Nobody boards back to front. First class boards first. Then frequent flyers, who typically get the seats toward the front of the aircraft. Then there's some semi-random zone thing whereby big hold-ups occur waiting for people in the front and middle of the plane to put their bags in the overheads.
If airplanes got rid of the overhead bins and really did load the planes back to front, boarding would go a lot faster.
This. And actually enforce the baggage limits they say they do. I usually only take a small carry on that fits under the next seat but I've seen people with enough provisions to supply the entire eastern front as carry on and it's ridiculous that they're even allowed.
> Nobody boards back to front.
Just to add weight to this, I've flown on at least United, American, Delta, and Southwest, and in my experience, none of them board back-to-front. These are the very airlines mentioned in the article!
> (From the article) United uses an “outside-in” boarding process by which people with window seats board ahead of those on the aisle.
I doubt this as well.
The only thing I've found that does speed up boarding is that some (rare) airports support jetways with two doors: one for the front of the plane, and one for the back. (Albany is the only airport I know of.) Getting on/off the back is significantly quicker in my experience. (Practically no waiting, between the gate and the seat. There's still the line at the gate, of course.)
By the time they got to us regular folks, there was barely anyone left to get on the plane.
Then first class boards.
with rear to front being, Air Canada Alaska American British Airways Continental Frontier JetBlue Spirit Virgin Atlantic