Airline Nightmare: Boarding Process. Solutions.

Question: "The boarding process has become a nightmare. What could airlines--and passengers--do to make it better?"
Answer:  From the book "Cockpit Confidential," written by airline pilot Patrick Smth.

Photo by Cynthia Dial

If you want to make things slightly easier on your fellow travelers, here's a simple recommendation: when boarding, please do not place your carry-on bags in the first empty bin that you come to.  Use a bin as close to your seat as possible.  It drives me crazy when I see a guy shoving his 26-inch Tumi into a bin above row 5, then continuing on to his assigned seat in row 52.  I know it's tempting, but this causes the forward bins to fill up quickly.  Those seated in the front must now travel backward to stow their belongings, then return upstream, against the flow of traffic, slowing everybody down.  Then, after landing, these same people have to fight their way rearward again while everybody else is trying to exit.  Am I wrong to suggest that assigned bins might be a good idea?

Another recommedation:  families with kids in strollers should be boarded first, and upon arrival they should be asked to stay in their seats until everybody else has exited.   

Cockpit Confidential

Patrick Smith