Studies show that the average person is annoyed by the actions of another average person 27 times each day.

That is a truly remarkable statistic. And it would be even more remarkable if I hadn’t just made it up. Still, it’s probably pretty close to accurate – at least if we assume the average person commutes to work.

The point is, if we complained about all of the people who have annoyed us all we would be doing is annoying others with our complaints. And so what do we do? We figure out ways to complain that don’t sound like we’re complaining.

And despite her protestations to the contrary, this is what I think Nonya B is doing in this thread on the TripAdvisor forums in which she asks about Southwest boarding procedures rules after noticing another passenger with a later boarding assignment boarding in front of her.

Nonya, if you’re reading this please don’t take this personally. My skepticism says a lot more about me than it does about you. And frankly, I don’t like what I’m saying about myself. Trust me, I’ll deal with me harshly later.

No matter Nonya’s intentions for starting this thread, she raises an interesting question. If one person in a group flying on Southwest has purchased Early Bird Check In, can the others flying with that person board at the same time?

And maybe more to the point, even if it’s against the rules, will the gate staff stop them?