American Airlines Gate Agent Warns Carry-On Bags Will Be Checked For Those Who Attempt To Board Before Group Number Called

Going off script, an American Airlines gate agent in Dallas warned that passengers who tried to board ahead of their boarding group would have their carry-on bag confiscated and placed in the cargo hold. Is this a valid tool of coercion to promote order while boarding a flight?

American Airlines Gate Agent: Carry-On Bags Will Be Checked If You Try To Jump The Boarding Queue

I’ve written before about how American Airlines has a new system that “beeps” if you try to board before your boarding group is called (American Airlines has pre-boarding plus nine boarding groups).

But one agent at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) went a little further. View From The Wing shares an incident at DFW where passengers were threatened with consequences if they tried to board early:

The lone agent working our full flight out of DFW this evening announced, “Any passenger trying to board before their group will be forced to gate check their bag.” It was one of the more efficiently boarded flights I’ve been on!

Checking carry-on bags should generally not be necessary in newer aircraft with larger overhead bins, but AA (like its competitors) is often poor at enforcing item limits and passengers are often very greedy in placing two or even three items in the overhead bin.

Theoretically, this punitive measure would slow down boarding further since it takes time to tag a bag, but the hope would be that the threat would be a sufficient deterrent to promote order in boarding.

I’m generally not in favor of gate agents or flight attendants making up rules, but I think I’d be very curious to see a case-control study that gauges whether this additional threat (and actual enforcement) promotes more order in the boarding process.

CONCLUSION

I applaud the American Airlines gate agent for trying something–anything–to reasonably enforce order in the boarding process. I’ve mentioned several times before about how orderly boarding is in Japan. I know there are cultural differences, but how great would it be if passengers simply sat until their group was called instead of forming a gaggle in the boarding area?

She may not have the backing of American Airlines, but this sort of “penalty” for deliberately boarding early seems reasonable to me.

> Read More: American Copies United, Will Start Enforcing Boarding Priority…Will It Work?