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Why stand in line to board an airplane?

The seats are assigned. People have been standing in line for 15 minutes now. Why on earth would anyone want to stand there, when they could just sit and wait until the line clears?

I understand wanting to get off a plane ASAP, but boarding? You just end up sitting on the plane, waiting for everyone else to get on.

RememberTheApollo_ ,

Mostly already mentioned I guess.

Bag fees is the answer. And people who’d rather screw over the next person by putting everything into the overhead bin (jacket, backpack, whatever) that should be under the seat.

People don’t want to pay to check more bags, so they cram as much as they can into anything checked and then the rest into a carry on (assuming they check anything at all). These over-stuffed carry-ons have to then be shoved into an overhead bin, and once the bins are full, the airline will gate check it to the destination. Now you have to wait at baggage claim for your bag along with the fear that for whatever reason it won’t make it. People don’t want that, so they line up to make sure they can put all their stuff in the overhead bin.

So there’s everyone filling up the overhead bin with purses, backpacks, and whatever other items that should have been placed under the seat in front of them. Yeah, I get it, space is tight. No, airline travel will never be like “the old days” when you can spend $250 or less round-trip today to cross the US and back. You wanted cheap, you got it, along with commensurate service. It’s no secret that space is limited. However, IMO those people are dickheads for forcing fellow passengers to check a bag because they take half the bin for all the stuff their cheap asses didn’t want to check while they simultaneously complain about the service they wanted to pay bottom dollar for.

jbrains ,

Overhead space for carry-on bags.

lemmyrolinga ,

Do you have anywhere to be instead?

uis ,

On bench I guess

lemmyrolinga ,

Well, you do it. Other people is not so afraid of a little “exercise”

KeepFlying ,

I rarely sit when waiting for a plane (at least not for maybe an hour before). I’m about to sit for hours, so I don’t want to start now.

Tier1BuildABear ,
@Tier1BuildABear@lemmy.world avatar

This right here for me, I’m pretty tall too and can’t afford first class so if I’m about to be cramped for 3+ hours I’m gonna stretch my legs first

Paraponera_clavata ,

Surprised no one mentioned this, but carry-on bags are no longer free for all - only free for the first ones in line.

gerbler ,

People who use up more than their third of the locker, forcing others out of their own space are subhuman.

Paraponera_clavata ,

I donno, I think airlines that cram in more seats without increasing overhead storage are subhuman.

habitualcynic ,

why not both?

Paraponera_clavata ,

Cause it shouldn’t be the customers responsibility to accommodate other customers, it’s the airline’s responsibility.

habitualcynic ,

Ah yeah I do agree with that. I was partially referencing the meme, but also there’s those kind of people who would inconsiderately take up others’ space until the airline made them move. There’s enough to be annoyed at both! :P

Paraponera_clavata ,

True, agreed!

uis ,

Because passangers neither have control over locker size nor knowledge of it.

gerbler ,

Both. Both is good.

austinfloyd ,

The gate crew often gets graded on how quickly they complete boarding, so don’t be surprised when your plane’s “full” overhead compartments are half empty. Stupid job metrics strike again.

gerbler ,

Oh no I’m literally just talking about when I go to stow my suitcase and some goober with 3 suitcases has filled his entire row and is now cramping mine. You’re not special. Check your damn luggage and wait on the carousel like the rest of us!

Paraponera_clavata ,

Lol hadn’t thought of it, but not surprised.

Catsrules ,

Really? I haven’t flown in awhile but I always thought if your carry on doesn’t fit they will check it for you. Has that changed? Could be different for each airline.

Paraponera_clavata ,

Yep, you’re right. If you don’t want your carry on checked, then be in the front of the line.

DillyDaily ,

I’m hard of hearing and terrified of standing in the wrong place at an airport and missing the visual cues to board the flight. Once boarding starts and people start queueing up, I usually get in line because it’s helpful to see what everyone in front of me is doing - the order that they hand over paperwork or get carry on double checked. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to hear the attendant if they ask me questions at the gate because it’s so noisy, so I like to at least feel like I’m prepared.

One time I was flying with crutches and qualified for early pre-boarding because I needed the plane wheelchair (skychair). I sat right next to the gate desk and waited, then I started seeing people queue up so I quickly joined the line, wondering how pre-boarding works when the whole plane of passengers are already vying to be at the front of the line.

I get to the front, the attendant looks at my ticket then after some awkward back and forward eventually I realised they were telling me I’ll have to wait till everyone has boarded to get the sky-chair on. I should have come to the desk when pre boarding was announced. I pointed that I was sitting right in front of them… Apparently they were called my name 3 times over the loudspeaker.

Apparently airports can only comprehend one disability at a time (if that!) they knew I was hard of hearing (it’s on my ticket) but still thought calling me over the PA was the best way to get the attention of the deaf person sitting 80cm from their desk.

So I sat back down and waited for the line to clear, then I got back up when there were 2 people in line, and after another back and forward I learned that they had tried calling my name again about halfway through boarding because they only had one skychair and it was now or never because the chair had told fly with the other passenger because their arrival airport didn’t have a chair, or something, I dunno, anyway I kind of had to crawl down the ailse to get to my chair because in the past I’ve just used the backs of chairs to swing myself along, but the plane was full so I couldn’t do that.

Potatos_are_not_friends ,

This is a valid reason.

My cousin gets serious panic attacks and had to fly alone. He was so nervous, I had to be on video call to help him at the customer service desk. We worked out for him and he was standing “near” line for about 45 minutes, which was more comforting for him than just waiting in a seat.

buran ,
@buran@lemmy.world avatar

Hard of hearing also. It’s so frustrating that text signs that list announcements are so rare.

Captions on television/movies and games are commonplace, but in the real world, very few places care.

Might be because I’m in a red state for a few more years due to family; blue states likely tend to be more aware of issues like ours.

I did see written callouts of upcoming tram stops once, but I can’t recall which airport. It may have been ORD.

uis ,

Now I think about it… Map in Elite Dangerous is also helpful for people without hearing.

buran ,
@buran@lemmy.world avatar

It’s been a while since I’ve played that. But yes, it’s helpful to see a graphical representation of where noisy things are, as I’m completely deaf in my left ear and can’t locate sounds.

JasonDJ ,

Man I once spent three hours in an urgent care waiting room with a really bad ear infection and impacted wax.

Turned out they called me like 6 times in the first hour and I didn’t hear it once. They assumed I’d walked out or something.

uis ,

Wow. Talk about Murphy.

randint ,
@randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz avatar

Why does it seem like everyone in the comment section takes flights all the time? For me, flying on an airplane is for vacations abroad only, and I maybe get 2 flights a year at most. I assume this is one of those US things I’m too Asian to understand.

funkless_eck ,

lots of tech and business people use lemmy, we have to fly often.

JasonDJ ,

Yep.

Used to fly all the time for work.

After that, flying with my wife and kids, or standing in TSA line with the normies who don’t know what to do gets incredibly frustrating.

I remember getting stuck behind one Karen who was pissed off she had to toss out a giant bottle of hair conditioner, in like 2017. Like, lady, yeah, it’s dumb, but the 311 rule isn’t new. Get over yourself.

Potatos_are_not_friends ,

I was flying 4-5 times a year when I worked remotely for a tech company. First few times was neat. I got over it fast. A bunch of cities/airports really suck and treat you like cattle.

Dempf ,

We don’t have cool trains like you do in many parts of Asia.

And the Asian countries that don’t have trains are probably small enough that you still don’t really need to fly to get from one side to the other.

xkforce ,

Are you under the impression that the US has a bunch of trains that we use constantly? Because we dont.

Dempf ,

I wish we did, maybe someday.

pixelscript ,

I live in the US and I consider it unusual to fly more than once every two years.

Catsrules ,

It really depend on your job.

I know contractors that fly all over the place to get to different jobs and such.

Thcdenton ,

I dont I just chill. Those goobers will fuck something up and I’ll stand there for like 30 min like a moron.

Jimmycrackcrack ,

People are posting a lot of maybe more rational reasons, but I think there’s another answer that’s more in line with just being a human. Airports suck, air travel, generally, sucks and the whole process is riddle with both intentional and also just unavoidable misery. Every time a new step in the sequence of unpleasant and boring steps that is air travel nears, we start to anticipate it and get anxious to move on to that next step in the process. It doesn’t make it faster, it likely only makes the misery arguably worse, but some times people just can’t help trying to mentally hasten things even if in reality nothing is hastened at all.

gazter ,

I’m about to sit down for the next six hours. I’m happy to stand for a bit.

Dirk ,
@Dirk@lemmy.ml avatar

People are dumb. Mostly.

omxxi ,

I saw in a flight that the airline mistakenly sold the same seat twice, two persons were fighting for the same seat, and when the stewardess came to review, she saw the error, the flight was oversold and the second man needed to leave the plane.

meekah ,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

They don’t do that mistakenly. They just realized most of the time a few passengers don’t show up so overselling makes sense to keep the plane full.

maynarkh ,

If that happens to you in the EU, you are entitled to compensation, regardless of what the airline says. Know your rights!

meekah ,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

I think it’s the same in america. But yeah, the airlines will of course try to wriggle out of this

ettyblatant ,
@ettyblatant@lemmy.world avatar

This happened to me once, on a flight from JFK to Columbus OH. I was pissed because I had traveled the last 22 hours to get out of southern France back to the states, and then got kicked from my final little flight home. They gave me $200 to their airline (Delta) that had an expiration date, and a room at DoubleTree to take me back to the airport next day.

I couldn’t afford another trip after that so they canceled my $200 coupon after a year. So, yeah, you get compensated, I guess

wewbull ,

You were scammed. You were owed cash.

Dempf ,

Yes, the rule for involuntary bumping is:

1-2hr delay: 2x ticket price up to $775 2+hr delay: 4x ticket price up to $1550

It must be paid out at the airport, or within 24hr at the latest.

They are required to give you a written statement of your rights, though in my experience they usually “forget” and you have to go and assert your rights.

Airlines are well aware of these rules, and unfortunately there is no compensation if they involuntarily bump you onto an earlier flight, so I’ve had to take some flights before at the asscrack of dawn due to bumping.

june ,

This is in the US? I had a few friends get fucked with last moment cancellations for my birthday trip to Vegas and the airlines didn’t do shit. One, Frontier, had to be strong armed to get them on another flight and still charged them the premium for the new flight.

Dempf ,

Yes, it is in the US. It’s in the federal aviation regulations: 14 CFR part 250. There is a link to the regulation at the bottom of this article from the DOT:

www.transportation.gov/…/bumping-oversales

Just going to make it very clear though, there’s big differences between being denied boarding (bumped due to overselling), a flight being delayed, and a flight being canceled. Each is its own situation.

There is no legal requirement for compensation if a flight is delayed. If the flight is canceled entirely then you are owed a refund of what you paid. There’s no law requiring the airline to rebook you or pay for accommodations or alternate transportation in any situation. What the airline will do in situations outside of “bumping” mostly follows the contract of carriage and their customer service policies / discretion (in my experience customer service agents can have a lot of discretion especially if they’re not busy and you ask nicely).

Since you said your friends’ flights were canceled, not that they were bumped (denied boarding), basically only the contract of carriage applies (and any relevant tort law). Also, just in general, Frontier is a low cost carrier, and when you fly with them you have to understand that they do not provide the same level of service as other carriers. In exchange, you get a lower price. For example, their contract of carriage says nothing about ground accommodation due to unforseen circumstances, while other airlines have clauses about paying for hotels and other forms of transportation.

That being said, Frontier does agree to rebook you on a Frontier flight in the following circumstances:

(i) a passenger’s flight is canceled, (ii) a passenger is denied boarding because an aircraft with lesser capacity is substituted, (iii) a passenger misses a connecting Frontier flight due to a delay or cancellation of a Frontier flight (but not flights of other carriers), (iv) a passenger is delivered to a different destination because of the omission of a scheduled stop to which the passenger held a ticket, Frontier will provide transportation on its own flights at no additional charge to the passenger’s original destination or equivalent destination as provided herein. Frontier will have no obligation to provide transportation on another carrier. If Frontier cannot provide the foregoing transportation, Frontier shall, if requested, provide a refund for the unused portion of the passenger’s ticket in lieu of the transportation under the foregoing.

IANAL, but it sounds like your friends could probably still request a refund of the premium that they paid, since Frontier was contractually bound to transport them at no additional charge. If Frontier refuses, then it sounds like it could be a good fit for small claims court.

It’s always worth knowing your rights and the legal background when you’re dealing with companies, especially when they are as profit-driven and operate at as low a margin as the airline industry does. Note that even in Frontier’s contract, the burden is on you to request a refund. Airlines will basically do anything possible to not pay money if they can help it, even if it means sometimes “forgetting” about federal law when it comes to bumping.

On the other hand, you can also benefit by being able to recognize when an airline is not required to do something, but does it anyways out of goodwill. For example, when I got bumped onto the earlier flight, they called me up offering me something like 25k points for the inconvenience. I tried to negotiate higher, but they refused, so I accepted the 25k points understanding that I had no leverage because they weren’t actually obligated to offer me anything.

june ,

Ah that all makes sense.

Cancellations in particular suck, and are one reason I don’t fly budget airlines when possible. It nearly ruined the trip for my friends when they couldn’t get a flight out that night and put a damper on my birthday weekend for sure. I might mention to them the policy you pasted and see if they want to do anything about the extra few hundred they spent.

Thanks for the informative and high effort reply too! Really appreciate it.

Dempf ,

Here is a link to Frontier’s current contract of carriage, though note that it’s effective 2/19/24 and I don’t know what it looked like before that.

f9prodcdn.azureedge.net/media/9690/cs_coc.pdf

june ,

Well, our trip was in March so that’s perfect!

wewbull ,

How do they bump you to an earlier flight? You turn up for the flight you have a ticket for and they tell you your plane left 2 hours ago?

Dempf ,

Good question, actually it all happened a few days before I even got to the airport, so I was aware which flight I was supposed to take. I don’t think that really technically counts as “denied boarding” but it seems like they probably did it because my original flight was very oversold.

VeganCheesecake ,
@VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I remember a scandal in Germany some years back, where it was reported that people on the airline call centres were instructed to wrongly tell customers that they weren’t entitled to compensation, and to only pay out when they where under threat of being sued. Dunno whether that improved.

maynarkh ,

I heard people complaining a lot about Wizz Air.

I usually fly with KLM, and they have been always fast and good with this.

trikavanya ,

Stand, don’t stand, I don’t care. But I’m sitting in the marked disabled seats, with a gate checked walker, and only similarly disabled people or people wrangling little kids are getting on before me, so standing in front of me only tempts me to run into the back of your legs with my walker to bulldoze you out of my way. Leave those of us with extra trouble moving a little space, please!

jol ,

In general, people should mind their surroundings and those around them just a little bit. So many people find it OK to just stand talking in front of doors, stairs, even escalators.

Meissnerscorpsucle ,

no doubt. major pet peeve of mine, people enter a building (IE store) and just STOP blocking the entrance. I get you need to get you bearings but step out of the wat to do it!

laurelraven ,

Depends on what airline you’re taking, Southwest doesn’t assign seats

Showroom7561 ,

Two reasons:

I always take window seats, and don’t really want to hop over someone to get to my seat.

And it also means I don’t have to fight for overhead space for my carry-on.

Black_Gulaman ,
@Black_Gulaman@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

This is the reason.

Dirk ,
@Dirk@lemmy.ml avatar

No, that is the solution. The reason is that airlines intentionally plan with too little overhead space to save money.

Kbobabob ,

How does that save money? It’s not like they have to leave their bags behind if the overhead space is gone. It just gets checked instead.

ZombieBait ,

I don’t know about saving money, but around here airlines have been creeping up checked bag fees for years. You used to get one free checked bag but when they started charging for all checked bags people started trying to fit thier entire vacation worth of stuff into carry-on. The bags I see people trying to fit into the overhead now are huge and just barely fit in the compartment on smaller planes. The airlines know what’s up though since they’ll charge for checked bags but then announce repeatedly before the flight that they’re looking for volunteers to check their carry-on to its final destination for free. I actually saw one airline enforce the carry-on sizing device as people were boarding and forced any oversize bags to be checked. A lot of unhappy people that day.

Kbobabob ,

I’ve never been charged to check my bag at the gate.

JasonDJ ,

I’ve really never minded gate-checking, and when I travel alone (i.e. for work), I travel light and try to cram everything into a larger carryon and gate check it.

The biggest bottleneck on the way out is waiting at baggage claim. Gate checked bags are returned to you at the tarmac or at the end of the PBB, and sometimes they are there waiting for you before you even get to it, making it the quickest way out of the airport.

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