A Diversion from the Obvious: Doing What They Do Best?

Let's give the state and UC budgets a rest for a moment. Many faculty during the summer travel to conferences or just vacations. Yours truly has been traveling of late on American Airlines and noted that boarding the plane has become chaotic. There seems to be no pattern in use. Many airlines board from the rear on the idea that aisles closer to the front won't be blocked by passengers trying to stow luggage or get settled. If you randomize the entry, you get blocked aisles. But the airline has decided that random will be the new system.

Now it ain't just me who noticed this odd decision. The LA Times ran an article about the American Airlines "system" yesterday. Here is an excerpt:

...The airline says the new procedure, known as the "random" seating method, saves time because it minimizes the gridlock that occurs when people in the same row try to get to their seats at the same time.

"You definitely will not have 24 people in four rows boarding at the same time," said Scott Santoro, director of airport consulting for American Airlines. He said studies have shown that the random seating process reduces boarding times 5% to 10%.

The Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants disagrees. It contends the process has created "complete chaos" among passengers, forcing attendants to spend more time preparing the plane for takeoff. The attendants are irked, it says, because they are not paid for the extra time needed to load the plane...

Full article at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-travel-briefcase-20110627,0,7934503.story

And, indeed, the flight attendants are so irked that one of them gave me the official airline memo to flight attendants that attempts to rationalize the new procedure. You can find it here.

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It could be worse: