>> Also most airlines board people roughly front to back, when it should be the opposite

the problem with back to front is that people in the back would put their bags into overhead bins in the front, which they can easily pick up on the way out. However, you cant walk backwards for pickup, so the read overhead bins would be empty and inaccessible by the people boarding last.

I was a traveling consulting when people did such things. I got to see this silliness 2-3x/wk

Never thought about this! I wouldn't imagine putting my bag somewhere not within my eyes reach. Maybe because I often travel with laptop.

I don’t think they mean passengers in row 50 put their bags in row 30.

I think it’s just that your eyes’s reach trends towards the front of the plane. If it’s busy when you try to stow away your bag, chances are you will prefer putting it in a meter towards the front of the plane (where you’re standing anyways, waiting for the person before you to stow away their bag) over cramming it in above your head, where the other bags already are.

Oh, people in row 40 routinely put their bag in row 8 if they can, because it means they might not have to check their bag if the plane runs out of space.

I’ve been wondering about this for well over 4 decades. Never even thought of that possibility.

Honestly they need to crack down on overhead usage in general, and not just for this reason. The thing about air travel that always makes me angriest is how F'ing slow everything becomes because everyone is trying to jam 93 different huge bags in the overhead bin.

Incentivize people back towards checking their bags, the process would be more efficient all around.

Also that we (in both boarding and deplaning) let people hold up the entire line to use the overhead bins, which shouldn’t be necessary.