The way passengers are loaded on an aircraft has always been a mystery to me despite having worked for airlines. For example, United Airlines boards passengers based on the window-seats-first principle. While this is effective and sounds logical it sometimes defies the very chaos it was designed to avoid. During business trips I prefer to be in an aisle seat. I also suffer from mild claustrophobia so if the aircraft is small or prone to be a packed route, I will sometimes opt for an aisle even on a long pleasure trip. Most business travelers prefer the aisle seats for a variety of reasons and this is where the trouble starts.

Passengers are instructed that one bag only may go above in the storage bins and if there is a second bag, it must go under the seat. This is repeated every two to three seconds over the public address system and yet most leisure travelers refuse to pay any attention to it and then claim they didn’t know when you frustratingly try to find space. The people seated in the window seats stuff the overhead bins to capacity so that by the time the aisle seats get on the aircraft there is no room whatsoever. This not only creates more chaos, but takes up valuable time as people jockey for space. The flight attendants do their best to remind people, but are unable to actually stop them from stuffing everything they own in the bins.

Other airlines board passengers based on the back to front system. This seems to be a little more effective with regards to getting people boarded quickly and making sure they do not take all of the space around them. This often works better than the window seat method, but I have been on flights that still end up having the forward bins full when some passengers decide they would rather put all their bags in the front so that they can just grab them on the way out rather than carry them down the length of the plane.

What this all amounts to is a lack of consideration. Have we truly become a society that just does not care about our fellow travelers? There is not much we can do to bring back the “joy” of flying anymore, but at least a little thoughtfulness would go far. Acts of random kindness are always appreciated.

-Morissa Pawl, vice president western region