Airports kind of suck don’t they…. Ok maybe they don’t necessarily but you have
got to admit that that it can be one of the must annoying and frustrating places…. I
mean essentially, they are nothing but one gigantic que
• You que for the carpark • You que for the check-in
• Que at security • Que at Starbucks
• Que getting on the plane • Que getting off the plane
• Que for the toilet • Que for baggage
• Que for the bus and after all that after your trip you turn
around and have to do it all again… But what if I told you there was a way to
cut down your waiting time? ------ I know now with electronic check-ins things can be
a bit quicker if you don’t take baggage ---- but there is another way.
Would you be interested, sure you would! Imagine being able to skip all of those ques!
Ok, ok not all of them… Not even most or some of them, but you can
pay to cut the que getting on the plane Sounds pretty handy, but is it worth it?
Hello and welcome to well actually, today we are looking at priority boarding and asking
the question, are good value or they a rip off??
A few weeks ago I went on a trip from here in northern Ireland to Edinburgh in Scotland,
and while spending most of the time queuing up I had a lot of time to think about airlines
and flights etc. Today most airlines are offering what is known
as priority or easy boarding. This is where you pay a bit extra to get into a different
shorter que in order to get on the plane quicker. In theory this sounds like a good enough idea,
but before we go into the details let’s look at the price differences:
I went to various airlines websites and found that there was a considerable jump in prices.
Some tickets costing up to £25 (around $30) more, for priority boarding… But what do
you get for your money: One airline for instance added a small bag
to your hand luggage and give these options: For anywhere between 12 ($15)-20($25) you
get to sit in the front of the plane (no not the cockpit…)
And 7($8.50)-15($18) you can sit at the wings….. which might be a good deal if your plane crashes,
as you will be the first out… and it’s a lot cheaper than the front!
But apart from these perks all you get is a little bit up the line all you get is a
little further up the line, which is not good value for money on a short haul flight!
You don’t get anything else. You don’t get better types of seats, just a little more
legroom, and generally before the flight, in the airport priority boarders get a smaller
pen for waiting in (if the boarding area has pens).
On my trip to Scotland roughly 1/4 of the plane was priority boarding, but only about
1/8 of the area was set up for priority boarding. The plane was fully booked and we were on
was a Boeing 737-800 – which have roughly 192-195 seats. The pen only had a row of 10
or so seats between about 45 people! So if people had the aim getting on the plane first
so they could be lazy they were not off to a good start.
But the question is how do you save by buying a priority ticket? Well a Boeing 737-800 is
a standard aircraft so we will use it as an example. My extensive search online and timing
my own experience it takes roughly 20 minutes to board the plane.
So let’s do some math. So if ¼ of the plane pay the tickets, the
maximum tame you save is 20 minutes and the minimum is about 15 minutes. But the second
the priority boarders get on the gate is then open to other passengers, which means if you
are at the back of the priority que the next person is only a couple of seconds behind
you and if the plane is boarding from both ends, chances are they will get on first – as
the people at the front of ques tend to be the more pushy.
So you are better saving your £20 ($25) and just arriving a little early at the gate as
you will get on just as fast! But there are more issues with priority boarding,
say for instance If everyone is in a rush and pay for priority boarding, there is no
point as the que is just moved from one spot to the other. Now to be fair most airlines
have a cap on the amount of priority customers, but this is still a potential issue.
Another issue is the fact that priority boarding does not even get you on the plane first – there
are a ton of people who get preference, for instance people with disabilities, frail old
people, and people with young kids all get called on first, and rightly so! But if the
people who need that can get on first anyway, apart from really tall people, who need the
legroom, who really needs to board first? The Plane does not leave any quicker, so it
does not speed you up… All you are paying for is the luxury of being seconds ahead of
others and getting another item of hand luggage. Conclusion
So in conclusion, Priority boarding is essentially only really for 4 types of people. it is only
for lazy people, tall people, impatient or people with too much money. Well ok I am joking
about most of those, but seriously who needs priority boarding? On my flights the people
on priority boarding were nearly all young enough…
So if you are on a flight just save your money and just buy the basic ticket, unless the
boss is paying! If you have ever bought a priority ticket,
I would be interested in hearing about your experience and if you thought it was good
value or If you have any interesting stories about flights you have been on why not leave
us a comment? I would love to hear about them and might even write some stories of my own
I also would just like to say thanks for watching, more videos like this are to come and if you
have not already, why not subscribe! It is also a BIG help if you would like to
share this video on reddit, Facebook, twitter etc.
Thanks again and happy travels! Owl still at the airport “I should have
just took the ferry…” or “wait why did I not fly myself?!?!” while on the plane