SW boarding

South West airlines does not assign seating on their flights. Earlier, it was a mad rush for the seats, people getting early to the boarding gate, placing their bags in the queue, sitting on the floor, etc. Recently, they have slightly modified their system such that each passenger is assigned a boarding order. Not a seat number but just the order in which you may board the aircraft. They have also modified the boarding area such that it is easy for people to stand in the order of their boarding.

So, no more placing our bags in queue and squatting on the floor for one of the coveted front row seats. I like the system, though could be better. Given it is new, people were still getting used to it and lead to an interesting conversation with a copassenger at a boarding gate in San Diego. We commented how SW treats its passengers like school kids, testing them for numbers and orders, punishing those who approach the gate out of turn by sending them to the line, and finally, if all behave well and settle down in the seats, get rewarded with - peanuts. I don't know if I should feel like a kid or a monkey.

This system of assigning boarding order, or doing it on a first come first serve basis leads to a single problem - people want to sit in the front so they can get out first. So they enter the aircraft and block the flow of the rest of the passengers as they try to settle down in the front. Instead, I feel the whole system would work great if airlines could figure out a way to board from the front but exit from the back. That way, there is a strong incentive for people to just keep moving towards the back and letting people board as fast as possible. Of course, there are some logistical issues to this and I am not even sure if this is possible with the current gate infrastructure. This could not be so bad if the gate operators could make say let passengers out from the back, and let the new set of passengers in through the back as well, but let them know that at the destination, they will exit from the front (opposite to what end they used for boarding). This would reduce the logistical issue of moving the bridge from one end to the other while at the same time ensuring passengers don't try to block the entry area.

An other option would be to ask passengers with checked in baggage to move to the back. They could create two zones within the aircraft - one in the back and one in the front. They should board the checked in baggage customers first and assign them to the back zone. Then, they should let the passengers with just the checked in baggage to occupy the front zone. Again, there are some practical issues here, but nevertheless something the airlines should consider, if they have already not done.