Should I patent this ... :-/

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So what if I'm the guy sitting in the window seat and I can't reach the bin unless I a) stand on the lap of the guy in 14C or b) ask 14B and 14C to move into the aisle while I do it?

What happens when a whole plane full of people try to move into the aisle while the aircraft is moving? FAA usually doesn't care for that one bit.

Was thinking the same thing. Or start charging $50 if you can't fit your carry-on under your seat.

Everyone schlepping all their crap through security and on to the plane is 90% of the problem.

Except we're not allowed to stand up during taxi. (And for the most part, I think that's a good policy, if everyone was standing up with their arms over their heads holding a rolling suitcase, a slight swerve could actually hurt people.)

Also, sitting down with a rolling suitcase on one's lap isn't really practical either.

Two issues I see:

* Some bags are too heavy / dirty (wheels on rollers accrue a lot of dirt) to keep in lap.

* These days because of the fees inevitably people carry too much luggage on board and have to check some of it after the bins fill up. Impossible to check luggage while plane is taxi'ing (unless there is some door to the cargo hold somewhere?).

I agree that the single biggest improvement in airline boarding should be with the airplane and airport design. The fact that there is only one entrance/exit makes for an automatic bottleneck and limits options. Most planes are equipped with a rear door or on larger planes a mid-door. They should allow those doors to be used during boarding. Seems that this would be the most cost efficient and reasonable gains should ensue.

the really big international flights sometimes board 1st (and higher, if we're talking about lines like singapore or virgin that have luxury classes) through separate doors from us proles.

of course, that only helps them....

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