Queuing is as much a part of the British identity as a cup of tea — so when someone tries to jump ahead, it’s not just rude, it’s undemocratic.
And airport queue jumpers in particular are reserved a special place in hell.
We all want to get on board, stow away our bags and jet off to somewhere warm and sunny as quickly as possible, but skipping ahead of more patient passengers is not the way to do it.
And now, one airline is attempting to find a solution to those pesky queue jumpers.
American Airlines is testing a new type of tech, that stops them in their tracks.
Often airlines will call first class passengers ahead of those in economy to board first, and even if there are no premium seats on the aircraft, airlines such as Ryanair or EasyJet will seat their Priority Boarding customers first.
But you’ll often find that some people try to chance their luck and board in a group that they didn’t pay for – meaning they get on the plane first, and can nab that all important overhead locker space, despite not being charged for the privilege.
And that’s where the new software comes in: as passengers scan their boarding passengers at the gate, it detects if they’re in the wrong queue, and a noise will ring out, signalling that they must step aside, and wait their turn.
It’s up to the person manning the gate to decide if they’ll relent and let them through, or insist they stand by and awkwardly wait until the priority group has boarded.
This airplane habit is ‘evil’ but we bet you’ve done it
An American flight attendant who goes by Cher on TikTok revealed what she believes is the single worst thing a passenger can do on an airplane.
And given some of the gross stories we’ve heard in the past (barefoot bathroom goers, we’re looking at you) – it might surprise you… and we’re pretty sure we’ve done it ourselves.
‘Putting any type of bottle that has liquid in it in the overhead bin,’ Cher declares, in a video which has been viewed more than 73,000 times.
‘Every single time, without fail, that water bottle, as soon as we take off, is going to leak inside the bin.
Cher, who has been cabin crew for five years, hates this so much, that she described it as ‘heinous, evil and diabolical.’
While she admits it’s an easy mistake to make, saying, ‘it’s tempting to do this if it’s in the outer pocket of your backpack,’ she’s adamant it’s poor plane behaviour.
So why is it so awful? ‘Not only does that soak everybody else’s bags, the water always picks one person and it’ll follow a stream and completely dump out of the bin onto one person,’ explains Cher.
And she’s not wrong that bottles will most likely leak. As an airplane climbs higher into the sky, the air pressure drops and it causes the air inside the cabin to expand. This means any air trapped in water bottles will also expand, which can force the water to leak out of it.
American Airlines is currently trailing the system in two USA airports, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, where feedback has been mostly positive – and crucially, it hasn’t slowed down the boarding process itself.
American Airlines told View From The Wing: ‘We are in the early phase of testing new technology used during the boarding process. The new technology is designed to ensure customers receive the benefits of priority boarding with ease and helps improve the boarding experience by providing greater visibility into boarding progress for our team.’
Your Daily Horoscope
American Airlines currently flies out of 10 UK airports, and is the third largest airline to fly out of Heathrow, so we could soon see the technology here too – and it might catch on with other popular UK carriers too.
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