boarding by zones

[grimmrad]

Perhaps someone in the business can enlighten me here: Widebodies (and not only those) are often boarded by zones. Maybe it is only me - but what exactly is the advantage of that? I can understand it in theory, however ones I am in the aircraft - of course usually having zone 99 or higher ;-) - it doesn't make any sense, i.e. I can't recognize any zoning. Pax are sitting everywhere, front, back, aisle, window... Is that because a) we, the Pax, are so undisciplined that we just don't adhere to it and just board no matter what zone is called (which makes me kind of stupid than by waiting all the time to the end only to find all luggage space occupied) or b) that the zones don't make sense.

So - what are the criteria for the zone: front, middle and aft of the ac or aisle, middle and window seats? And, be honest - does it actually work??

Thanks a lot

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by grimmrad

So - what are the criteria for the zone: front, middle and aft of the ac or aisle, middle and window seats?

Most airlines that do this board the rear of the aircraft first, then expand the boarded zone from the back forward. One of the greatest wastes of time is caused by people who are blocking the aisle while stowing cabin baggage. If you board the rear of the aircraft first, you minimise the time spent while people who have to walk down to the back are themselves waiting in the aisle for someone further forward to stow their baggage.

[Middle Seat]

The down side of course is that if you're in the latter group, between the people in the back of the plane and the elites flying in economy who get to board early, there frequently is precious little bin space left.

Friggin' bin pigs. Slaugher 'em all, I say.

[Cyrano]

Lufthansa has in the past used zone boarding which starts with the window seats, then middle, then aisle. (If I recall correctly they actually had six zones instead of three - possibly they also split by front and back of cabin). There was an exception that if you were travelling with someone else whose zone number was lower, you could both board in the lower-numbered zone.
The *theory* here was that boarding would not be delayed by aisle passengers who were already in their seats having to get up and stand in the aisle in order to allow a window/middle passenger to get in. Works fine as long as no-one is stowing baggage in the overhead bins (i.e. only in a purely theoretical situation ).

[PAXboy]

Whilst I do not travel as much as I used to, my observation of carriers attempting to load pax by Zones / Boarding Numbers / Pre-Board or Out-Board is that the Pax will usually defeat them.

The only times that Zoning works is if the gate agents are ruthless and, over the past twenty years, they have all steadily caved in to the aggressive pax. I do not blame them for giving in because we have seen pax behaviour become very bad. My guess is that their mgmt will not back them up either. No one is going to pay to put recording CCTV on each gate in order to sort out such minor issues. My guess is that agents have tried to enforce the rules and then had a pax complain, resulting in mgmt apologising. I say this based on the way that corporates behave these days in all areas of commerce.

The way in which pax stampede the gate and pressure the agents is unpleasant in the extreme. There is no doubt that the incentive is for overheard locker space. Which brings us back to the other problem of cabin baggage that we often discuss in here.

So ... set out clear rules for cabin baggage and enforce them ... set out clear rules for boarding and enforce them. Neither are going to happen and the scrum will continue.

Each pax will have to decide their own measure of joining the queue early and expecting that the agent will not turn them away, or 'doing the right thing' (How terribly English) and finding that they cannot get their correctly sized cabin bag into the locker.