I appreciate this is likely to be controversial...

I know offering priority boarding on SH flights to CE / Gold / Silver / Bronze / OW equivalents / uncle tom cobley is great in marketing material, but it is making it more and more difficult for CE passengers to get their cases on board unless they arrive really early, which rather defeats the purpose.

I was recently on a shorthaul flight (LHR-ZRH) ticketed in club europe. By the time I got to the gate (not late), there were maybe 40 passengers in the priority boarding queue (quite legitimately, I presume).

The gate crew boarded us in one cohort of CE, Gold, Silver, Bronze and OW equivalents, followed by everyone else. I should say that the 'everyone else' were a handful of people at that stage.

The inevitable happened: by the time I got on the flight, there was no room for baggage in the club cabin (I was in 1A), despite the cabin being almost empty of CE passengers at that point (and upon passengers disembarking, I saw the 'culprits' come and recover their luggage from the CE cabin - so it definitely wasn't crew). I had to go half way down the aircraft to find space for my carry-on luggage, and it was not easy getting the baggage at the end of the flight. I had to wait for all passengers to disembark.

Wouldn't it be better to board according to cabin first, and then (and only then) Gold / Silver / Bronze / OW equivalents? This already happens on some longhaul routes, but not all the time (e.g. TLV-LHR never does this). I just think it would be fairer for a passenger paying for CE. I know there are two counter-arguments: passengers on avios tickets in CE vs. paying ET passengers; and non-status CE passengers vs. loyal ET passengers (suffering from corporate policy on SH flights), and I do have sympathy for these cohorts. But surely there must be some fairer method than simply boarding everyone together?