bradmook.com

I’m often struck by inefficiencies where they clearly don’t belong. Yesterday, while waiting for boarding to begin on my flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta, the boarding crew announced the flight would be totally full and asked for volunteers to check bags for the flight. If not, they warned, it would be very likely the passengers in the final boarding zone would have to have theirs checked. No one moved.

The problem, of course, is that there is absolutely no incentive for anyone to comply with the employee’s request. The passengers early in the boarding series are likely to get overhead space, so they have no reason to check their bag. The passengers late in the boarding cycle may not get overhead space, but the downside to carting their bags on the plane and finding no room is no worse than checking the bag to begin with. So complying with the gate agent’s request to check the bag just locks in the downside risk.

Obviously it’s in the airlines’ interest to get this right. Smoother boarding means quicker departures, which probably means better on-time statistics and better plane utilization. The airlines could make the equation more interesting by offering disincentives; bags will be chosen to be checked at random or by some system (such as every fifth passenger’s bag) and charged the $25 baggage fee. That way customers might opt to check their bag for free voluntarily rather than risk the fee. And it would spread the risk across all the passengers, not just sticking it on the unlucky ones late in the boarding series. But people would probably cry foul.

A better option might be to offer a free in-flight perk to passengers that volunteer, such Wi-Fi or a meal. That wouldn’t set the airline back much (especially not the Wi-Fi, which carries little or no incremental cost) but would likely expedite the boarding process on a crowded flight and make for happier passengers.

It’s hard to believe an industry that has been at it for decades and has such a repetitive, high-volume process just can’t get things like this right.