James Wysong on Preboarding

I was browsing through James Wysong’s columns over at Tripso the other day and I ran across a rather disturbing inclusion. Now don’t get me wrong, I love James’ column and read it regularly; however the offending inclusion was written by one of his readers, so I don’t really fault James for it. But it did bother me, nonetheless.

The column in question is located at peeves, and it includes some of James’ readers’ pet peeves about air travel. Of course the usual suspects appeared on the top of the list, but then I got to the one that really stuck in my craw.

“If they are going to preboard passengers with special needs, shouldn’t they be the last ones off instead of struggling with their bags and holding up the rest of the airplane.”

Granted, some people with canes and walkers do move a little slower than the rest of the crowd; however they aren’t the only ones. It’s the clueless passengers that can really hold up the whole deplaning process. I sat behind one the other day. She was halfway off the plane before she realized she picked up the wrong bag. Some people just shouldn’t be allowed out in public without supervision. But I digress.

Unfortunately some people don’t understand the reason many folks preboard is because they need a seat with a flip-up armrest. Sounds easy enough, right? Well not exactly, because sometimes the airlines don’t know where these seats are. If you preboard you can be sure and get one, even if it isn’t the seat originally assigned to you. If you don’t preboard, it's not that easy. My post from earlier this year (Take Advantage of Preboarding) illustrates that point. (which coincidentally happened on James’ airline; and if memory serves me correct, James’ wife was the pilot)

So in the end, preboarding actually speeds up the whole boarding process. Should slow walkers wait and be the last ones off the plane? Well, some are, because they just can’t stand or walk very far without assistance. Others choose to deplane with the crowd. It’s just the way the system works. So until the airlines start screening out the stupid passengers, the rest of the world can just wait for a few slow walkers.

And that’s the way I see it.

And for those of you slow walkers headed out for the airport this holiday season, don’t forget to request an airport wheelchair and take advantage of the preboarding opportunity. It will save a lot of wear of tear on your body and make the whole holiday shuffle go a little smoother.