"Boarding is one of the most difficult parts of air travel and frustrating to a lot of passengers," said Leslie Josephs, CNBC's airline reporter. In the 1970s, Southwest Airlines' average turn time, from the moment a plane arrives at the gate to the time it leaves, was only 10 minutes. Flight delays cost airlines and passengers about $33 billion each year, according to government data. But experts say speeding up the boarding process is not really a priority for airlines — they've monetized everything about it. "The different boarding groups that we see today have emerged because people value their priority in boarding," said Kerry Philipovitch, former senior vice president of customer service at American Airlines.

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Persons: Leslie Josephs, Chris Parks, Josephs, Kerry Philipovitch, Kerry Organizations: Southwest Airlines, American Airlines