The seats are assigned. People have been standing in line for 15 minutes now. Why on earth would anyone want to stand there, when they could just sit and wait until the line clears?

I understand wanting to get off a plane ASAP, but boarding? You just end up sitting on the plane, waiting for everyone else to get on.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Limited overhead space. If you wait, you increase the chance there won’t be room for your overhead bag.

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The real answer. I sometimes have a laptop in my carry on. I’ll be fucked if I’m going to hand it over to the savages on the tarmac.

      • dingus@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        A lot of airlines nowadays seem to charge extra for a carry on than they do a checked bag. So I tend to bring one checked bag and one small backpack that can fit under the seat, which isn’t classified as a carry on.

        • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yup yup, carry on and personal item. You can live for a week out of that. Plus no wait at the baggage claim, and no risk of the airline stealing or breaking your stuff.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        If you have it in a backpack you can put it under the seat in front of you unless you’re in a front seat or one next to an overwing emergency exit.

        This is all officially allowed and I’ve used it plenty of times.

  • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 months ago

    These same people will all stand up at once the moment the plane stops… and continue to uncomfortably stand there for like twenty minutes.

    On my last flight my gf sprung up and was irritated that I wasn’t doing the same. Like where the fuck you going to go? One foot to the left? Just, why? I’m chillin.

    • OhmsLawn@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Yeah, no. I’ll stand up right away, help people around me reach their luggage, along with getting ours down and prepared to roll. Nobody behind me on the plane is going to appreciate it I’m fumbling around with my bags while they’re trying to get off.

      • 🐍🩶🐢@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I will happily defend you on this point. Down vote away people. As long as you don’t shove past the rows in front of you or bonk me with luggage, we good. I try to remember the passengers who had to store luggage father back and see if I can get it passed forward. I will totally boss people to sit back down if someone needs to get to the front ASAP due to close connections. If it is going to be a while, I will try to grab my backpack and sit back down.

        Now, people with oversized rollerboards? Yeah. I get pretty irritated over that and the vast number of issues that causes with boarding and deplaning. The airlines make it worse with price hikes. I personally check all of my luggage and rarely run into issues. If I have any major concerns I will throw a couple things into a bag that will fit under my seat or FedEx it if we are really going there.

  • esc27@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Anxiety (especially now that planes are oversold and standby passengers are nearby waiting to grab empty seats…), the need for overhead bin space, not wanting to have to climb over people, illogical impatience, etc.

  • Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    People are posting a lot of maybe more rational reasons, but I think there’s another answer that’s more in line with just being a human. Airports suck, air travel, generally, sucks and the whole process is riddle with both intentional and also just unavoidable misery. Every time a new step in the sequence of unpleasant and boring steps that is air travel nears, we start to anticipate it and get anxious to move on to that next step in the process. It doesn’t make it faster, it likely only makes the misery arguably worse, but some times people just can’t help trying to mentally hasten things even if in reality nothing is hastened at all.

  • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’m hard of hearing and terrified of standing in the wrong place at an airport and missing the visual cues to board the flight. Once boarding starts and people start queueing up, I usually get in line because it’s helpful to see what everyone in front of me is doing - the order that they hand over paperwork or get carry on double checked. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to hear the attendant if they ask me questions at the gate because it’s so noisy, so I like to at least feel like I’m prepared.

    One time I was flying with crutches and qualified for early pre-boarding because I needed the plane wheelchair (skychair). I sat right next to the gate desk and waited, then I started seeing people queue up so I quickly joined the line, wondering how pre-boarding works when the whole plane of passengers are already vying to be at the front of the line.

    I get to the front, the attendant looks at my ticket then after some awkward back and forward eventually I realised they were telling me I’ll have to wait till everyone has boarded to get the sky-chair on. I should have come to the desk when pre boarding was announced. I pointed that I was sitting right in front of them… Apparently they were called my name 3 times over the loudspeaker.

    Apparently airports can only comprehend one disability at a time (if that!) they knew I was hard of hearing (it’s on my ticket) but still thought calling me over the PA was the best way to get the attention of the deaf person sitting 80cm from their desk.

    So I sat back down and waited for the line to clear, then I got back up when there were 2 people in line, and after another back and forward I learned that they had tried calling my name again about halfway through boarding because they only had one skychair and it was now or never because the chair had told fly with the other passenger because their arrival airport didn’t have a chair, or something, I dunno, anyway I kind of had to crawl down the ailse to get to my chair because in the past I’ve just used the backs of chairs to swing myself along, but the plane was full so I couldn’t do that.

    • buran@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Hard of hearing also. It’s so frustrating that text signs that list announcements are so rare.

      Captions on television/movies and games are commonplace, but in the real world, very few places care.

      Might be because I’m in a red state for a few more years due to family; blue states likely tend to be more aware of issues like ours.

      I did see written callouts of upcoming tram stops once, but I can’t recall which airport. It may have been ORD.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Now I think about it… Map in Elite Dangerous is also helpful for people without hearing.

        • buran@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It’s been a while since I’ve played that. But yes, it’s helpful to see a graphical representation of where noisy things are, as I’m completely deaf in my left ear and can’t locate sounds.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      This is a valid reason.

      My cousin gets serious panic attacks and had to fly alone. He was so nervous, I had to be on video call to help him at the customer service desk. We worked out for him and he was standing “near” line for about 45 minutes, which was more comforting for him than just waiting in a seat.

  • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Overhead space. The only upgrade I pay for is boarding group, and I want to maximize my upgrade purchase, so I want to be at the front of group 2.

    I only travel with an appropriately sized carry-on but I’m a bit tall so I can NOT have the bag by my feet.

    So I want to guarantee I have the overhead right above my seat.

    I also generally work on the plane so I can get my laptop and such out easily while standing at my seat, then put my bag up worry free.

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Also, when you will likely be sitting for 2+ hours, I like to stretch my legs a bit before then. I don’t need to sit at my gate for an hour before going into a plane to sit for 3 more hours.

  • Professorozone@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Yup, exactly what I think. So I used to sit in the gate area until the last possible moment until I found out that if you wait too long, they’ll give away your seat. Plus since they are charging people for checking luggage through, you have to get that overhead bin before it’s gone, unless your carry-on fits in front of you, which it doesn’t if you’re on a bulkhead. So, now I stand in line, frustrated by that and all the other crap we have to go through when traveling by plane these days. Looking at you TSA.

  • trikavanya@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Stand, don’t stand, I don’t care. But I’m sitting in the marked disabled seats, with a gate checked walker, and only similarly disabled people or people wrangling little kids are getting on before me, so standing in front of me only tempts me to run into the back of your legs with my walker to bulldoze you out of my way. Leave those of us with extra trouble moving a little space, please!

  • superduperpirate@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’m about to be seated for five hours straight with no possibility of standing or moving around. I’m standing while I still have the opportunity.

  • WanderingCat@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    For me it’s the last chance to stand for a while. If I’m going to be sitting in a cramped seat for 2+ hours then you bet I’m going to be standing before hand. So the if I’m standing then I might as well be in line.

  • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    The sooner I get to my seat the sooner I’m out of the god damned airport and can begin whatever escapism I’ve chosen for the flight. The thing I truly hate is the airport and being in it.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I didn’t used too get in line. But I’ve had a number of times someone took to much carry on (how I don’t know) and took all of the overhead space, refused to fix it, and the airline didn’t give a fuck either.

  • DontTakeMySky@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I rarely sit when waiting for a plane (at least not for maybe an hour before). I’m about to sit for hours, so I don’t want to start now.

    • Tier 1 Build-A-Bear 🧸@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      This right here for me, I’m pretty tall too and can’t afford first class so if I’m about to be cramped for 3+ hours I’m gonna stretch my legs first