To not understand why people do this?

[moutonfou]

There may be something completely obvious I'm missing, in which case please enlighten me!

Yesterday I was flying home with an airline that assigns seats to everybody on check-in. Nevertheless, as soon as a member of staff appeared at the boarding desk, 70% of those at the gate sprung up and dashed to form a queue. Of course, they weren't ready to board for another 15 minutes (and hadn't even made an announcement yet) so everybody just had to stand around for 15 minutes. I stayed sitting because I couldn't really see what the advantage of queueing was.

Is there one?

I’m glad I saw this thread going away soon with just hand luggage. I’ll make sure I’m in the queue early on. I’m used to waiting for it to die off as normally traveling with hold luggage.

Dont put stuff in the lockers so its nothing to do with that

If i have a seat then i will stay in it til the queue disappears, if there are no seats and im standing i may as well stand in the queue

So it depends on whether im already sitting or standing

same seat first or last ? Er no!!

DH travels for business, both longhaul in business class and cattle on European services incl. budget airlines, 80% of the time without hold luggage. According to him it is important to get on as early as possible for overhead locker space especially if you want/need to access your hand luggage during the flight. Then, get an aisle seat so you can get off fast.

He thinks it makes a huge difference in waiting time at immigration if you are in the first lot out of a plane or at the end of the queue.

When I've flown with dtoddlers we've had automatic priority boarding. It doesn't stop other passengers barging in front as you try to push a buggy, hold a hand and manage bags. People can be really rude and thoughtless in that situation

I wish the airlines would

(a) ensure that people board in seat row order

(b) ask those with window seats to get on first ; and

(c) ask people to let people get past before they block the aisle to get their case into the overhead rack.

Definitely to do with luggage getting in the overhead locker. Last time we flew we were extremely lucky, the way they did it we ended up boarding before priority/under 5's etc as they opened another door and started another queue and told her to go through. So while they were still queuing we were up the stairs through the tunnel. When we landed everyone rushed off the plane and onto the bus we were last on, we moved out the way for everyone running down the stairs to the passport queue like there was a fire behind them. When we got there we were last in line but security opened up another desk and queue and ushered us down it, so we were through passport control straight away. The looks we got were not pleasant ones. Just did what we were told though

I used to be smug about this too until overhead locker space was full and I had my hand luggage checked in which defeated the purpose of me choosing hand luggage only

You know what I love? I love watching people walk down the aisle with their ticket in their hand, checking the numbers against the ticket as they go, as if the row numbers are going to be randomly assigned. People are weird.

Overhead locker space. It really annoys me when people jump the queue!
Also when flying with toddler I like to board quickly before she starts tantruming on the plane steps or aisle. Last time we flew the people in front of us dithered around for ages, finding their seats, stowing carry ons, opening bags to find bits, blocking the aisle
I had to ask them to please hurry up as toddler was writhing and screaming in my arms and I had 2 carry-ons over my shoulders. They just looked at me blankly and carried on holding up the queue! Why can't people just find seat, shove bags in locker and sit down?