Queuing to board?

[holachicatita]

So.. currently waiting to board my flight and me and my husband have had a disagreement. Seats are already allocated but I still like to queue and get on the flight once the gates open. He likes to sit and wait until the last minute, looking down his nose at all the silly little people queuing. AIBU to start to queue once the gates open?

We do that as usually travel with hand luggage only and the space in the bins above gets full quick. I don’t want to have my bags all over the place when we deplane so early boarding works best.

Surely this is why you wait till the end of boarding though? Otherwise you are stuck in the plane aisle behind the faffers

Team dh here. I can never fathom why people rush to board. You're going to be sitting down for long enough.
Weirdos 😂
Csbin crew will always find a space for your hand luggage

I once had to get on last as I had assistance booked. (We're usually on first) And I got stuck behind a lot of faffers

I've seen plenty of people charged at the gate because their bag was too big and they had not paid

If he had paid for space then it is for a case, not a coat and not a small bag. I'm assuming this is an easyjet or ryanair and the rules are perfectly clear. They even announce it at the start of the flight that the small bag must go under the seat

If there is not enough room they will ask you to take essentials out and then put it in the hold.i have seen this done.

OMG she even posted the boarding pass! It clearly says non-priority.

It was me who posted the boarding pass. That was just an example to make the point that the info as to whether or not you can get on with a cabin case is on the boarding pass so you can't just waltz on with whatever you like

In all the flights I have been on, I have never witnessed this 😁

I have seen people need to check hand luggage on a packed flight. I was one of the last on. If there's no room, there's no room? I have a flight to Chicago coming up and have a carry on. Already stressing! I don't have priority boarding so hopefully I'll be ok.

Back when Easyjet dudnt charge for handluggage, they used to count the hand luggage on... once they reached capacity, everything else went in the hold (for free).

I dont board late because of the overhead luggage situation. People at gates are idiots and swarm around even if their boarding group is one of the last.

They then get in the way of people who should be boarding.

Last time we flew (last week) there was a adult group (Not from the UK) getting in everyone's way who were trying to board. Cultural differences mean that for some people queueing is optional! Worst case I ever came across was Naples. You were swept along by Italians who clearly did this all the time!

it might end up in the hold. Mine did when we went on a flight last year and got stuck at immgration.

Jet 2 actually give you an option to buy a guarantee that your bag doesnt go in the hold.

Nothing wrong with queueing and nothing wrong with waiting.

As illustrated by this thread, it's down to personal preference and whether or not you want to be near any carry-on luggage you may have.

Scientifically, the quickest way to board a plane is to onboard window seat passengers first, then middle-seaters, then the aisle seats. Sadly not practical in real life.

I do think though that boarding should be strictly controlled to fill the back of the plane first (or whichever section is furthest away from the doors); if it's a free for all then passengers seated near the doors hold up those who need to reach the middle or the end.

They'd sell you the time of day if they could get away with it.

I’d sooner wait until everyone else has boarded and get on last. Your seat isn’t going anywhere!!

yes,saw this with Easyjet. People kicking off saying that they have never had issues before blah blah blah.Flying often brings out the worst in people.

We were flying from Doha last year. Doha is a big hub and these two idiots from the UK were shouting and laughing at each other at the boarding gate. One of them decided to sit in Business Class as they got on late. Problem was that after he had taken a glass of champagne the women whose seat it really was got on too. She gave him such a telling off. The cabin crew were no where to be seen. She did a fab job and of course he did get up. He said to the rest of the cabin ' well it was worth a try'!

DH & I are like this - he boards while I have another drink with friends at the bar and pootle on once the queue is almost gone.

I recently flew with one of the budget airlines, from a very hot country. We were waiting in an a/c equipped waiting room with plenty of reasonably comfortable seats.

They started ‘onboarding’ before the plane had even landed, including putting a wheelchair using, profoundly disabled person, onto the boiling hot tarmac without any shade. He and his family were out there for at least 20 minutes, as were all the other passengers that rushed to get through the doors, before the incoming passengers had even started getting off!

The waiting area was ground floor and glass panelled, so you could see there was no plane and no shade, but people still jumped up to get in the queue when the gate staff rocked up. Each to their own, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Oh don't get me wrong I like to get in early to check in luggage for the hold. It's standing to queue early for entry on to the plane that amuses me 😂

BA are one of the worst for allowing large amounts of hand luggage on. They have status holders (who they dont want to upset) and there is a long thread on Flyer Talk about it. If you are an infrequent flyer in Economy then if there is no room in the overheads they will put your hand luggage in the hold.

They wont 'always find a space'!

Ah no @holachicatita he can’t say you are wrong but use you as a place marker! That’s the conversation to have “ok, so I expect you will stop trying to queue jump and will make your own way and hope to be able to get your bag in the same locker as me - see you on-board”

It was Virgin, I wrote to them, wrote to the executive office etc, pursued the complaint and was told "Cabin crew make decisions regarding safety on boarding and these can change assigned seats"
They just ignored me on the flight and gaslit me, it was a 12 hr flight and £760 difference in prices.