Travelers rage over worst airline boarding policies: ‘Like feeding time at the zoo’
Fight or flight.
Boarding a plane has become one of the most painful parts of modern travel, taking upwards of half an hour and triggering panic — and the possibility of violent squabbles — over available space in overhead lockers.
This week, United implemented its new WILMA boarding system in a bid to expedite the agonizing process, but the method has already sparked furious backlash amongst customers, some of whom are threatening a boycott of the airline.
However, the carrier isn’t the only one to tick off travelers with the organization of their boarding.
Southwest Airlines has the fastest boarding process of any major airline, according to CNN, but passengers often fear that their airline’s open seat policy could cause “anarchy” prior to take-off.
They also rage about “seat savers” who hog entire rows for friends who are in later boarding groups. One peeved pundit even alleged that such people “deserve jail time.”
Meanwhile, American Airlines has also been roundly mocked for having nine separate boarding groups, which critics say significantly slows down the boarding process.
“The more zones and groups of boarding, the longer it takes,” Massoud Bazargan, a professor at Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told CNN last month.
Below are the airlines that frequent travelers cite among the worst offenders for their boarding policies.
The Post has reached out to reps at American, United and Southwest for comment.
Southwest Airlines
While Southwest prides itself on its short boarding times, passengers panic about not having an assigned seat, which can lead to incivility at the gate.
Some say the carrier’s open-seat policy causes customers to crowd the boarding gates, turning the terminal into “feeding time at the zoo.”
“Boarding Southwest Airlines is an absolute carnival,” one furious flier raged on X earlier this week. “I hate it here.”
“It’s not the boarding process it’s the gate lice who crowd the gate,” one railed on a recent Reddit thread. “They are the problem.”
Passengers are not assigned a seat when they book a flight on Southwest, with their boarding pass only indicating a boarding group (A, B or C) and a position (1-60).
Customers can upgrade to boarding group A for a fee (from $30 per customer), but it doesn’t guarantee a specific seat.
One TikTok user went viral last year after claiming it’s “the worst part of boarding in Group C of Southwest is the anxiety that builds as you approach the plane knowing that everyone in your row hates you for taking their open seat.”
Meanwhile, Southwest offers pre-boarding options for families and some passengers with disabilities — but critics say many people take advantage of the policy.
“Probably 20% of my flight out of San Antonio pre-boarded, then four different people were saving four different rows for people in the B or C boarding group,” another Redditor wrote on the same thread.
“There was a group of obese young men… there were several 30-something women traveling together for a bachelorette party… there were plenty of grandparent types in wheelchairs who each had their own entourages that all pre-boarded,” the flier moaned. “It was like an ‘SNL’ or ‘Monty Python’ skit…group after group.”
“I’ve started choosing AA [American Airlines] or Delta…and I have a freaking companion pass,” they concluded.
American Airlines
American Airlines now has nine separate groups for boarding, with the large number leaving the airline open for ridicule on social media.
“I’m in boarding group NINE for a flight. American Airlines somehow has more ways to categorize people than the US census,” one peeved passenger quipped, attempting to find some funny in the frustrating situation.
“American Airlines somehow has NINE (9) boarding groups. I believe group 9 is for people who brought recyclable bottles to the airport to trade for a ticket,” a second snarked online.
Another said the system was enough to stop them from flying with American in the future.
“If you have nine boarding groups do you even have one?” they raged on X late last year. “Second round trip on American this year, which is two too many – Philly and Dallas trips that I can’t justify connecting on.”
However, American isn’t the only major carrier with a large number of boarding groups.
Nerd Wallet says some Delta flights can also have up to nine separate boarding groups, and also increased their number of boarding groups in recent years, with special status given to “medallion members” and those with Delta-linked credit cards.
While Bazargan told CNN that a high number of boarding groups slows down the overall process, he says airlines are loathe to reduce the number, given that they can make money off of priority boarding fees and seat assignments.
“Because there’s so much money on the credit card and frequent flier side, the marketing people win and the operations people have to deal with it,” Robert Mann, an airline consultant and former executive, additionally told the news site.
United Airlines
Starting Thursday, those flying economy on United flights around the country began boarding with the WILMA new system, which sees passengers in window seats enter the aircraft first, regardless of the row.
Those booked into middle seats subsequently board the plane, followed by those in aisle seats.
United says the system helps ease congestion of the plane’s aisles and ultimately speeds up the time it takes for all fliers to take their seats.
The carrier previously used its WILMA boarding method up until 2017, saying it saved an average of two minutes for the boarding of domestic flights.
But the airline has already been blasted for reverting back to that system, with one pundit predicting brawls could break out due to limited luggage space in the overhead lockers.
“With this approach, window seat passengers will have first dibs on overhead bins,” they speculated on X. “Unless the gate personnel strictly enforce the two item rule, I predict some interesting dialogue and disruptions to occur during boarding.”
“Well, not flying United. I’m an aisle girlie and now I’m always going to lose out on overhead space,” the pundit proclaimed beneath a “Today Show” TikTok about WILMA.
United’s WILMA United system involves six groups plus travelers who qualify for “preboarding” — such as customers with disabilities, active military members and unaccompanied minors.
Group one is first class, while business-class passengers form group two.
Economy passengers with tickets for a window, middle or aisle seat will then board in groups three, four and five, respectively.
The sixth group is reserved for basic economy on domestic flights, as well as those who don’t have a boarding group on their pass.
