LHR-DFW yesterday worked well enough.

they called pre-boards, SSSS's then group 0. the agent guarding the barrier though was not paying attention and not letting people thru and was generally confused about everything but once through i might have been the only group 0 ...and directed us to the holding pen and no other announcements were made.

the escalator was running and while i was not paying much attention, everyone stated heading down so i joined in...but in reality it seems it was a family not heeding direction to stay sat who decided to go down and everyone followed suit as evidenced by there not being any crew ready at the doors...and some strong words from crew to ground staff eventually.

while in first, i will say the extra few minutes to get settled without people around or in the way was a definite welcome perk.