
The 'Flying Carpet' - The fastest way to fill a plane - ColinWright
http://www.roundpegin.com/html/aircraft_boarding.html
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nobody_nowhere
One thing which this (and a lot of boarding systems) ignore is that high-
revenue customers for airlines demand preferential treatment

If I'm a frequent flyer, regardless of whether i'm sitting in coach or first
class, i'm going to expect to be seated first so I don't have to wait in line
and can be sure I get a space in the overhead bin. Airlines (like southwest)
who don't provide this lose out on business travelers who book last minute,
full-fare tickets -- and major carriers who rely on this revenue will be
reluctant to switch to systems which don't account for this.

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jameskilton
Ever single boarding time research project I've seen ignores one simple truth
that anyone who flies notices immediately:

Most people don't care about the order, they just clump to get into their seat
first. They ignore the zone / rows / etc called by the gate person and I've
yet to see a single gate person tell someone they have to wait because their
zone / row / etc hasn't been called yet.

People already treat air travel as a necessary evil, I don't see any possible
way how they would agree to this kind of boarding pattern.

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anthonyb
It's not really a pattern though, is it? The row numbers are spaced closely
enough that there'll be some space between people.

You might get some people who don't pick their seat but just grab the nearest
patch of carpet. I doubt that would have much effect.

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eitally
It depends on the airport and airline. Southwest arranges by row groups, and I
had the same experience in the Hong Kong airport (flying on Cathay, I think).

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ssdsa
That's a nice idea, but row boarding doesn't allow couples or families -
obviously wanting to sit together in a "column" ("row")? eventually - to stay
together during the boarding process. This could be especially difficult if
there are parents with young children.

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anthonyb
Yes it does - just go stand on the carpet with your family.

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marcusf
phys.org had an article with some research on optimal plane boarding [1]
describing what seems to be another alternative, sadly sans the infomercial.

One thing I find curious about all of these is that they assume back-to-front
as the baseline. I've never ever seen a plane being boarded in something
resembling an ideal back-to-front. On most flights it's basically a random
pounce where the stewards try to keep some sequence but usually fail. I tend
to have a small carry on and just sit it out until most everybody has boarded,
regardless of my seating.

[1] <http://phys.org/news122215582.html>

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waivej
On Southwest Airlines I often sit on the plane waiting for baggage loading.

That's no assigned seats + more checked baggage since it's free.

