YYZ Gate E71 Boarding Nightmare
Mar 10, 2018, 8:57 pm
#2
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Boarding AC 15 from any of the 70's gates. Some pretend they don't know there are zones, some don't understand zone boarding and some don't understand the announcements. OTOH, boarding AC 7 the other day at YVR Gate 50, with orderly lines, and announcements in both languages......no chaos. It's a mystery.
Boarding at some outstations would definitely win the chaos prize - even though there are zone lines, staff and announcements.
Mar 10, 2018, 10:07 pm
#3
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More chaotic?
Boarding AC 15 from any of the 70's gates. Some pretend they don't know there are zones, some don't understand zone boarding and some don't understand the announcements. OTOH, boarding AC 7 the other day at YVR Gate 50, with orderly lines, and announcements in both languages......no chaos. It's a mystery.
Boarding at some outstations would definitely win the chaos prize - even though there are zone lines, staff and announcements.
Boarding AC 15 from any of the 70's gates. Some pretend they don't know there are zones, some don't understand zone boarding and some don't understand the announcements. OTOH, boarding AC 7 the other day at YVR Gate 50, with orderly lines, and announcements in both languages......no chaos. It's a mystery.
Boarding at some outstations would definitely win the chaos prize - even though there are zone lines, staff and announcements.
Mar 11, 2018, 12:30 am
#4
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I've seen similarly chaotic boarding at several of the YYZ T1 INTL gates, so in my limited experience, I don't know that any one of them is worse than the others.
I would also point out that it doesn't take much for any particular boarding process to become chaotic, even at places where that isn't normally an issue. For instance, IAH is usually pretty decent, but the other day they let a woman hold up the Z1/2 line for several minutes while she waited for her husband, who was off doing something else. Right behind her was a man pushing his wife in a wheelchair who had either not shown up in time for pre-boarding or the agent had not properly managed the process.
Meanwhile, Z3 boarding was started, from the other podium, leaving a number of Z1/2s fuming in the other line and trying to jockey our way over to cut off the Z3s so that they didn't get on and hog all the bin space.
Plenty of space in that area and usually not a bad place to board, but totally bungled by the GAs on the day and it became about as chaotic as it can be for a 76-seat CR9 (which is a different kind of chaos than boarding a 77W, for sure).
I would also point out that it doesn't take much for any particular boarding process to become chaotic, even at places where that isn't normally an issue. For instance, IAH is usually pretty decent, but the other day they let a woman hold up the Z1/2 line for several minutes while she waited for her husband, who was off doing something else. Right behind her was a man pushing his wife in a wheelchair who had either not shown up in time for pre-boarding or the agent had not properly managed the process.
Meanwhile, Z3 boarding was started, from the other podium, leaving a number of Z1/2s fuming in the other line and trying to jockey our way over to cut off the Z3s so that they didn't get on and hog all the bin space.
Plenty of space in that area and usually not a bad place to board, but totally bungled by the GAs on the day and it became about as chaotic as it can be for a 76-seat CR9 (which is a different kind of chaos than boarding a 77W, for sure).
Mar 11, 2018, 7:55 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2008
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A null zone number is accounted for in the procedure, as is often announced: "If there is no zone number printed on your boarding pass, please board with [or, sometimes after] zone 5."
Mar 11, 2018, 8:29 am
#6
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That defeats the entire purpose. I am usually in Zone 2. If I ask the gate agent they say just board in Zone 2. Until they can consistently and systematically assign zones to all their customers using their priority rules, why would anyone take the gate agents or this system seriously.
Mar 11, 2018, 9:41 am
#7
Join Date: Oct 2012
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If it matters to you, you can get a boarding pass reprinted at the gate before boarding starts. Or if you’re at a UA hub, there are typically plenty of self serve kiosks for simple tasks like boarding pass reprints.
Mar 11, 2018, 10:29 am
#10
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The theme song for boarding at those gates should be Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto" (It's the cheesiest version.) The mess at the gates should not be a surprise. Look at how they behave in the E gates' MLL.
I believe that you missed the point. Please appreciate that many people who don't have a zone notation will be unaware of the option of reprinting the BP. They will therefore, just board when they wish because they don't know any better or think anyone will notice. There are also some flights where the AC approach does not work with the demographic of the pax who are in zones 3-5.
The Asian airlines which fly out of YYZ are ruthless in their enforcement of boarding priority and they do it without hesitation. EVA goes even further, and does visual checks of the cabin bags of the pax lined up at the gate well before they board. The key though is that carriers like CX and BR have more staff at the gate than AC does. My typical TPACs with AC have 2 -3 GAs . CX and BR will often have 3 + 1 supervisor GAs at the desk and 1-2 circulating at the line keeping order and helping pax. The day AC effectively staffs its customer facing positions is the day we will see an immediate improvement in the quality of service and the customer experience.
Mar 11, 2018, 11:38 am
#11
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The point is the zone boarding system is broken when it comes to code shares, and its been broken since they day United introduced zone boarding. It was still broken a few years later when AC introduced zoned boarding and it is still broken. If AC wants to both code share and have zone boarding then it should make the two systems work together otherwise it should abandon one or the other.
Now with the sill way RBC Avion points are treated, I no longer have status with AC so fly them far more infrequently. Still get on the odd AC or United flight about once a month. Less certain now which group I should be in. The WestJet and AA situation was also broken but in a different way, AA would reissue WestJet boarding passes. You could not board an AA flight with a WestJet boarding pass was my experience. Now that they divorced and WestJet is with Delta I have not had a chance to see how that pair handles it. They look like a cute couple, perhaps they have their act together.
Last edited by Fiordland; Mar 11, 2018 at 3:10 pm
Mar 11, 2018, 11:52 am
#13
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 7,156
More chaotic?
Boarding AC 15 from any of the 70's gates. Some pretend they don't know there are zones, some don't understand zone boarding and some don't understand the announcements. OTOH, boarding AC 7 the other day at YVR Gate 50, with orderly lines, and announcements in both languages......no chaos. It's a mystery.
Boarding at some outstations would definitely win the chaos prize - even though there are zone lines, staff and announcements.
Boarding AC 15 from any of the 70's gates. Some pretend they don't know there are zones, some don't understand zone boarding and some don't understand the announcements. OTOH, boarding AC 7 the other day at YVR Gate 50, with orderly lines, and announcements in both languages......no chaos. It's a mystery.
Boarding at some outstations would definitely win the chaos prize - even though there are zone lines, staff and announcements.
At many out stations, gate agents insist to board wheelchairs, elderly, those with "small" children and other "special needs" BEFORE zone 1 and zone 2. This category is supposed to board after zone 2 and before zone 3. SRQ is one of them.
Mar 11, 2018, 12:50 pm
#14
Join Date: Jun 2004
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The chaos is an AC creation when it does not in many case have separate queue for zone 1 and zone 2. The sign often says zone 1 and zone 2 queue here.
At many out stations, gate agents insist to board wheelchairs, elderly, those with "small" children and other "special needs" BEFORE zone 1 and zone 2. This category is supposed to board after zone 2 and before zone 3. SRQ is one of them.
At many out stations, gate agents insist to board wheelchairs, elderly, those with "small" children and other "special needs" BEFORE zone 1 and zone 2. This category is supposed to board after zone 2 and before zone 3. SRQ is one of them.
What I find interesting, UA's scanner will pop up a warning if you try and board in the wrong zone number. Keeps things slightly more honest. I am surprised AC doesn't do that