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CE board at your leisure - forcing your way past the plebs

CE board at your leisure - forcing your way past the plebs

Old Mar 2, 2010, 1:42 pm
  #76  
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Northern Ireland
Posts: 115
Originally Posted by polar_b
1) March confidently past everyone else, slam your boarding pass or card on the counter and watch the faces of the plebs grumbling behind you?
2) If boarding has not started, go to the front of the queue, positioning yourself before the first person in the queue, apologetically saying that you are allowed to board first?
3) Wait patiently in the queue with the plebs, after all boarding a SH flight does not take that long so what is the harm.
Almost all of my BA travel is in CE and I like to board last simply because I can't be arsed queuing.

Problem is, as others have said, I'd like my hand luggage to stay close by. I have a very tight connection at LGW for my return home (including a N -> S terminal change) so am more or less forced to get there early to stand and wait for boarding to start - never have done and never would do a 1.

If BA did something about enforcing CE overhead locker space they might find people (me certainly) less pissed off with their boarding process.
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Old Mar 2, 2010, 2:28 pm
  #77  
 
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Originally Posted by Dirty_Idea
I don't LIKE boarding early, and I don't LIKE standing round the gate like a loser. I just have to make a choice. If I don't want to add 30 minutes to my journey time waiting for bags at AMS (having already taxied from Haarlem to the gate, thereby successfully burning another 20 minutes of my oh-so abundant time on this planet) I don't check-in my very modest roll-on. That means it needs to go in the lockers. The LHR staff don't police the luggage policy, so I need to be one of the first on board. The LHR staff don't offer priority boarding, therefore I must arrive at the gate early and get glares from the gate staff who seem to take offence to the fact that I'm not sat down, waiting for the plane like a good boy.

With delays and general messing around I can often find myself stood at the gate for 20 minutes (there goes another 20 of those precious minutes) before boarding. I'd MUCH prefer to be in the lounge - that's another glass of champagne I could enjoy. I'm not, though. I'm at the gate, waiting to get on the plane so my bag doesn't get displaced by someone's oversized suitcase being wedged in the locker, so I can get home this side of midnight and see my partner before she falls asleep in bed - tired from waiting through inbound aircraft delays, ATC slots, Polderbaan taxis and priority baggage coming out last. If you can grab 30 minutes back, you do it.

The extra row on the A320 is just going to make this worse. BA need to sort this out or they'll have gates swarming with GCH and SCH commuters who KNOW they won't get their bag on if they don't get on first.
I'm stressed out just reading this! Has airline travel really got this bad?
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Old Mar 2, 2010, 2:40 pm
  #78  
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Lausanne Switzerland
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I am a hover and queue person, ignoring row annoncements....

I to agree that the way AA and LAN the other two OW companies i have flied with do it very well....

GVA has finally got its act together on this two and had a dedicated door at the gate (2 doors one either side of the gate desk).

Last trip flying out of T5 I was one of the first to board thanks to the OW Elites board at your leisure announcement. I was seated in row 10 or so and a pax on her way to the depths of steerage on the Glasgow shuttle made great annoucements about how she thought they should enforce the boarding rules more strictly looking at all of us shiny card holders who had in her opinion boarded early...

Pity people do not listen the announcements porperly...
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Old Mar 2, 2010, 3:10 pm
  #79  
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Originally Posted by heregiam
I'm stressed out just reading this! Has airline travel really got this bad?
OK, OK so I like to ham it up a bit.... but you get the point. I'm flying at least every other week, return, so the niggles add up. Most the time the Bolly has numbed the anguish somewhat, so life isn't THAT hard.

But still, to many commuters, it's all part of the working day.
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Old Mar 2, 2010, 3:12 pm
  #80  
 
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Originally Posted by genovese
I didn't but when I went to the loo at the back of the plane I was pleased to see him and his little family sitting at the very back of a very full aircraft.
A bit harsh surely. His "little family" don't deserve condescension just because he's being a nonce.

Just a thought.

I have a little family, though going on family history they'll be fighting for exit row seats soon enough.
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Old Mar 2, 2010, 3:14 pm
  #81  
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Originally Posted by FenLandK
There speaks the voice of experience...
I've yet to have the pleasure.
She's got a cheek to be honest.Any time we have priority boarding she just barges past everyone who gets in her way to get to the head of the queue. F pax, J pax, elites, none of them stand a chance. Think it's a Latin thing......
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 5:51 pm
  #82  
 
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Slightly OT: I had the'pleasure' of travelling domestic during the week.

I only had a laptop bag and no other luggage. GCH, so I'd pre-selected 1C ahead of my flight. Gate staff announced that, because the flight was very busy, boarding would be done by row number. They then called rows 13 to 27, I sat and waited, thinking row 27 must be the rear and they were boarding in reverse. Then they called "everyone else" - cue large scrum - didn't fancy my chances, continued waiting.

Needless to say, when I arrived at my seat, probably one of the last 3 or 4 pasengers to board, the space in the overhead locker had gone. There was something stuffed below my seat from the passenger seated behind, and the bulkhead in front, so laptop bag headed off to row 8 with FA.

Cue another fight as I tried to retrieve it 50 minutes later against the flow/push of everyone leaving. Oh well...

Palmer
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 6:03 pm
  #83  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
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Originally Posted by Palmer
GCH
I read this and thought 'Gas central heating, what's that got to do with anything?'

Yes, I am but a young padawan with much to learn...
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 6:10 pm
  #84  
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Boarding by row number is only for non-status pax. Silvers and Golds can board at their leisure (ie. smart positioning at the front of the gate barrier maze means you can be first on).
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 6:12 pm
  #85  
 
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Originally Posted by Palmer
Slightly OT: I had the'pleasure' of travelling domestic during the week.

I only had a laptop bag and no other luggage. GCH, so I'd pre-selected 1C ahead of my flight. Gate staff announced that, because the flight was very busy, boarding would be done by row number. They then called rows 13 to 27, I sat and waited, thinking row 27 must be the rear and they were boarding in reverse. Then they called "everyone else" - cue large scrum - didn't fancy my chances, continued waiting.

Needless to say, when I arrived at my seat, probably one of the last 3 or 4 pasengers to board, the space in the overhead locker had gone. There was something stuffed below my seat from the passenger seated behind, and the bulkhead in front, so laptop bag headed off to row 8 with FA.

Cue another fight as I tried to retrieve it 50 minutes later against the flow/push of everyone leaving. Oh well...

Palmer
Domestic or not, boarding by row or not, if you have status you can still board at your leisure, i.e. first. I have checked this several times at the gate before I made sure I boarded first.
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 6:16 pm
  #86  
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Originally Posted by Genius1
Boarding by row number is only for non-status pax. Silvers and Golds can board at their leisure (ie. smart positioning at the front of the gate barrier maze means you can be first on).
Indeed...

Lurk at the gate......and hope my wife isn't on the flight. She takes no prisoners.
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 6:20 pm
  #87  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
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You really shouldn't have to lurk though, as it's a waste of your time.

All it takes to do priority boarding well is some tensa-barriers, clear announcements and well trained, proactive gate staff. It's a practically no-cost measure that adds considerably to the passenger experience. BA know this and do it on their longhauls, so why do they neglect it on their shorthauls?

They should be ashamed of themselves - it's pure laziness. And I speak as one of the "masses" who doesn't get to board 'at their leisure'.
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 6:36 pm
  #88  
 
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Originally Posted by HIDDY
Indeed...

Lurk at the gate...
Cheers, I'd figured that that should be my approach from now on. I also told the OH, who was due to fly from LHR to EDI today, so that she'd be aware. However, she was only seated in row 4 so it probably wouldn't have been so much of an issue for her and, in any event, she cancelled the flight at the last minute.

Palmer
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 6:54 pm
  #89  
 
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I've read through the entire thread and really can not get my brain around why this problem exists. We are to assume that BA have competent adults in charge of designing policy. This issue is in no way complicated; no focus groups or engineers are needed. So why do they choose not to fix it?

Seems to me (as others have said) that you either have two lanes or you make sure that Y pax do NOT open the J bins. If Joe Blow Airlines can figure this out then BA certainly can. What an embarrassment.
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Old Jun 18, 2010, 9:39 pm
  #90  
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Originally Posted by Teefaf
All it takes to do priority boarding well is some tensa-barriers, clear announcements and well trained, proactive gate staff.
It doesn't even take a tensa-barrier as I learned on my recent trip in Japan. On my domestic flights on JAL and ANA, they did the pre-boarding, then held up a board that showed "Business/Premium class / whatever their status things are / Alliance statuses" at the gate to board those passengers first, and then they boarded the 'standard' passengers.

They firmly but very politely rejected all transgressors of this boarding order.

It really can be done quite easily.
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