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The real reason people start queuing before plane boarding even opens

São Paulo, Brazil - January 17, 2018: People waiting to board the plane.
People tend to line up at the gate before boarding even starts. Photo: Getty

It’s the little voice inside your head that tells you to ‘line up now’ even though boarding for your flight doesn’t start for another 20 minutes.

Other people are already queuing, so you have a sense that you should be as well. This psychological need, fuelled by an inner competitiveness, is one of the biggest reason’s people do it in the first place.

But it isn’t the only reason.

A quora thread asked ‘When boarding a flight, why are so many people eager to get on the airplane as soon as possible?’

And it revealed two more reasons why people have a tendency to line up at a gate ready for boarding ahead of time.

Passengers boarding an airplane through a boarding bridge in Madrid Barajas airport T4 terminal, Madrid, Spain
Passengers boarding an airplane through a boarding bridge in Madrid Barajas airport T4 terminal, Madrid, Spain

Luggage space

With the increase in budget carriers that charge for checked luggage, more and more people bring rather large carry on bags on board planes these days.

And one thing you’ll notice is that overhead space in the cabin can run out very quickly when every man has a medium-sized American Tourister they have to squeeze in.

“If you board too late, odds are you will be out of luck and have to gate check your bag. Or worse, have to put a bag in a bin well behind your row meaning swimming against the crowd at the end of the flight,” one person explained on the thread.

“There is never enough room and usually the last 20-40 people on board have their suitcases taken off them if the flight is crowded. That happened to me once and my suitcase was damaged beyond repair when I collected it on arrival,” another person revealed.

Seat stealers

Take anywhere where seats are allocated - the movies, sports events - and there is nothing worse than rocking up to find people are sitting in your seats.

Apparently this also sometimes happens on flights, even though most of the time seats are allocated.

aircraft seats
aircraft seats

“There is also the issue of seat poaches,” one person added. “I am a frequent flier, so I have the miles and status to pick a primo seat at no extra charge, or at a reduced charge, a seat like an exit row aisle. It seems like on an average of 2 out of 10 flights, I get someone who helps themselves to my seat.”

“Duplicate seat assignments happen,” another frequent flyer agreed. “The passenger that is seated first tends to keep his seat.”

Fear of missing the flight

Lastly many people simply have a fear of missing their flight, so they make sure to be ready and waiting way before boarding begins.

This would mostly tend to be people that don’t fly very often, or those flying for the first time.

“The whole worry and anxiety about leaving the house and making it to the airport on time is a factor, because making the flight is a goal, there is a sense that they are not going to be able to relax until they are sitting on the plane,” one comment explained.

“People fear that they may get left behind if they came in too late. They think that if you are one minute late, the airline will leave you so easily. But this is far from the truth. Oftentimes, airlines will wait up to half an hour for those who have not cleared the boarding list,” was another response.

So as long as you have checked in and have a relatively normal sized carry on bag, if any, sit back and relax. No need to be inside that tin can any longer than you need to be.

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