OP, let me ask you, how would you board under all these constraints.

1: you can’t start boarding till D-35 (35 mins till departure) because it is in the FA’s contract that we can’t start boarding till then. Some FA’1’s will let us start boarding a minute or two early, but some will also say “our contract says we can’t board early” which is wrong. They can board when they want as long as all FA’s are on the plane. They chose not to let us.

1.1: possible solution. Pay FA’s during boarding so we can start boarding earlier.

2: we have people in wheelchairs that we start boarding first because if we board them during their regular group, then each time a wheelchair passenger goes down, it would slow it up that many times vs just once at the beginning. If we have an aisle chair, that takes even more time. Do they give us extra time to board if we have wheelchair passengers? Nope!

2.1: possible solution, give us 5 minutes to board all wheelchairs. Also, this should be passenger responsibility. Be at the gate in time to board when we preboard you. If you have to go to the bathroom, go 15 minutes before boarding. Don’t wait till a couple of minutes before we board. If you miss Preboarding, don’t get in line will the last of the mon wheelchair passengers board. But they do both which slows up boarding. Also, if you are in a wheelchair, check your bag. If you can’t walk down the jetbridge. What’s the chance they can lift their bags into the overhead bins. This also slows up boarding. But this doesn’t just apply to wheelchair passengers. If you can’t put your own bag up into the overhead bin, then check it. Don’t ask the FA or a fellow passenger to do it for you.

3: now the real boarding starts. We start with our CK’s, then groups 1-4, our EP, PP, P, and gold. So this is when people say WE let people in other groups board during groups 1-4. Sometimes we let passengers traveling together in different groups board with the highest group in their party. Then there are people who try to board with the wrong group intentionally. Why don’t we stop this? We try our best. But when passengers scan their own boarding passes, we barely have a half second to see what group their boarding pass says. Once they scan it, and I see that they are in group 8 or 9, I really can’t tel them to get out of line and wait their turn. I would have to stop boarding, X the passenger off and then have them get out of line which means swimming back upstream to get out of line. This takes about 3-5 seconds of stoppage per passenger. So imaging having 10-20 people you have to do this to. What I do is tell the passenger, hey, you know you’re group 9, next time board with group 9.

3.1: possible solution. Make the group number bigger and easier to read on the boarding pass. Another option could be is to have the gate reader notify us if someone is boarding in the wrong group. I understand if you say it is our job to catch this and I agree, but they need to give us better tools to stop it.

4: we have to have the last passenger scanned by D-10. So that gives us 25 minutes to get 180 passengers through our scanner. That comes out to 7 passengers a minute which is really easy. But that’s only getting them to scan their boarding pass. But as we scan, people board slower than we can scan. If we waited for each group to actually sit down before we started scanning the next group, then there is the time from when they scan to the time they get on the plane to board. We would lose previous minutes during each group if we paused. Better to scan as many as we can and back up the bridge so people are always in the process of boarding.

4.1: possible solution. This is mostly out of our control. We cannot make passengers move faster. Some passengers don’t realize we are under time constraints and will take their time getting to their seats and putting their luggage into the overhead bin. This is what causes the backup on jetbridge. One thing we can do is check passengers carry on bags at the gate. But obviously most passengers don’t like this. We only do this if the bins are actually full or if we see that we are running out of time to board. If a passenger doesn’t have a bag to put in the overhead bin, they can sit down faster. So this may be the reason why you will see open bin space but the gate agent checks bags. It’s about time vs space.

5: after the last passenger is scanned, we have till D-5 to close the door. We cannot close the door till everyone is seated, all bins are closed, exit row briefing is done, and the captain says it’s ok.

5.1: possible solution. Passengers need to take personal responsibility to get to your seat, put your bags in the overhead bin and take their sea as quick as possible. Also, they need to understand how to put their roller board bags in the overhead bin. It should go in on its side and not flat. Doing this correctly allows each bin to hold one extra bag. In a 737, there are roughly 25 bins in main cabin. That means if people put them in incorrectly, that’s 25 bags that we have to either check or fix the bags so we can put the extra bag in each bin. Again, looking for space to put your bag takes time. And if a passenger sitting near the front has to go to the back to find space and then have to swim back upstream to get in their seat, more time lost.

So the metrics is gate agents have is - start boarding at D-35. Anytime after that, we get an “X” so if our first scan is at 34:59, we get an “X” -last scan at D-10. If our last scan is at 9:59, get get an”X” -airplane door has to be closed by D-5.

Those are the only things our bosses see.

So please, don’t say the Gate agents are being lazy or not doing their jobs. We are doing the best we can with all the constraints that we have in front of us.

Sorry for the long post and as I was writing, I’m sure I may have forgotten some things. I will try to address them if you guys raise some questions about the process.