Why everyone stands up at the gate.

The screen says twenty minutes. Nothing has changed since you last looked. And yet one person stands. Then another. Within a few minutes there is a loose wall of strangers pressed against a closed door, achieving nothing.

Boarding will start at the same time whether they stand or sit. Ask any of them why they got up and you get a shrug, or a confident answer invented on the spot.

Nobody organized this. Nobody benefits from it.

The cost lands on someone else: the family with a pushchair who can’t reach the lane, the passenger in group 1 who has to squeeze through, the agent who has to ask, twice, for people to make room.

The civilized version is short. Sit until your group is called. Then walk up. Your seat has a number on it. It will still be there.