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A comment on Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster, study finds. Parent comment

Re:Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster,... by Consultant32452 on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @06:50PM (#22060178)
I think boarding was covered in Freakanomics. Column boarding is technically fastest, but too impractical to coordinate. Just letting everyone randomly line up and enter the plane turns out to be the most efficient practical method, but no airlines do that.

Edit: looks like my memory is poor...

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/11/theres-...

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Re:Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster,... by thaumasiotes on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @06:59PM (#22060261)
> Just letting everyone randomly line up and enter the plane turns out to be the most efficient practical method, but no airlines do that.

Doesn't Southwest do that?

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Re:Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster,... by sib on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @08:26PM (#22060797)
Southwest's "lining up" process is not random; you get an assigned position in the line according to a set of factors.

Once you start boarding, each person can sit in any seat that s/he wants.

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Re:Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster,... by sjg007 on Wednesday January 15, 2020 @09:02PM (#22061021)
It's psuedo-random based on when you get your boarding pass (starting 24 hours). Essentially the quest for a non-middle seat conditional on distance to the front door.
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Re:Letting slower passengers board airplane first is faster,... by stephen_g on Thursday January 16, 2020 @12:27AM (#22061914)
Most Australian airlines just let people randomly board, apart from letting priority passengers (disabled, business class, gold and platinum frequent flyers) board first.

It does perplex me when I travel to other countries and experience complicated systems with boarding groups etc. that never seem any better than the random method!

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