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In Europe this doesn't happen (in my limited experience). People board in random order in which they lined up towards the gate or get off the airport bus.

I think this is because americans can't ever let anybody loiter so they just have to push people into some order, even inferior one.

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I'm a frequent flyer, mostly within Europe, and this is true. The exception is boarding a bigger plane like the 747. But iirc the ordering is then more coarse grained (based on aisles instead of seats).

And I guess I'm not the only European who immediately thinks of low fares, blue and yellow plastic, non-reclining seats and lottery ticket sales, when reading about that damned random method.

At least they've finally switched to preassigned seating a la Easy jet though. Alleluia, it's so much more relaxing!

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