Air New Zealand Air Points - Boarding

Last couple of international flights they have boarded business/*gold before families.

Gate attendants arguing amoung themselves that families should be first last night and lead gate person stated been told business to go first.

Anyone else encountered this?

Yes, on my most recent international flights (June) I noticed that families were called up and asked to wait near the gate.

When boarding commenced it was Business followed by *E/*G - some members of the familly groups were not happy about this and remonstrated with the gate agents (to no avail).

On what airline? Can't see subforum on mobile device.

I don't see why families go on before G/GE, given anytime boarding for G/GE is an advertised privilege.

Naturally as I have almost always boarded as Business/Gold/GE, I am in favour of them boarding first, but beyond that it does make sense.

More than a few times I have been at a NZ gate and watched as "families" includes parents and two teenagers, travelling in economy (easy to spot the seat numbers on boarding passes), whilst those of us paying Business Premier wait. I ended up joining in and taking my chances with arguing, and have never been pulled up on it.

By contrast, US carriers seem to have a very ordered sequence for boarding. E.g. I've been at many a United gate to watch priority go:
- Members of Armed Forces
- Global Services members
- Premier 1K and Platinum and First Class
- Premier Gold and Star Gold
- Premier Silver
- Everyone else.

This is on domestic flights where you'll see one or two turn up for the first couple of tiers, around 8 or 9 for the third, a dozen or so for the fourth and then it all adds up.

Getting families with young children to have priority isn't an issue in BP or PE, it is for economy. The better way to do it would be to grant some sort of priority status for boarding only.

Now there is no need for NZ to be that complicated with boarding, but it would help if there was some priority which goes:

- Business Premier first and GEs and NZ/* Golds.
- Premium Economy second and NZ/* Silver and Koru Club
- Families with small children
- Everyone else by seat number.

The hard part is maintaining a premium lane for boarding (given lots of premium passengers don't appear till after boarding starts), and turning people away who appear before they should.

The most effective way to do that is to queue police in advance, so that people get sent off the queue if they don't comply. It is what happens in HKG, for example.

Is this important? Well for premium passengers it is. Besides the seat and soft product, premium classes are about minimising queues at the airport, lounge access and bigger luggage allowances.

Those who pay the most should be able to board first. Once the premium cabins are boarded, and those with status, then it is right to board families with small children and everyone else. It is a marketing tool as much as anything else. If you pay more you get to board earlier and wait less, if you fly frequently enough with us, it's the same.

Loyalty rewarded.

and all are trumped by passengers in a wheelchair

and all are trumped by passengers in a wheelchairThat's mainly due to the need to get the wheelchair back out of the aircraft before the other passengers start boarding.

That's mainly due to the need to get the wheelchair back out of the aircraft before the other passengers start boarding.

yep and it works well for me when flying with partner, but not so good getting off the plane - they are keen for you to be last off and boy or boy some people can dilly dally

The current system is fine IMO. I don't mind waiting for families with young children, even if I am in the premium cabins. No skin off my nose.

Naturally as I have almost always boarded as Business/Gold/GE, I am in favour of them boarding first, but beyond that it does make sense.

More than a few times I have been at a NZ gate and watched as "families" includes parents and two teenagers, travelling in economy (easy to spot the seat numbers on boarding passes), whilst those of us paying Business Premier wait. I ended up joining in and taking my chances with arguing, and have never been pulled up on it.

By contrast, US carriers seem to have a very ordered sequence for boarding. E.g. I've been at many a United gate to watch priority go:
- Members of Armed Forces
- Global Services members
- Premier 1K and Platinum and First Class
- Premier Gold and Star Gold
- Premier Silver
- Everyone else.

This is on domestic flights where you'll see one or two turn up for the first couple of tiers, around 8 or 9 for the third, a dozen or so for the fourth and then it all adds up.

Getting families with young children to have priority isn't an issue in BP or PE, it is for economy. The better way to do it would be to grant some sort of priority status for boarding only.

Now there is no need for NZ to be that complicated with boarding, but it would help if there was some priority which goes:

- Business Premier first and GEs and NZ/* Golds.
- Premium Economy second and NZ/* Silver and Koru Club
- Families with small children
- Everyone else by seat number.

The hard part is maintaining a premium lane for boarding (given lots of premium passengers don't appear till after boarding starts), and turning people away who appear before they should.

The most effective way to do that is to queue police in advance, so that people get sent off the queue if they don't comply. It is what happens in HKG, for example.

Is this important? Well for premium passengers it is. Besides the seat and soft product, premium classes are about minimising queues at the airport, lounge access and bigger luggage allowances.

Those who pay the most should be able to board first. Once the premium cabins are boarded, and those with status, then it is right to board families with small children and everyone else. It is a marketing tool as much as anything else. If you pay more you get to board earlier and wait less, if you fly frequently enough with us, it's the same.

Loyalty rewarded.

On US-based domestic flights, boarding first is a Big Deal due to the limited amount of luggage space and the fact that everybody insists on showing up with a giant carry-on suitcase which wouldn't be allowed on a foreign airline, thus if you board last you're extremely likely to wind up finding that there's no room in the overhead bins, and you'll be gate-checking your bags. Ugh.

On NZ I've never known this to be a problem, so who cares about getting on board first? I'd rather get on board last; if I'm gonna be spending twelve hours in a seat I have no desire to extend that by another forty minutes.

On US-based domestic flights, boarding first is a Big Deal due to the limited amount of luggage space and the fact that everybody insists on showing up with a giant carry-on suitcase which wouldn't be allowed on a foreign airline, thus if you board last you're extremely likely to wind up finding that there's no room in the overhead bins, and you'll be gate-checking your bags. Ugh.

On NZ I've never known this to be a problem, so who cares about getting on board first? I'd rather get on board last; if I'm gonna be spending twelve hours in a seat I have no desire to extend that by another forty minutes.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one, I take full advantage of the "board at your leisure" comment that they put on the end of the *G announcement.

I want to spend as little time as I possibly can sitting around on the plane waiting so board at the last moment every time.

Sometimes however, if there isn't a dedicated separate line for G/GE/Koru/business, it can mean standing in a line for 20 minutes.

Can koru technically board when they call gold*? I always do and have never been turned back

I'm quite happy to wait for families with small children to board before I do. But I think they should police the 'small children' requirement better since the reason for offering priority boarding to these pax is so they can have sufficient time to settle in on board and stow their bags.