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Comment by ymolodtsov | Hacker News Reader

Boarding times are basically not reliable at all. Any time I come 10m after the official boarding time on the ticket there's still a standing line.

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My guess is that's because boarding a plane is a little bit like being an extra for a film, it's a hurry up and wait situation. If they printed the exact time boarding starts and people showed up then (and later), no flight would ever board on time. Better for the airline to print an earlier time and have people wait longer, so they can board as quickly as possible. Every minute behind schedule costs the airline money.

Yes, and the actual time is probably too close to the official take off time.

But this is why Flighty probably doesn't show it, it's irrelevant.

AA displays the boarding time in the app instead of the departure time once the flight gets close enough (like same day)

>If they printed the exact time boarding starts and people showed up then (and later), no flight would ever board on time

I don't understand the logic. If everyone is there at the stated boarding time and the airline has correctly allocated enough time for boarding, aren't they winning?

200 people can't board at the same second. Reality is you want orderly boarding over the course of ~ 10-15mins depending on passenger makeup. Crew also need to account for passenger with additional needs, catering recharge, etc

The point is "everyone is there at the stated boarding time" never actually happens IRL, so you give an earlier time.

Just don't try this on Ryan Air. A good friend got stuck at the airport on a Sunday night after being denied boarding because he waited out the standing line sitting on a bench right by the gate. As soon as the last person standing walked through the checkpoint the gate crew closed the gate -- and completely ignored my friend when he showed up 10 seconds later.

How did his actual boarding time match up with the contractually agreed boarding close time?

Most budget airlines pull this crap but I've started pushing back especially when it's poor weather outside and they expect us to wait in the rain just to improve their metrics

They need some EU261 denied boarding threats/claims to sort them out

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