question about boarding on Delta

[mommytoe]

This may seem a dumb question. Somebody told me that Delta boards you by your seat. He told me they board all windows seats first, then work toward the aisle. Is this true?

I am hopping to board as a family, but my 4yr is sitting next to the window, I am sitting beside her, DH is sitting in front of me, my 8yr is sitting across the aisle from dh and my 13 yr is sitting across the aisle from me. We are all in the back of the plane. We plan on being last off to make it easier on us.

We don't care what order we get on the plane as long as we can get on together.

At this point Delta claims the plane is Embraer ERJ-145 (I know that can change before Nov). We are traveling non-stop from RDU to MCO.

 

[DebbieB]

I fly Delta often and I can't figure out their system. On the larger planes, they board some in the back, then some in the front, then some in the middle, there doesn't seem to be a simple order.

Usually when there is a group traveling together, you can go by the lowest zone number and board together. So if your family has a 3, 4 & 5 zone boarding passes, you can board with zone 3. You always have the option of waiting for the highest zone number, there is no rule that you have to board when your zone is called.

 

[Letsbgoofy]

Delta boards by zones in the plane. Your aisle will all be in the same zone. If the aisle ahead of you with the rest of your family in it is in a different zone (which it probably won't be), you can still all board together when they call either of the 2 zones. I also can't figure out their system. They seem to board both front and back, and then the middle. It seems like it would be easier to board from the back forward.

 

[seashoreCM]

Delta has been experimenting with different systems. Non-Song flights have been using a tandem system, namely one zone is a group near the back, the next zone is a group near the front, then another zone is near the back, then another zone is near the front. This was meant to speed up boarding by having two areas of intense stowing instead of just one. Song used window, middle, aisle with a few other groups interspersed.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[FlaNative]

This may seem a dumb question. Somebody told me that Delta boards you by your seat. He told me they board all windows seats first, then work toward the aisle. Is this true?

I am hopping to board as a family, but my 4yr is sitting next to the window, I am sitting beside her, DH is sitting in front of me, my 8yr is sitting across the aisle from dh and my 13 yr is sitting across the aisle from me. QUOTE]

Almost all airlines make the announcement that "families with small children and those with special needs(like a walker or wheelchair elder) can board" first, even before the airline elite frequent flyers can board. A 4 year old is young enough to qualify your whole group to board first. Just remind the ones across the aisle that they might have to get up to let the window passenger who comes later into their seat.

Go to the airline site or seatguru.com and print out a seat map of the plane you will be going on. Help educate your kids to be good flyers by letting them find and mark their seats on the map. Knowing the layout of the plane and where your seats are takes a lot of the stress away by removing an unknown. And helps everyone get seated faster.

On one Southwest flight I took to Orlando, when they allowed families to board first, almost half the waiting passengers in the gate area left, there were so many with with kids Going To Disneyworld.

The ERJ is a small regional jet, you can see from one end to the other. It is harder to get lost or seperated from your family and you should not have any problem. Even if everyone boarded at once it would be far less of a problem than boarding a jumbo like a 767, where the crowd is so large you could get seperated and not see each other.

Also: an overworked gate agent might forget to make the Families First announcement if they are rushed. Hint: get to the gate early(give yourself plenty of time for the security lines) and play dumb. If there are not a lot of kids at the gate area waiting on your flight, go ask the gate agent "is it true you let families board first?" as a gentle reminder you are there and need this, they'll be reminded to board you first. You'll do fine. Enjoy MCO.

 

[wee-haggis]

I'm no rocket scientist....but it seems to me that the one and ONLY logical,quickest and safest way to load a plane is:
Back section first,mid section second and front section last.
If you don't do it this way,you have folk loading their overhead bins,mulling around and blocking the mid and back passengers from getting to their seats.
The SWA system of loading planes is comical to say the least !

 

[seashoreCM]

Often the Orlando gate agent omits boarding familes with small kids first because there are so many of them.

Keep in mind that pre-boarding is to benefit the airline, not the passengers. The gate agent announces it because for that flight he thinks the plane will board faster that way.

The bottom line secret, though, is that time needed to board, unlike right of way at an intersection, is something that is acceptably taken as opposed to given or proffered. If failure to board kids first leads to later departure, pre-boarding of kids will become more frequent.

By the way, you road warriors who seem to resent kids boarding first: Hustle yourselves on board and into your seats, no coat folding and smoothing in the aisle, and that will leave more time for the kids to board later and gate agents will be less likely to board kids first.

 

[all4disney98]

Delta did not offer preboarding for families with small children in either Hartford or Orlando. They only preboarded those in wheelchairs. Definitely makes sense in Orlando because that would be most of the plane

 

[paulmc80]

I'm no expert, I'm just guessing here. I always figured the concept behind boarding by zones is to board a relatively even distribution of passengers evenly throughout the plane in timed intervals. The assumption is that there is an average amount of time each passenger takes to be seated. It should reduce the odds of lengthy stalled lines during boarding. Less stop and go type of lines extending the length of the aircraft in many cases. Safety may be another concern as they may not want too many people in anyone area standing at a given time.

I'll usually towards the rear of the aircraft. Relative to boarding the aircraft from rear to front seats, zone boarding seems to have reduced my boarding time, as well as, eased the stowing of my carryon with less passengers congregating around.

Queuing theory can be interesting. Sometimes the most efficient queue techinque for a given purpose can seemingly defy common sense. Many times its the perception of the queue that enables it to be more efficient.