needle

The worst example of ff status based boarding was with a BA flight from LHR to DUB. There were 2 (two) passengers in the non-priority line. The rest of the plane was in the other lane. And they checked that everyone actually had status. I've never seen anything like that with Finnair.

NoWindowSeat

What is all this hurry with boarding and who gets what group, isn't it much more pleasant to relax in the lounge and board as late as possible without delaying the flight..?

Or is this about hauling all the luggage one is allowed(=possible) back to whY?

intuition

At some outstations it is done, at least sometimes. HKG comes to mind. But this is more because the airport staff enforces such rules for all airlines, not just for Finnair.

Indeed!
I think AY sees 2 problems with junior frequent flyers entering the normal tier system. One is lounge access. As long as there is an "open bar" policy in lounges there is no believable way of ensuring no alcohol to minors.
The other is with laws regulating and sometimes prohibiting marketing activities aimed at children.

IMHO a balanced way would be to keep the junior system without tiers but load it with some simple perks - like priority check-in, security and boarding.

NoWindowSeat

Exactly, fully agree. All it would require is to have lounge access (w/o adult company) limited/forbidden. My junior could definitely use his own upgrade vouchers, the other perks are not that important just yet but would make sense for many others for sure!

NoWindowSeat

Yeah it's funny sometimes how FF status makes people behave in strange ways...just recently in HKG CX priority line was like 20 meters long and only few people in the ordinary line which I took when coming to the gate...I was zipping bubbly long before many "priority" pax even found their seats..

CeruleanBlue

Yes. a female would have 1 large handbag/tote for laptop etc. which you place underneath the seat in front, as well as a cabin bag you want to get right above where you sit because it's tough waiting for people to move and then get your handbag and jacket and go find your cabin bag somewhere else. Hence I always board first. And there are tactics on how to board even if bus transport is required.

Courmisch

As others already said, enforcement matters more than granularity.

I think splitting different tiers into different groups is just dumb. On narrow-bodies, there just aren't enough Emeralds over Sapphires per aircraft. And on wide-bodies, the Emeralds are likely finishing their bubbly or walking many hectometers from the first-class lounge to the gate when priority boarding starts (Moreoever Finnair has no first-class passengers to be grouped with Emeralds.)

As for Rubies... I think they should get alliance-wide boarding priority too. Business class check-in is less and less relevant with OLCI the (not-so-)new normal. In fact, I'd argue that this is a strong point of SkyTeam: with SkyPriority, the first FF tier is actually useful, and thus creating loyalty.

And obviously, I think Finnair should keep boarding priority for Rubies, so long as Oneworld won't require it - which it probably never will

But first, they'd need to fix the airports. Boarding priority at HEL gate 24... is just a physical impossibility to give the most striking example that I'd know. Good luck with that.

niksal

Oslo today: Business, Gold and Silver had priority. Not a recording as usual. Considering SK also has a tier above gold, I don't understand how the gate agent got to that announcement. Maybe copied from BA?

Kelju

DUS earlier this week. No annoucements for Group or Priority boarding. In contrast to that, at check in both 2 gates announcing PRIORITY and a huge line for both. No sign for Eco/bag drop gate..

FFlash

I still don't have track of this maldesigned thing , I am still waiting for the perfect boarding system that never appears...

[perfect being something like] priority groups are announced in Floundge to board the plane [final call at this point], the FAs have kept dedicated (in the front part of the plane) overhead bins closed for these priority pax and the seats are loaded with LaatuSanomat and NF, but of course this is not reality since there will never be any Lounge escort nor announcement, there is no place in any overhead bins nor dedication, and someone has already sat down on your seatblock and stolen your IltaSanomat and watered down the bottle.

WilcoRoger

Just call it Jr Silver/Gold/Plat - with a large printed warning "no lounge access without an accompanying adult" on the card

WilcoRoger

I just did that a few hours ago. Not easy to find within the café around it. The screen said "Business, Elite (or something to like that" and Groups 1+2. I mean who's left?

They used the automated gates which should be easy to programme to follow the boarding sequence, but I don't know if they do.

ffay005

Last week, HEL-PRG was boarded like this:
"We invite group 1" -> three people board
Nothing happens
I board
"We invite group 2"
(I'm in group 2 as Silver, but what's the point of waiting there when no-one boards...)

Last month, HEL-AYT was similar with the exception that the group 1 call attracted not a single soul to the podium. I guess AYT is not a very elite heavy destination

And MAD-HEL last week was boarded by bus. They announced "Business, Platinum and Gold". I just went along since it was a bus anyway and they wouldn't hold one separate bus for (higher) status pax. Nobody cared about me boarding too early, and actually the pax in front of me had row 20-something and no status at all, so...

NoWindowSeat, I board early because my European travel is almost always in Y and almost always with hand luggage only. Makes life simpler to sit another 20 min on the plane and not to have to worry about placing your hand luggage under the seat.

What's with the exit rows, have you ever been told that your bag needs to go to the hold because there's no room in the overhead and you cannot place it under the seat in front of you? Seems routine in North America, but I can't recall having seen it on AY.

intuition

That could work.

SPBanker

Last Friday HEL-TXL, Group 1 called, maybe 10 people board. Pretty soon everyone else. I don't know if all those who boarded with Group 1 actually belonged there, but...