I never understood the need to pay extra for getting on the plane first. I travel light and I couldn't care less about the overhead bins. Which would be the only valid reason to board early. And I'll gladly be on the plane last so I can minimize the amount of time I have to share farts with my fellow passengers. Airplanes are not very pleasant places to be. And the cattle herding that is boarding these days is very unpleasant.
I flew a few weeks ago (Lufthanse, Lisbon to Berlin). I found some seating near the gate (always in short supply) and I observed people starting to queue to board. Lufthansa uses groups to structure the boarding. Mine was group five, last in (perfect!). So I remained seated while people nervously started to queue long before the gate was open. In the end, it took another 40 minutes before I stood up and boarded. Some of the people queuing were in the same group as me so they just got told off by the ground staff and were kind of just waiting for their turn right until the end.
The most stupid thing is when the boarding turns out to be a bus ride to the plane. You get crammed into the bus with all the other passengers and then the last one in is the first one out into the plane. I've seen that happen on smaller flights. So, you get people paying extra to be first into the bus being out competed by people like me that just wait until the last moment. The bus won't leave until the bus is crammed full. And it generally has no or very little seating. Much better to be on the last bus.
I was like you--tried to be the last guy on the plane--until I started to fly very frequently (every other week). I started getting upgraded to first, which means really boarding before everyone and not having to wait in line/in the tunnel to get to my (now comfortable) seat.
Boarding at the very beginning makes a huge difference.
It's a 30 minute chunk of time in which you get to relax. Once you're in your seat there really is nothing else to do. You can work, you can watch a movie, you can think, read a book.
No latent anxiety wondering when I should get up, no "I can't really focus on this book because I might have to get up any minute," etc.
For a relatively short flight (2 hours) it's a pretty meaningful % of time that becomes a lot more relaxing.
This is a key point. When I used to fly once or twice per year to go on vacation it didn't really matter too much. Now I'm flying sometimes more than twice/month often international and all these little niceties add up. Global Entry is a must, some type of lounge with wifi and snacks is nice. Getting on early enough so I don't have to worry about them forcing me to check which then adds a ton of time when I land (or worse, lost luggage which happens all the time). And yes, I can relax and get back to what I was doing - likely reading a book :)
Yup. I was flying SFO -> SEA last year to visit family after a work trip, and Alaska Air had a screaming deal on first class, so I bought it. So nice to just walk on, sit (in a decently comfortable seat!) down, and do whatever you want while waiting for boarding to finish. Get a drink, do some work, read, whatever.
Overhead bin space is a big one. Even as am someone who travels with a duffle at almost always fits. I’ve had to check it before being in the last group, waiting til the end.
One other one I ran into with the “dead last” strategy was I ended up waiting in line anyhow… on the jet bridge, which was worse than waiting in a queue in a nice airport terminal. So my purely practical brain says to go at the beginning of my group, get it over with, and then I can be settled with no worries rather than having to pay attention to the boarding sequence at all.
i get it. i used to be like that too... and then we had kids and that changed everything lmao. Now I rather have peace of mind that i have an overhead bin with all our stuff right next to us
I flew a few weeks ago (Lufthanse, Lisbon to Berlin). I found some seating near the gate (always in short supply) and I observed people starting to queue to board. Lufthansa uses groups to structure the boarding. Mine was group five, last in (perfect!). So I remained seated while people nervously started to queue long before the gate was open. In the end, it took another 40 minutes before I stood up and boarded. Some of the people queuing were in the same group as me so they just got told off by the ground staff and were kind of just waiting for their turn right until the end.
The most stupid thing is when the boarding turns out to be a bus ride to the plane. You get crammed into the bus with all the other passengers and then the last one in is the first one out into the plane. I've seen that happen on smaller flights. So, you get people paying extra to be first into the bus being out competed by people like me that just wait until the last moment. The bus won't leave until the bus is crammed full. And it generally has no or very little seating. Much better to be on the last bus.