American Airlines is testing a new boarding system to prevent “gate lice,” which is a pretty egregious term for those annoying passengers who prematurely gather in front of an airline’s gate before being called to board.

This system will automatically and audibly flag someone who is trying to board before their time. How embarrassing for them?

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“We are in the early phase of testing new technology used during the boarding process,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement to the Washington Post.

Basically, if a passenger tries to board early with a different group, scanning their boarding pass will cause a specific beep, and the screen will show the gate agent their actual group number. In other words, they’ll get called the fuck out—publically. 

“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 revealed.

The New York Post reported that the boarding system is being rolled out/tested at Albuquerque International Sunport Airport (ABQ) and the Tucson International Airport (TUS).

In the American Airlines subreddit, several users stated they’ve already witnessed this new technology firsthand. 

“Was flying out of ABQ yesterday and saw the test boarding system for the first time,” one person shared. “As usual, group 1 was flooded with people but several people ahead of me when trying to scan their boarding pass got an error beep. The gate agent proceeded to tell them ‘sir/mamm you are group 5, please step aside.’ Was awesome to see this enforced and looked like it was system driven vs gate agent having to make that call.”

“I saw this in action yesterday. It was great,” another commented. “I saw about 5 people get punted out of line for trying to board before their group was called. About time!”

Finally, there seems to be a simple yet savage solution for the ever-infuriating gate lice. Let’s hope this gets rolled out across all airports soon.

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