Originally Posted by
GUWonder
How can the automated boarding gates work that way when on separate PNRs? An authorized 4-person “trail” programmed in would mean that a non-priority boarding passenger just needs to follow most any individual with priority boarding and get in too. And if it works as suggested in the second sentence above for boarding but is limited to 4 “trailers” regardless of automated or manual boarding, then that is new and a negative cap for Star Golds traveling with say five family members (without all the same priority boarding group noted on the boarding passes).
IIRC, for some airlines even passengers all on the same PNR have at times been given different boarding pass group numbers/letters than some others on the same PNR.
I agree the automated gates will have problems if it's not marked on the boarding pass. That's probably also why the requirement for same PNR exist. In the lounge and fast track there are only limited issues with not having the access marked on the boarding cards for friend and family members, as most of the time, everyone trying to pass the lounge gates will have access, so tailgating isn't really a problem here as it would be with priority boarding.
The limitation of 1 friend or 4 family members are just the same as for lounge access and fast track in CPH, OSL, ARN and GOT. For Fast track the same PNR requirement exist too, but not for lounge access.
But using the automated gates doesn't prevent the gate staff from using the manual scanning next to the automated gates, and they often do for families with small children, people who need more time to board and other none standard boarding, which can't be marked on the boarding card automatically during online check-in.