Are Gate Lice Soon to Be Exterminated?

25.10.2024 - 21:59 / cntraveler.com / Meaghan Kenny / Charlie Hobbs / Matt Ortile / Hannah Towey / Jamie Spain

Travel Debates is a series in which our editors weigh in on the most contentious issues that arise in-transit, like whether you should ever switch seats on a plane or if you should check your work email while on vacation.

Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that American Airlines was in the midst of testing a new system targeting passengers who attempt to board the airplane ahead of their allotted group or zone. The editors here at Condé Nast Traveler largely rejoiced. Few components of travel these days are as reliably lawless as the boarding process, where passengers feel compelled to stand, en masse, around the gate desk the moment boarding begins, regardless of whether or not it's their turn. Airline employees have long referred to them as “gate lice.” The assignment of boarding zones, meant to quell the crowd, has heretofore been unsuccessful due to a lack of enforcement on the part of the airlines. You cannot operate on the honor system within a system that lacks honor.

But what does utopia look like? Is it as simple as a quick and easy boarding process where everyone stays in their lane? Can we ignore the extenuating circumstances that drive those in later boarding groups, who refuse to pay a premium for “early” boarding, to gather so impatiently in the wings? Why are travelers so anxious to get on the plane? Below, staffers Matt Ortile, Hannah Towey, Meaghan Kenny, and Jamie Spain join me to discuss.

Charlie Hobbs: Before we get into technologies being used to control the boarding process, I want to get your gut reactions to the current state of boarding, and in particular to this term “gate lice” that refers to people crowding the boarding gate before it’s their time. What do you feel when you see this?

Meaghan Kenny: My first thought when you asked us to debate gate lice was, “What do I think of somebody boarding a flight knowing they have lice?”

[Laughter]

Now that I know what that term means, I would put them in the same category as people who, as soon as you land, jump up to grab their bags and try to get ahead of everybody. It creates chaos, people can’t see or hear what’s going on. It’s not like there’s open seating on the plane, just relax, you’ll get to your seat.

CH: Even Southwest has done away with its open seating.

Jamie Spain: I find the gathering and crowding to be a problem when it obstructs people whose turn it actually is to board, which slows everyone down—why are you doing this?

Hannah Towey: Here’s why, I think: you desperately want your carry-on bag to have the overhead bin space. It’s another situation where the airlines are pitting us against each other when it’s really their fault, because why should passengers have to fight for overhead bin space?