Don't be last to board.

Airlines have experimented and implemented many types of boarding processes over the decades. The processes have been designed to ensure safe and efficient turn around of an aircraft. The faster the passengers board the aircraft, the better the chances it will depart on time. The longer the aircraft remains on the ground the more money it is burning. The boarding process has to be executed by the airlines flawlessly every time to ensure it is not a contributing reason for the aircraft delay leaving the gate.

Boarding processes come in many forms and many airlines have essentially adopted one of the forms and tweaked it based on customer experience, airport or even security requirements. For example part of the boarding process for all US carriers flying into the USA is a pre-boarding secondary screening process which elongates the boarding time for these international flights and frustrates customers for having to go through another round of bag search and body pat downs. Here are the three basic boarding processes that are in place and used by the majority of airlines in the US for economy cabins.

WILMA boarding process

This is a process where by passengers seated in Window seats board before those sitting in Middle seats followed by those in Aisle seats. The standard practice is to fill the plane from the back to the front in the economy cabin. One disadvantage is that customer seated in the back and in Window seats will get preferential access to the overhead baggage bins, thus penalizing those in aisle seats.

Block Boarding

Another common boarding practice used for economy cabins. Here the airlines segment customers in different groups, the group numbers can be dictated by a number of factors determined by the various airlines. The boarding process works by boarding the Group 1 followed by 2 followed by 3 etc etc. Some carriers categorize groups in numerics i.e. group 1,2,3,4 other categorize using Alphabetical values Group A, B, C etc.

Random Boarding

You would think this free for all process would be mass chaos. Well there is enough data that shows if orchestrated in the proper manner it could drive the most efficient boarding process. Southwest Airlines is well known for using the random boarding process, where by no one is assigned a seat. You board find a seat and own it for the duration of the flight. One determination factor of boarding before another group is the time you checked in. I you were one of the first to check-in when check-in was open then you will be sequenced to board before another customer who check-in late. Believe it or not data shows this process is 47% faster than block boarding back to front. I love the process at Southwest but can have it's downsize if you are one of the late boarding folks, expect only aisle seats open on a full flight or seats at the back of the plane and very little or no overhead bin space.

The effectiveness of the boarding process goes a long way in defining the overall customer journey experience. Get off to a bad start with check-in or boarding then it can be a slippery slope to winning that high CSAT (customer satisfaction) score.

The charts below compare and contrast the current boarding processes exercised by the top 10 US carriers. Other than Southwest most airlines have a block boarding process either called Zones, Groups or simply known by the Cabin/tier value.

Boarding Table download:

Boarding Process Table_2023.pdf

Download PDF • 702KB

Premium customers traveling in premium cabins get treated very differently and can pretty much board at their leisure (Southwest excluded). Some prefer to be the first one onboard and others want to enjoy the perks of the lounge and be the last ones to board.

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Travel Tip!

Remember boarding is just one phase of the customer journey. If the airline has an app, check-in using the app as soon as checkin is open, typically 24 hours before the flight. Give your self enough commute time to get to the airport, a couple of hours before departure. Add more time in bad weather or bad traffic conditions. Add even more time if you have bags to check-in or need to speak to an airline check-in agent to make ticket changes. Getting through security can be an art too. If you have TSA Pre Check make sure it was entered in to your booking and hence is printed on your boarding card. I highly recommend getting TSA pre-check as it allows you expedited screening at the airport.

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