The better way to board an airplane

The way we board airplanes make no sense. Tests have shown that boarding the plane back-to-front is much slower than the alternatives. Check out our quick video to find out why.

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[harrybarker]

Vox gives me information I partially don't care about and would never need but its so factual, concise and retains a purpose the videos are great.

[ceka]

wait people actually pay to board first? but why? its not like you're going to be taking off any faster by being the first to board

[TimJSwan]

Lol, when I was in the army, I kept asking why they filled vans and trucks from rear to front and they just said, "Shut up, this is how it works."

[themis]

0:53 "United mades an exception for families"

Caught you slippin vox

[man_on_wheelz]

I know people who fly often have grown to no longer appreciate the flight experience but I've only taken 1 round trip in a plane in my life and luckily it was since I've been an adult and that truly is a magical but frightening experience. Some people are used to it and complain about the typical stuff but once you get past security and all the business end of things, the actual flight is really amazing in my opinion. Being a mechanically inclined individual I was amazed at all the engineering behind the airplane and like this video said, the fact you're going 500mph above the clouds. I've never experienced anything else in my life that allowed me to go from wearing sunglasses as I look out the window and see an overcast of clouds below me and the curvature of the earth, then drop down into the clouds to see the gloomy and rainy city of Chicago. Though scary, that was amazing to watch! I know someone is probably reading this like "ughh I see that sort of stuff every month when I fly to see my dad, get over yourself" Sorry, but it's the only time I experienced that and I'm a very observant and curious person.

[rrrglynn]

Im pretty sure Delta does it front to back which makes even less sense.

[VictoriasChannel]

As the CEO of Ryanair once said... Passengers will crawl bollock-naked over broken glass to get low fares. This pretty much sums up why airports are such a horrible experience. 

[linkinl]

In norway we divide the plane in two by letting half of the passengers go in the front door of the airplane and the other half to the backdoor of the airplane. Works good

[Lucy-ngcw]

Australia, it is just random. Whoever lines up first.

[richardma]

Please credit your music, it's driving me crazy when I can't find the tune!

[JerseyRepresenting]

I just wait until everyone boards; no waiting in line and you get to scan the cabin for the fun passengers

[Vicinity]

How Vox makes a seemingly boring subject that nobody would ever think about interesting I will never know!

[skkar]

I loved how everything was conveyed without any narration!

[martinsway]

I know this probably isn't possible in a normal plane setting, but when I was in the Army, we front-loaded our backpacks and began filling every seat from the back of the plane to the front, WITHOUT STOPPING TO PLACE OUR BAGS IN THE OVERHEAD COMPARTMENT. Everybody took their seat within a couple of minutes. Only once everyone was seated would we pass our bags to the person seated in the aisle and they would set them in the overhead compartment. Obviously this only works because all our bags were the same size and seats were unassigned, but I can't help feeling like the military does some things better.

[J..M.]

Lol the Mythbuster references are great.

[ilovebats]

Southwest has both the advantages of unassigned seats, and free checked bags which helps damper the amount of carry on luggage, further making them faster.

[patrickxoconnor]

Here in Europe: Ryanair (our biggest Airline) has a totally different system for keeping turnaround times low:
*They print an obnoxiously early Gate close time on your ticket*

This way people line up to board super early and as soon as the plane arrives people board in whatever order they want, doesn’t matter how long it takes because the passengers are all early and when the plane is full they can simply take off early. Has a knock on effect of an early arrival too which allows the next flight to board early and on and

Who knew the Irish could be so innovative??

[isabellabornberg]

I have never ever been confined to enter the plane in a certain structure- everyone enters in the lineup that they stand up from at the gate

[extremebooklover]

The outside-in method would mean that those with window and middle seats would take all the overhead compartment space and not bother putting anything under the seat in front of them. Back-to-front keeps people slightly more accountable about sharing the compartments. Not sure which is better in the long run though.

[TheoWerewolf]

The carry on luggage is what really causes the problem.

Because of charges for check-in and the relatively high rate of lost luggage (it's only ~9% but that's one in ten flight you take where you're going to lose a bag) I've learned to pack a two week trip into a standard carry on bag pair. The problem then is if I end up being one of the later passengers to board, the odds are fairly high I won't find a place to put my luggage in the overhead. Then I'm in the worst of all situations - my carry on goes into check in LATER which increases the chance of it getting lost.

Boarding back to front and intentionally choosing a seat at the back speeds up my getting on (although it slows down getting out) but it means I always have space for my carry on - and since when I leave the plane, I don't have to wait for luggage at the carousel - I actually leave the airport faster even though it takes longer to get off the plane and I never lose my luggage. So for me, the current system works best.

Boarding window to aisle really screws me over. I need an aisle seat because of a back problem. Regardless of where I sit, I'll be one of the last to board. Random seating is the worst possible case because the odds are good I won't get an aisle seat or a place to stow my luggage.

Ultimately, the best solutions would be to speed up the check in luggage delivery process, find a way to make sure the bags arrive 100% of the time (it can't be THAT hard) and make sure the first bag is always free. Then more people would waive trying to bring the biggest possible carry on and cram it into the tiny overhead bins. That alone would speed up boarding immensely.

Alternatively, a system where the carry on luggage is collected as you enter the airplane and stowed in an area in the front of the plane and then handed back to the passenger as they leave again, would reduce the congestion, although the logistics of that is kind of insane.

Otherwise, we'll just have to deal with the extra 10 whole minutes it takes to board. Which is actually kind of small beans to the amount of time we spend waiting for the plane to actually leave once we're all boarded... and finished waiting for that one guy who's late to the gate...