Why is boarding a plane still a mess?

It's simply inconsiderate folks and no change in boarding logistics will fix inconsiderate people. Certain people get on the plane and they don't realize there's a line of people behind them and no matter how many announcements are made they do not step out of the aisle in order to situate themselves. So they clog up the aisle and try and build a little nest in their tiny seat with all of their bags and accoutrements.

I suspect these are the same people that go to a Chipotle and can't decide what they want to order or what toppings they want on it. Even though they've been there a hundred times and they order the exact same thing on their burrito bowl each time for them is a brand new experience of toppings discovery.

People often complain about those in first class or business class, I rarely find them to be the problem. They want to get seated and get that plane moving as fast as possible. It's those who have no concept of how their actions affect and delay others and because they're not in a hurry no one else should be in a hurry.

We've all worked with these people. They're the same kind of people where they're told a feature deadline is in 3 days. They understand that they have some work to complete and three others have work to complete on that same feature. You have plenty of meetings so they know that their work needs to be completed first so the others can complete their work and everyone can hit the deadline in 3 days. All they seem to hear was their work needs to be completed in 3 days and it's not their fault that the other people couldn't make the deadline.

One idea I'm surprised that I've never seen tried is assigned slots in the overhead bins. That would avoid the problem of two-way traffic in the aisle caused by people putting their bags in bins further back than their seat, plus remove most of the incentive for passengers to try to board before they're supposed to.

Missed the big negative of Southwest open seating, which is where one early-boarding member of a group will "reserve" seats around them, irritating other early-boarding passengers, Southwest FAs, and Southwest's bottom line.

But it will soon be academic as open seating will be gone by next year.

Logistics fall apart when emotions and carry-ons collide.

Because it’s optimized for profit instead of efficiency.