AF62 mentioned:
The fastest boarding I have ever experienced was in Greece some years ago.
Snap! Though mine proved much more worrying in retrospect.
I was flying on the last flight to Athens from Mykonos on an Olympic 20-seater and was cuting it fine timewise. As I arrived to an almost empty airport entrance hall I heard a last call announced for the flight through Gate B. So I went to Gate B and it was empty - not even a discarded Metaxa bottle to be seen. But I then saw the plane on the tarmac and, as the gate was open, ran over to the steps to the rear door, which was open, clambered on board, and thought I might be in some Stephen King novel when confronted with an empty plane and cigarette smoke drifting out of the front cabin. I was just debating what to do when a Stewardess appeared from said front cabin, who said
"You! Already? Sit down and I bring Ouzo, orange juice and water." So I sat down and as I did so the cabin filled with passengers. I later discovered they has been bused over from Gate D on a 25 metre trip. Thankfully the Ouzo, orange juice and the water came in difference plastic cups...
Oh, and I agree with Lootman about lie-flat seats and the sanctuary of lounges: though the latter vary enormously from the sumptuous firsts of Quantas in Sydney and Emirates in Dubai, both of which are simply stunning and should be enjoyed at least once. My favourite lounge is still the Turkish business in Istanbul and it's enormous Scalextric circuit which instantly took at least 65 years off my age when I seized the controls to race against an equally grey-haired Turkish businessman.
Eb.