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Every airline traveler has been there. The boarding process begins, and the gate is swarmed with passengers before their zones have been called.
They’re popularly known as “gate lice” and, despite being shamed and mocked in popular culture, U.S. airports are still experiencing outbreaks.
Enter American Airlines, which recently announced that it is in the early phase of testing a new technology to help with these pesky critters. When a passenger attempts to board the plane early with the wrong group, the new system will give an “audible signal” to the gate agent, according to the airline.
The boarding passes of passengers who trigger the signal would not be accepted by agents, and those travelers would be sent back to board with their group, according to the airline.
The technology, which is in an early phase of testing, has been rolled out so far at Albuquerque International Sunport in New Mexico, Tucson International Airport in Arizona and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.
“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,” American Airlines said in a statement.
Gary Leff, who has operated the travel website View from the Wing for the past 22 years, said he first learned of the program from a reader who had encountered the technology in Albuquerque. Since then, more readers have come forward to share their positive reactions, he said.
“People do think you ought to board in your assigned boarding groups,” Mr. Leff said. “Cutting a line is not consistent with the norms that folks tend to like.”
Travel experts believe that the noncompliant passengers are increasingly rampant because airline passengers who wish to secure valuable overhead bin space mark their territory as soon as possible.
“You’ve got a lot more line cutters today than you used to because there’s now a benefit from boarding early that there didn’t used to be,” said Scott Keyes, the founder of Going.com, a travel app that alerts people to cheap flights from their home airport.
The unruly passengers may have also become bolder recently because of the ever-increasing prices of checking bags, which incentivizes the use of carry-on baggage. Influencers and social media posts have also promoted tips for ease of boarding with earlier groups. Gate agents who hope to avoid unnecessary delays may also not closely enforce the correct boarding order by group.
Travel experts believe that the technology can serve as the bad cop and point out line cutters, rather than leave it to the gate agent alone. The signal may lead to less rule breaking and reduce confrontation for airline employees in helping passengers get to their gates.
“What I’m hoping is that this message gets out to the public and that those boarding lanes are not being clogged,” said Clint Henderson, managing editor at The Points Guy, a website dedicated to offering travel savings tips. “Frankly, a lot of people that are in that line know they are not supposed to be boarding early, and they know they can get away with it.”
American Airlines said it was pleased with the results so far, as were several passengers who took to social media to share their thoughts. One passenger on the social media platform Reddit said they “had fun witnessing sneaky passengers getting served embarrassing justice in front of everyone.”
Three other passengers kept their reaction short and sweet. “About time!” they said.
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