Originally Posted by
Self loading bear
Why can’t the waiting seats at the gate be numbered like in the plane?
The answer to that is passengers. Airlines try various ways to board aircraft in a less horrible fashion, including the interesting variation of boarding all window seats first, but as soon as a few people get up, almost everyone joins the queue. It gets to the point that we join in, too, just to try to get some space in the overhead locker.
Mostly I was completely agreeing with your points, SLB. And it is interesting that pretty much all the improvements we can think of happen on the ground, before and after the actual flight. Saving an hour at departure and half an hour at arrival would be a significant improvement even on an eight hour flight. Is it really impossible to board aircraft from multiple points, these days? I nostalgically remember DC-9s, when you could board front or rear depending on where you were seated. Sure, you had to go outside, but that is more of a treat than a hardship in most weather conditions.