Over the past year or two, American Airlines really seems to be going downhill.
- Their IT glitches are ridiculous
- Trying to redeem one of their flight vouchers is an effort in futility
- They’re using techniques typically seen in ultra low cost carriers
- And when it comes to customer service, well, it apparently takes next to nothing for them to ban a passenger for life, even if they’re a child
People who consider themselves well-traveled probably know about American Airlines’ dirty little secret about boarding groups: they’ve rarely mattered in recent years and the airline hasn’t done squat about it.
So now, 9 months later (and, let’s face, it was happening WAY before that piece was written) American Airlines is piloting a new program that they hope will stop people from boarding before they should. The system will automatically and audibly flag someone who is trying to board before their time.
Fun Fact! Although Vice, Thrillist, WaPo and several other publications and travel bloggers are calling the new system “an end to gate lice,” it’s not. Gate lice is when people mill about the gate, waiting for their group to be called. It has nothing to do with the problem the airline is trying to fix; that of people who egregiously board the plane before it’s their turn.
A multi-faceted problem
How the problem came to be is multi-faceted. And if you read our piece about the problems AA has had with passengers boarding earlier than they should in recent years, it gives you the pieces to the puzzle:
1. American Airlines wants to improve how often their planes are on time
American Airlines used to have an on time percentage between about 77% and 80% of flights in the past few years. But for the past few months, it’s been REALLY bad (66.01% in June, 60.23% in July, 66.73% in August).
2. American Airlines has made gate attendants know that being on time is VERY VERY IMPORTANT, to the point that it’s part of their annual review
- A GA (gate agent) posted an AMA (“Reddit for “Ask me Anything”) the other day and said they don’t like to enforce boarding groups so they just let people do whatever they want. All they care about (and that the company evaluates them on) is closing the door as fast as possible so they view enforcing the rules as just slowing them down and therefore not their job. — duplico
- Don’t hate the player, hate the game. As an employee, I’m going to focus on the things that make my job review look better (turn times), not actively sabotage my chance for a better review by producing slower turn times, even if it’s enforcing my own company’s rules. This is a management problem for not incentivizing the GA’s to enforce boarding groups. — _Dakonia_
- Enforcing boarding zones invites confrontation and wastes time. The gate agents care only about launching that aircraft on time. Whether or not you have overhead space for your over-sized “carry-on” is irrelevant. — Thunderbird_12_3.
3. The issues with carry-on bags
Ever since airlines started charging for checked bags, people have brought as much carry-on as possible. Getting all those carry-on bags into the cabin (A) take time (Refer to #1) and (B) might mean there won’t be room for your bags. SO, refer to #4 and get onto that plane ASAP!
4. Some people suck
The behavior of Americans has been going downhill for decades, but the “I only care about myself” attitude has gotten worse since roughly June 15, 2015. Some people just don’t care. They think rules weren’t made for them, and if they want to go on the plane right now, who’s going to stop them? Certainly not a gate agent. And if they try, the passenger will just make a scene and get their way; it works everywhere else, right?
Their “fix”
So instead of American Airlines doing something about the actual problems, like…
- figuring out how other airlines manage to be on time so much more than them
- giving gate agents incentives to stop passengers from boarding early
- having enough room for carry-on bags (I’d say stop charging for the 1st checked bag, and then people wouldn’t be so obsessed about bringing carry-on bags onboard, but I know that’s too much to ask)
- (sorry, can’t fix A-holes being A-holes)
…they’ve decided to be passive-aggressive and embarrass passengers who try to get on the plane earlier than they should. Because who cares about being customer friendly, right?
How much do you want to bet that someone will sue them for public humiliation and/or emotional distress. #rolleyes
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