American Airlines: Random Boarding Is Fastest

This past weekend I flew American Airlines round-trip from Austin to Nashville and I noticed something different. We didn’t board the planes from back to front (after priority passengers) as usual. I noticed something else too. Boarding was pretty quick.

It turns out that American recently changed its boarding process to the random method, which means you board based on when you checked-in for your flight and received your boarding pass, instead of based on seat assignment.

Not everyone is happy about American’s new boarding procedure. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has spoken out against random seating and says the new process causes chaos among passengers. I understand their frustration considering longer boarding times mean they have to spend more time preparing for takeoff. Flight attendants are also not paid extra for longer loading times.

It’s possible my speedy random boarding experiences were just lucky. But American’s change to random seating was not, well, random. For years the airline industry has studied the fastest ways to load passengers onto planes. Shorter boarding times mean more flights and more revenue. American says the random method reduces boarding time by 5 to 10 percent.

American’s new system reminds me of another airline: Southwest. For as long as I can remember Southwest Airlines has had first-come first-served seating, which is in essence random. Southwest’s system is also based on when passengers check-in for flights. However, unlike Southwest, American’s passengers do still have assigned seats. If Southwest has kept its boarding method for all these years, there must be some economical reason behind it and if they can pull it off maybe American can too.

There are of course factors that increase boarding times, no matter what system is used. Large groups or families traveling together, passengers with carry-on bags too big to fit overhead, and people switching seats can all slow down the boarding process. Perhaps more carry-on bags are part of the reason for the switch. By charging for all checked bags, American could be slowing its boarding times. Maybe random boarding is an attempt to recoup some of that lost time, but that’s just my theory.

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Photo by Patrick Cardinal, used under a Creative Commons license.