American Airlines started boarding most domestic flights 5 minutes earlier this month. Earlier boarding is already standard at competitors Delta. And it’s an abomination.
I did it a couple of times with American this week. It’s ‘only 5 minutes’ but every minute counts in your life. What are you wasting your life for?
- On a connecting itinerary, it’s 20 minutes roundtrip
- For someone who does that weekly, that’s more than 17 hours a year. It’s an entire day of waking hours.
The airlines are costing a day a year of life just for their best customers by being less efficient, when the whole idea of air travel is to be efficient. Instead of fixing boarding to be faster, American Airlines gave up and matched the failure of forcing customers to sit on planes longer like United and Delta.
Flight delays get a lot of attention. There’s also air traffic control which creates congestion – it isn’t just responsible for delays but also for longer flight times that get built into schedules. We don’t talk enough about that.
But built-in inefficiencies and time-wasters are something we don’t talk about at all. How is it possible that people are being told to show up at the airport 2.5 to 3 hours before their flight, and that isn’t considered a failure of massive proportions?
Showing up at the airport as early as airlines advise is costing the economy $79 billion a year. That’s a massive failure.
The lengthened times for showing up at the airport mean that it no longer even makes sense for many people to take shorter flights. The time it takes to get through security, make it through the airport, and board planes earlier and earlier is wasted time.
Instead of getting more efficient, we’re queuing more and wasting precious time. And that doesn’t even count the time spent waiting at baggage claim or busing to rideshare and rental car lots at the other end of the journey.
Air travel is supposed to be about making it from one place to another as quickly as possible. It seems as though we’ve forgotten this.
Making customers show up earlier, and board earlier is a way to force customers to accommodate failed systems and failed operations. It locks in a status quo of failure.
And by the way, when JSX began offering travel from private terminals where you show up just 20 minutes in advance even with checked bags, American Airlines and Southwest lobbied the government to block it instead of embracing what’s possible for customers.
More and smaller airports are needed. Streamlined security, that doesn’t wait for nationwide universal rollout, is needed. We need runways and taxiways and air traffic capacity to increase throughput without stacking delays. Most of all, we need to avoid complacency that accepts the status quo as given.
“Making customers show up earlier, and board earlier is a way to force customers to accommodate failed systems and failed operations”
No one is making anyone do anything. What the airlines suggest people do is different from what people are actually doing. And that’s what matters. Are there studies that indicate how early people are actually showing up to the airport?
When Clinton wanted to show he was “doing something” and his administration began to demand that everyone over 18 show IDs I pointed out that this would slow the check in process down. Previously with a car that was rented or airport parked everyone but the driver could get off at the terminal and go to the gate. Now, unless airports are well designed for this (most aren’t) the logical process is for everybody to take care of the car first and then to go the terminal. This crowds people at the end. It’s just another of several reasons why it was a very bad idea. It may have ended most black marketing in tickets, but that’s about it.
Amen. Short-haul air traffic has dried up in the United States. A lot of factors are responsible, including replacement of in-person business meetings with teleconferencing, but a big one — as you note — is the need to allow for extended lead time prior to boarding. For example, Southwest used to fly BNA-BHM 2+/ daily. The 200 mile drive could be replaced by maybe 45 minutes in the air. Even WN can no longer make this route work.
Email and smartphones offset some if the waste of waiting.
If people were hellbent on efficiency, they would be vaccinated against Covid and influenza and wear masks. A Covid vaccination 2 years ago is too long ago.
Problem is increased densification of narrow body fleets + use of larger planes like the A321neo + high load factors. At one point AA was down to only 150 seats on the 738, and now it’s 172. UA’s A321neo seats 200, with everyone boarding through one door and with only one aisle. Flights today are generally taking forever to board.
deregulation failed
this will sound crass, but it should not be possible to board a plane anywhere for $59
distortion of time and space by discounting pain and risk based on geography is absurd and is the primary macro rule of unregulated commercial air travel 47 years after deregulation
no pax should be transported for less than that airline’s CASM +10% and that includes all the miles for an entire routing
nonstops should not be a multiple of a connecting itinerary
all of the magas reading this – you should be all for it – it’s the same concept as tariffs
There have been studies on how to board airplanes faster and Southwest Airlines actually had a fast way to board. Those were rejected because getting people to pay more and giving them early boarding slots was more lucrative. Having 10 boarding groups slows things down. Gate lice are the true heroes. Boarding on demand would be a lot faster. But elites being elites is why we are where we are now. Most people want to board early. Those who want to be later can still come later as long as it is before the gate closes. I am always amazed on how fast Asiana boards everyone on a A380. Relatively few groups with some earlier boarding groups lumped together. Four wide automatic boarding pass checking at the gate at LAX.
Air travel in the US is a CF of delay and incompetence. I routinely fly to one of the poorest countries in this hemisphere – Honduras. The immigration and customs procedures are years ahead of what the US has. Security is the same as in the US, except it is friendly and quick. If a country with a GDP-PPP smaller than half the states can do it correctly, then it is an abomination that the richest nation in the world cannot.
2-3 hours early is just the recommendation for people who don’t have the experience to know better.
I reliably check my bag 5 to -5 minutes before bag check cut-off.
When I started flying, arriving 60 minutes prior to a flight, checking a bag, and boarding worked, It was 20-30 minutes to get the bag and exit the airport, I could do 2 cites a day with 2 meetings.
Then came 9-11
2 hours in advance, some cities 3, and 45 minutes to grab luggage..
Then came “on time” service and adding 30-60 minutes to the flight time, earlier boarding (20-25-30-now 40 minutes).
There is no way to do 2 cities a day.
Wasting 5 minutes on earlier boarding is a minor piece of the total.
If starting boarding 10 min early is going to cause the US aviation system to implode we’re in worse shape than I thought.
We do not need more airports. We need an economically sustainable commercial aviation system. Hand-wringing about boarding starting 10 minute earlier distracts from an ATC system in shambles, the TSA’s repeated lapses security and airlines building a system designed to their benefit, not ours.
Having everyone board 40 minute prior to departure and the doors closed 10 – 15 min prior to depart so we can address anything that will delay us seems completely reasonable. If that does work for you, fly private. The system has to work for the masses, the us super-users.
I’m really not sure the extra 5 minutes means all that much.
If it really takes 5 extra minutes to get everyone boarded and settled then all this change does is shift late departures up to 5 minutes closer to on time.
If they don’t need the extra 5 minutes, many AA flights will depart early. Thus giving you back the 5 extra minutes upon arrival.
Either way, there are worse things than this when flying. I’m not going to worry about it very much.
@CJR, frankly, I don’t believe you because 99% of the time the airlines actually won’t let check in the bag because the agent doesn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a volunteer separation form and they don’t care if you have to rebook.
As to short haul flights, I haven’t taken them for years, particularly because I live on Amtrak’s NEC. If I want to go anywhere from Boston through Washington, I take Amtrak, likely Acela. I can go from the city center to the city center just as fast or faster than by plane and more comfortably and more easily.
It’s not 5 wasted minutes, it’s 5 necessary minutes. The average passenger and crowd dynamics means the recently-gone-away timetable was too little time. Until crowds of American passengers behave more like the Germans or Japanese (ain’t gonna happen) and less like first-time travelers or infrequent ones, boarding will remain chaotic. Re-watch George Clooney’s character’s rant about airports in the movie Up in the Air. EVERYTHING in that scene is still true today.
Gary – you are obsessed with this like a few other things. First of all time at an airport or boarding early is NOT wasted. It is only wasted if you had something else to do that you otherwise can’t and plan your life to fill every minute. Maybe you do that but very few others do. Also, with wifi you can work from the airport so getting there 2 hours early (at avoid any potential stress) doesn’t take away from ANYTHING. You seem to plan your life to get to the airport and board as late as possible. That is OK, you do you, but most others frankly don’t care. I have flown around 8 million miles over 40 plus years and still get to the airport 2-2 1/2 hours early. I go to the lounge or simply find a restaurant and have a beer. As for boarding earlier as others noted you don’t have to board first but I like to get on, settle in and store my stuff. I can still check email or follow up on items from the plane.
You can be a very strange and obsessive person. Please don’t preach to us based on strictly your viewpoint and the article title is very misleading. No one is wasting anything or costing people money with the rare exception of someone that has absolutely no flex in their schedule or is so obsessive (freakishly so) that they measure every day in minutes. Frankly, I feel a little sorry for you man.
I agree with Retired Gambler that sitting at the airport and on the plane are not the downtime they once were. Over the last two decades or so, travel has changed so that you can be as productive traveling as being in the office. However, that is also why lounges are now so overcrowded.
You’re already at the airport. You’re waiting for the flight to begin boarding. How does the airline choosing to board five minutes earlier waste any of your time?
Or you’re not at the airport yet. But they started boarding five minutes earlier than normal. That means, when you do run to your gate, boarding will still have started five minutes earlier. And you were not there to have any of your life wasted.
I think the context you miss upgauging, whether it be by bigger planes or more seats on a plane.
Think about a 737-800 on AA–years ago, it had 150 passengers. Then, 160+. Now 172. Yes, that didn’t happen overnight on AA (and they just added the 5 min.), but it has meant that airlines are generally boarding more people in the same pre-flight time – hence, airlines are adding time.
@Alan – you either show up at the airport 5 minutes earlier, or stop working in the lounge 5 minutes earlier. It’s 5 more minutes crammed into a seat, for anyone boarding at the start to ensure overhead bin space (vs. risking having to gate check a bag and waste even more time at baggage claim)