Airport Queue Etiquette - Good row last night.

Pacing Mule

Tired and weary late last night coming back from hols I heard an argument break out behind me.

The crux of it was this ...

A standing queue had formed at the boarding gate up to an hour before they actually decided to start boarding (about 20 minutes after gate was meant to be closing) This may have influenced the short tempers.

Anyway the argument developed between two parties.

Group 1 - had been standing in the queue with their bags etc (as a comic aside it had to be pointed out to half of them that they had queue jumped when joining as they kind of barged in)

Couple 2 - had been sitting at the boarding gate (there was 2 rows of seats either side of the queue) and had been sitting there long before I and Party 1 and the other 100 people behind us had arrived and joined the queue.

The couple stood up from their seat as the boarding actually started and stood into / beside the queue which at that point stretched another 100 plus people back. Party 1 took offence and told them they should not have joined the queue there and should have joined it at the end. Couple 2s stance was that they were in the queue from beforehand having arrived and sat down on the seats they occupied an hour before hand and that effectively everyone else who joined the standing queue had skipped them.

The row got quite heated - to the point where group 1 announced they would get their car sick kids to sit beside couple 2 on the plane and make their flight miserable. Disgusting. At that point I lost all sympathy for group 1 and applauded the couples stance to not budge an inch.

Who though do you think was right ? Is it acceptable to sit down in seats and expect to step into the standing queue at the point it passes your seat ? I personally would have thought that couple 2 should have at least placed their carry on bags in the queue that had formed in front of them. The fact they had them with them at the seats made things ambiguous. But as I said the group with the kids were absolute gimps in the way they acted.

McGrath5

I am sure if group 1 had been sitting in the seats before the second couple arrived, they would of happily plonked themselves down and then expected to "join" the queue when the flight started to board.

OP they sound like a bunch of scumbags to be honest.

I Heart Internet

I think you confused the two groups somewhere near the end of your story!

My question would be - is the plane going to leave without any of ye?? Answer: No.

People who queue for an hour (or even 10-15 minutes) to get on a plane THAT WON'T LEAVE WITHOUT THEM are utterly idiotic.

I have some sympathy for the sitters....the standees seem more childish than them.

My advice: sit in the bar or sit quietly and read your book and then go and claim your seat without queing like a [EMAIL="f@nny"]f@nny[/EMAIL].

kylith

If you are not standing in the queue you are not queueing.

michellie

No its not acceptable, you stand and Que, but they all sound like idiots!

AnonoBoy

There's always enough seats on a flight. Why bother stand and queue?

Best thing I ever saw was a bunch of people queuing for half an hour for an Aer Lingus flight which had assigned seating..... what the f*ck?

hullaballoo

Justice for couple 2!

shopaholic01

Ah yes, the race to board. It's actually better to sit down, let the queue board after shuflling along for ages, then be the last to board. The plane won't leave any earlier if you insist on being uncomfortable prior to take off.

Duckworth_Luas

Dosen't everyone have an assigned seat anyway? What difference does it make when you get on? I always wait until the end if I can.

I Heart Internet

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Best thing I ever saw was a bunch of people queuing for half an hour for an Aer Lingus flight which had assigned seating..... what the f*ck?

Regularly happens. People lose all sense of reason and cop on once they enter an airport or board a plane.

pauliebdub

Aer lingus have an excellent process for boarding, calling it out boarding by section. Start at the back 10 rows, then the front and finally the middle section. Sorts out the mad scramble you see with other airlines. There are always muppets who stand at the gate even though there is about 40 mins before boarding commences.

Sir Humphrey Appleby

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Tired and weary late last night coming back from hols I heard an argument break out behind me.

The crux of it was this ...

A standing queue had formed at the boarding gate up to an hour before they actually decided to start boarding (about 20 minutes after gate was meant to be closing) This may have influenced the short tempers.

Anyway the argument developed between two parties.

Group 1 - had been standing in the queue with their bags etc (as a comic aside it had to be pointed out to half of them that they had queue jumped when joining as they kind of barged in)

Couple 2 - had been sitting at the boarding gate (there was 2 rows of seats either side of the queue) and had been sitting there long before I and Party 1 and the other 100 people behind us had arrived and joined the queue.

The couple stood up from their seat as the boarding actually started and stood into / beside the queue which at that point stretched another 100 plus people back. Party 1 took offence and told them they should not have joined the queue there and should have joined it at the end. Couple 2s stance was that they were in the queue from beforehand having arrived and sat down on the seats they occupied an hour before hand and that effectively everyone else who joined the standing queue had skipped them.

The row got quite heated - to the point where party 1 announced they would get their car sick kids to sit beside group 2 on the plane and make their flight miserable. Disgusting. At that point I lost all sympathy for group 2 and applauded the couples stance to not budge an inch.

Who though do you think was right ? Is it acceptable to sit down in seats and expect to step into the standing queue at the point it passes your seat ? I personally would have thought that couple 2 should have at least placed their carry on bags in the queue that had formed in front of them. The fact they had them with them at the seats made things ambiguous. But as I said the group with the kids were absolute gimps in the way they acted.

Prebooked seats, no queuing:D

Peregrine

People who start queueing for a flight hours before boarding are really annoying but that doesn't mean I can sit down and expect to enter the queue because I was sitting beside it.

Usually I just get up and join the queue after 10-20 people are already there, regardless of if my seat was beside it or not. Obviously not when it has assigned seats though. Then, I'd wait until they start boarding to enter the queue.

Hoop66

Yeah, but then you have to sit in the one remaining seat; which is next to a smelly, sweaty git who's been queueing for an hour.

kylith

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Dosen't everyone have an assigned seat anyway? What difference does it make when you get on? I always wait until the end if I can.

You don't have assigned seats on Ryanair. I generally wait till near the end too. Who cares if my companions and I are separated?

Caliden

Just back from hols with 3 others where we waited at the bar and had a few drinks until the queue was down to about 10-15 people, got in the queue, got on the plane and we all got seats near the front with our luggage under the seats in front (no issue as long as it's the correct size).

We got off the plane in less than 5 minutes of arriving and we done this both ways. Definitely doing it from now on. Zero stress.

inocybe

They should have sat on the floor right where the queue starts and tripped up anyone that tried to step over them :rolleyes:
If you're travelling with anxious kids yes you will queue for hours to ensure that you can sit beside them. Unless of course you're the type who would prefer your kids to be sick on someone else...

There's one time to be at your boarding gate.

When the airline starts boarding your seats.

If the airline haven't called your ticket type yet, sit the f*ck down and stay the f*ck clear of the boarding gate.

Simples.

Ice Storm

pauliebdub wrote: »

Aer lingus have an excellent process for boarding, calling it out boarding by section. Start at the back 10 rows, then the front and finally the middle section.

Yeah, a good idea in theory but in my experience there will always be people who don't follow the instructions and manage to get on the plane before they are supposed to.

Inevitably, I end up stuck behind some selfish muppet trying to get their oversized case into the overhead compartment when their row number hasn't even been called yet. :mad:

AnonoBoy

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Who cares if my companions and I are separated?

Being separated can be a blessed relief if you'd been on on holidays with a family like mine!

Amirani

Hoop66 wrote: »

Yeah, but then you have to sit in the one remaining seat; which is next to a smelly, sweaty git who's been queueing for an hour.

Most flights aren't that full.

iDave

I did it in June. Sat at the seat near the gate. A Ryanair staff member walked in the general direction of the gate 50 mins before the departure time and then the paranoid rush to stand up. I continued to sit, got up when they were ACTUALLY boarding and joined the queue where I was sitting, no issues from those who had been standing there for 50 mins.

Plazaman

I Heart Internet wrote: »

Regularly happens. People lose all sense of reason and cop on once they enter an airport or board a plane.

And then the time it takes them to put their stuff into the overhead compartments you'd swear they were building the hubble telescope.

*Look around whilst standing in aisle
*Put bags on seat still looking around, still blocking ailse
*Slowly put one bag at a time into compartment in case hubble breaks apart still blocking aisle
*Put shítty duty free bag into compartment whilst still blocking aisle
*Completely rearrange the compartment as the big bag should go on the left whilst ignoring queue going out the door as they can't get by
*Remove coat and scarf/hat, fold slowly and place in compartment whilst continuing to be oblivious about the rest of the plane trying to board.
*Eventually sit down letting 5 or 6 people pass
*Stand up again to block aisle so you can take your hipster book and reading glasses out of carrying on bag from compartment
*Repeat the process

salacious crumb

The couple that arrived first should have spoken up as soon as the queue formed, a queue is a queue, tough sh*t, but they all sound like d*cks to be honest.

Plus, why bother queueing in the first place? If you fly with any airline that doesn't allocate your seats for free, and you want to make sure to sit with your friends, family, sweetheart or sugardaddy, pay the extra couple of quid for priority boarding...

Amirani

Because of Ryanair's relatively quick turnarounds, you commonly get a situation were the queue starts 20 mins or so before their airplane even lands.

pauliebdub

Ice Storm wrote: »

Yeah, a good idea in theory but in my experience there will always be people who don't follow the instructions and manage to get on the plane before they are supposed to.

Inevitably, I end up stuck behind some selfish muppet trying to get their oversized case into the overhead compartment when their row number hasn't even been called yet. :mad:

From what ive seen they tend to send chancers back if they are not in the called out section , unless its passengers with small kids otherwise it completely defeats the purpose.

OldNotWIse

The couple that were sitting were hardly queing.

The other couple sound like A**holes.

Was it a Ryanair flight?

Airports seem to have the same effect on people as cars - leave your manners outside.

Also maddening is when you are waiting at a gate for an eternity and then another one opens beside you and people run up from the end of the queue (also happens in McDonalds lol)

And yes, why are you queing anyway??? Plane wont leave without you.

JohnCleary

I'm not a Ryanair peasant, wouldn't know




:pac:

shopaholic01

What's even more annoying is when 90% of passengers stand up as soon as the plane has landed. It's not going to explode, there is no reason to rush off. Most will just end up waiting in the baggage area, then the frantic wait for luggage enuses, people deliberately blocking others from the conveyor belt in case they might miss their luggage first time around.

I mostly fly aer lingus and I always book the front window seat. They have to make room for your bag because it can't be on the floor in those seats. Extra leg room and first of the plane. No queues. Worth every penny of the extra tenner!

In answer to the OP. I think really group 2 would be right, if it had been a huge group of people trying to hop in front of them then yeh - fight your case. But it was one couple, and group 2 came out of it sounding silly (by your account anyway).

ArmaniJeanss

Caliden wrote: »

got on the plane and we all got seats near the front with our luggage under the seats in front (no issue as long as it's the correct size).

Having to put my bag under the seat in front (because of no space left in the overhead) was one of my few bad flight experiences - I'm a leg stretcherer and it made it a really uncomfortable flight.
Its one of the reasons why I now don't wait til too near the end to get on.

salacious crumb

Caliden wrote: »

Just back from hols with 3 others where we waited at the bar and had a few drinks until the queue was down to about 10-15 people, got in the queue, got on the plane and we all got seats near the front with our luggage under the seats in front (no issue as long as it's the correct size).

We got off the plane in less than 5 minutes of arriving and we done this both ways. Definitely doing it from now on. Zero stress.

Exactly. Any time I fly with Ryanair (who are the only airline I can think of that the issue of unreserved seating arises with) I just wait til the end and usually get the middle seat of the first three or four rows, and tend to get off the plane and out the airport at the other end fairly quickly :pac:

I Heart Internet

Caliden wrote: »

Just back from hols with 3 others where we waited at the bar and had a few drinks until the queue was down to about 10-15 people, got in the queue, got on the plane and we all got seats near the front with our luggage under the seats in front (no issue as long as it's the correct size).

There is a direct correlation between people who queue to board an hour beforehand and those with spectacularly large pieces of hand-luggage.

AnonoBoy

JohnCleary wrote: »

I'm not a Ryanair peasant, wouldn't know

Let the Ryanair peasants queue while on Ethiad the pheasant is served right on cue.

Ah money.....

Amirani

shopaholic01 wrote: »

What's even more annoying is when 90% of passengers stand up as soon as the plane has landed. It's not going to explode, there is no reason to rush off. Most will just end up waiting in the baggage area, then the frantic wait for luggage enuses, people deliberately blocking others from the conveyor belt in case they might miss their luggage first time around.

Nothing wrong with people who have to catch an onward connection trying to hurry off the aircraft. Those fools with checked in bags though are ridiculous.

Charlie Babbitt

Did anyone else notice the smoldering sexual tension between guy from Couple 1 and woman in Couple 2.

Was does O'Leary charge for mile high club membership anyway?

keithclancy

Security is even worse.

Security: Any liquids in your bags ?
Them: No

...goes through machine...

10 minute argument about how shampoo is not a liquid.

x43r0

I can't stand that queuing for 45mins crap

I pre-book my seat all the time and wouldn't fly without doing it now. So much less hassle. Sit at the bar and sup a pint while the masses spend the best part of an hour standing

shopaholic01

NiallSparky wrote: »

Nothing wrong with people who have to catch an onward connection trying to hurry off the aircraft. Those fools with checked in bags though are ridiculous.

How many of the 90% have to catch a connecting flight though? Your luggage is forwarded too, you don't have to reclaim it between flights.

And don't get me started on the people who clap when you land. I've even heard people do it on take off.

I Heart Internet

x43r0 wrote: »

I pre-book my seat all the time and wouldn't fly without doing it now.

Can you pre-book on Ryanair?

For every other airline this wouldn't be an issue (although you'll still get people queing in advance for allocated seating).

Caliden

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Having to put my bag under the seat in front (because of no space left in the overhead) was one of my few bad flight experiences - I'm a leg stretcherer and it made it a really uncomfortable flight.
Its one of the reasons why I now don't wait til too near the end to get on.

How tall are you (or should I be asking how big is your bag)?
I'm 6 foot and had no issues with stretching.

Amirani

shopaholic01 wrote: »

How many of the 90% have to catch a connecting flight though? Your luggage is forwarded too, you don't have to reclaim it between flights.

I know that - I'm made connections that my bag has missed and missed connections that my bag has made. I'm just saying that I understand people rushing to catch connections. It's not really justified for anyone else though.

BeerWolf

Why the row to begin with - don't people get their seat numbers to go at anyways, regardless of you being first or last to board...?

It's kinda like a speed boy racer over taking you, only for you to catch up to them at your own pace at the traffic lights or jam... you go as fast as the slowest - so why the rush ?

I Heart Internet

shopaholic01 wrote: »

And don't get me started on the people who clap when you land. I've even heard people do it on take off.

That's just a bit of craic. Often it's done in a kinda ironic way or by a bunch of kids.

No harm there.....not like the queing, huge bag carrying yokels.

gobnaitolunacy

I don't know why anyone bothers queuing like a gimp for ages, esp on a flight that your seat is reserved.

Most Ryanair flights I'm on are so short, it isn't worth bothering getting a 'good seat' anyway.

I wait until there's about 20 or so people left, then hop in.

salacious crumb

Clapping is only acceptable if there has been a massive amount of turbulence and a generally terrifying flight :pac:

lemansky

I Heart Internet wrote: »

Can you pre-book on Ryanair?

Yea there are some seats available on each flight for pre-booking now.

ArmaniJeanss

Caliden wrote: »

How tall are you (or should I be asking how big is your bag)?
I'm 6 foot and had no issues with stretching.

I'd be less than that, maybe I'm just more slouchy.
It just seemed that everytime I moved my feet or tried to change from 'left over right leg crossover' to 'right over left' that I was hitting the bag (which was 'normal' sized I guess).

JustAddWater

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Dosen't everyone have an assigned seat anyway? What difference does it make when you get on? I always wait until the end if I can.

Not with ryanair you don't

reason why I hate flying with them, if you're with 2 or 3 people it can be a nightmare especially if you want to sit together

I've seen a queue built up for aer lingus with assigned seating before, truly stupid but unfortunately embedded in our culture now thanks in no small part by the ryanair culture

OldNotWIse

shopaholic01 wrote: »

What's even more annoying is when 90% of passengers stand up as soon as the plane has landed. It's not going to explode, there is no reason to rush off. Most will just end up waiting in the baggage area, then the frantic wait for luggage enuses, people deliberately blocking others from the conveyor belt in case they might miss their luggage first time around.

I laugh at people who do that. They're up and out of their seats before the fasten seatbelt sign is even switched off. And then they stand there for ten minutes... :rolleyes:

kylith

shopaholic01 wrote: »

How many of the 90% have to catch a connecting flight though? Your luggage is forwarded too, you don't have to reclaim it between flights.

Not with Ryanair; they don't forward luggage.