Boarding from both doors in Long Beach

[floridaguy]

Tell ya what.  You buy my tickets and I won't complain.

No, I'm not going to secure a boarding position by checking in at the 24 hour mark only to have some gate agent decide that the C group can start boarding through the other door.

No, I'm not going to sit by.  Remember, your rights end where mine begins.

[bec102896]

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@floridaguy wrote:

No, I'm not going to sit by.  Remember, your rights end where mine begins.

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I believe we have the same rights in life as customers and US citizens 

[DancingDavidE]

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@floridaguy wrote:

Tell ya what.  You buy my tickets and I won't complain.

No, I'm not going to secure a boarding position by checking in at the 24 hour mark only to have some gate agent decide that the C group can start boarding through the other door.

No, I'm not going to sit by.  Remember, your rights end where mine begins.

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This is a bit academic if you have no experience flying these airports. 

But that isn't exactly what they do, the groups go out the gate in order like normal. But you come to a fork in the road (er...gate) and you can take the path according to your choice. You have the right to choose. 

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

[DancingDavidE]

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@McSmooth wrote:

Just a follow-up.

$175 LUV voucher received for both my wife and I.

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Great, I hope that helps. I'm glad that the person you reached was able to provide something. 

It really isn't an issue at most airports but LGB, BUR, and then a few others have issues with not having the posts in place. And definitely unsettling the first time you see it.

[floridaguy]

That might be the way it SHOULD be but the OP had a completely different experience.

If the boarding order was respected, you wouldn't have had this post.  Instead, the flood gates got opened and poof there went the boarding positions.

[DancingDavidE]

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@floridaguy wrote:

That might be the way it SHOULD be but the OP had a completely different experience.

If the boarding order was respected, you wouldn't have had this post.  Instead, the flood gates got opened and poof there went the boarding positions.

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That's not what OP said.

On Monday, June 5 we were flying home from Long Beach.  No announcement was made that they would be boarding from both front and rear doors.

We had an early B group spot in line.  After getting in line on the ramp at the front door, we notice the staircase at the rear door.  So everyone in line behind us is running to the rear door.

Everyone goes through the gate door in the concourse and scans their boarding pass in numerical order like normal.

THEN after you get onto the ramp it splits into separate pathways to either board in the front or the back.

[bec102896]

It’s kind of like the grocery store when they open another check out lane everyone rushes to the new lane from the back even though you could have been the next to check out 

[floridaguy]

I believe that the order in which people boarded the plane was compromised, thus, the $175/ea LUV voucher.

Maybe the gate agent needs to be retrained?

[bec102896]

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@floridaguy wrote:

Maybe the gate agent needs to be retrained?

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This has nothing to do with the ops agent (technically what they are called). They line up people and scan the passes A B C they aren’t going to go police the 2 lines to board the plane because the back line is shorter than the front line and someone might go to the shorter line when everyone had that same opportunity to go to the front or back. If the ops agent stops and waits for all As or Bs to board before starting the next group the process would be slowed down 

here’s another example the TSA line sometimes lane 2 moves faster than lane 1 doesn’t mean I should be treated like royalty because the other guy who got in lane 2 after me got helped before me. I chalk it up to oh well I chose the wrong lane. 

now if you were in line at the front and they had the back line closed until later in the boarding process sure I could see a complaint but they have both doors open throughout the boarding process when they board this way 

for me when I go to an airport that does this boarding I always go to the back because the front has the wheelchair folks so they need more time to get settled where the back keeps on flowing unless you get a family which sometimes they take a min to get in the row but it goes back to sometimes you choose right other times you don’t 

I’m glad the OP shared their feedback with the airline and I’m glad they helped them with a LUV voucher (a generous one that is) but in my opinion the ops agent did the job just fine and how fast lane 1 vs 2 goes is not what they get paid to police. 

[floridaguy]

You and I will never agree.  

It is Southwest who makes the big deal about the boarding position rather than the seat assignment.  That's fine.  However, if you are going to honor the boarding positions then you will need to "police" the entry on the plane.

This is Southwest's problem.  If they are going to board from two doors then they need to allow only a certain amount of people at a time go to those two doors.  Maybe 10 at a time.  Then, when BOTH lines are down to the last person, 10 more, and so on.

If one line goes faster, then the boarding position is compromised.  If the gate agents can't "police" the boarding of the plane, get new gate agents.