United is trying something (not really) new to get passengers on the plane more quickly.
It recently announced a logistics ploy it calls Wilma – shorthand for window-middle-aisle – that it claims will cut boarding times by four to five minutes, an eternity in the industry’s on-time takeoff sweepstakes. The idea is to fill the window seats in economy class first, then the middle seats, then the aisle seats, thereby eliminating the free-for-all chaos that clogs the cabin when passengers are sent in by row numbers.
It’s been tried before (by Shuttle at United, as well as others), and failed. Two reasons, the first of which is exemplified by this United statement:
United, a unit of the UAL Corporation, bristles at Mr. Boyd’s opinion. Wilma works, United claims. “Come on, haven’t you ever boarded a plane, and sat down in an aisle seat, only to have someone come up to you and say, ‘Excuse me, could I get past you?’ ” asked Robin Urbanski, a spokeswoman for United. “This just makes sense. It’s quicker and it’s more efficient.”
Except that people aren’t quick and efficient. Or, rather, group quickness and efficiency are not what individuals are after. The quickness of the boarding process is not what most people have in mind. Getting their stuff on and getting esconced in their seats is.
If everyone (a) had no luggage, and (b) was travelling alone, this would work. But where I’ve seen United trying Wilma, it’s failed, because they always:
a. Offer to let First Class, Business Class, Premier, 100K Mile, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Onyx, Plum, Ecru, Zinc, and Electrum passengers board first. While the two seat classification groups don’t affect this, the others get scattered all over the plane, leading to congestion.
b. Offer to let families board together. Well, they have to do that. Can’t let little Billy get kidnapped by wild dingos by going first or going last. So we still end up with Mom, Dad, Suzy, Billy, and Billy’s Baby Seat and Other Pieces of Carry-On slowly forging their way down the aisle, then stopping and blocking the aisle for five minutes while they get bodies, babies, and bags arranged.
(I can say that with confidence, because I’ve been in that situation, and been highly sensitive to how much I was blocking things.)
c. Let folks in with too much luggage. For all that they have the little “this is how much space you have” boxes out in the boarding area, and supposedly have rules and regs posted, folks still arrive with massive duffles and carry-ons and the like that they, inevitably, try to fit in over their heads (requests to the contrary notwithstanding) or then try, unsuccessfully, to stuff under their seats.
(And, yes, sometimes I abuse this a bit as well, though I think I’m better than about 90% of other fliers.)
As the article notes, if you’re going to have assigned seating, you need to do it back-to-front. Or you need to eliminate assigned seating (like Southwest) and let folks board and sit as they may (which still leads to congestion, but will still tend to cause all the folks to get into seats as quickly as they can — and rewards people for being there on time).
And you also need to restrict carry-ons. I mean seriously restrict them. One bag or case — including purses and briefcases — and everyone has to show it fits into the little shoebox before they board. And the ticket takers have to enforce it. Period. End of story and exceptions require an act of God. Anything more than that get checked on the Jetway and you can wait an extra ten minutes for it.
Sure, folks will complain (I’d complain) — but they’ll do it. And they’ll have plenty of overhead bin space and will be able to stretch out and relax.
(via J-Walk)
I don’t think the boarding process can work out well until the airlines figure out a way that uses the passenger’s desires to get them on board quickly. Right now, passenger’s desires and airlines’ goals do not coincide. Passengers want to get to a seat and sit down as quickly as possible, and they want to hand-carry luggage that they don’t trust the airlines to handle. Airlines, by contrast, want to get all passengers aboard as quickly as possible with minimal hand-carried luggage. When airlines can figure out how to use the passengers’ desires to achieve their own goals, then things will go much better.
My idea for getting people on the plane faster is to have a mockup of the plane in the gate area, with the same seat numbering but with lots more room between the seats. People find their seats in the gate area, and, when it’s time to board, the agent goes to those people sitting in the seats representing the back row of the plane and checks their boarding passes before giving them permission to board the plane. The agent then works their way through the mockup, giving permission to board once boarding passes are checked. Unfortunately it will never happen because it would take too much space and because each gate area would have to be configured the same as the planes it serves.
If I’m allowed to redesign the plane too, I would design them to spit out their seats like a big tongue. This would allow people to get to their seats from the sides rather than just from the center aisle. Ideally, people could also load their own luggage into baggage compartments beneath or behind the seats. When everyone was seated and the luggage was in place, the plane would pull the tongue back in and everything would be ready to go. I can imagine doing something similar using seats that move around on tracks like the seats in an amusement park ride.
I don’t think anything like this will happen in my lifetime, and it’s too bad. Travel by air has become such a PITA these days that I’m much less likely to fly than I would be if it was more pleasant. The two things I like the least about flying these days are the boarding process and the TSA.