gw76

Should have been one of the original 3 class 777 registrations

CoweyB

To answer my own question (as no one else did, and in case it’s helpful to someone further down the line) there was no problem bringing a guest through Fast Track at EDI - indeed I was told I could bring two guests through as BA Gold. It was very speedy and brought us through to a dedicated Security Scanner

ExAbz

At ABZ today, as GCH I had fast track on BP but Mrs ExAbz as bronze didn't, although both group 1.

Still they allowed Mrs ExAbz through which was fine apart from the secondary inspection because of her mini hair straighteners 🤨

Alfsawful

but boarding is!! BA need to sort out their boarding policy. Recently fly LHR-BOS-LHR in F, neither at LHR or BOS did the tiny amount of F pax get boarded before all of those parents with almost teens who feel they need extra time.

Why don’t BA just let F board first??? Or make Group 1 First only, group 2 Gold, Group 3 CW and Silver, 4 WTP and Bronze…..BOS was just was bad. I’ve never heard or seen a gate agent turn someone back who is trying to board in the wrong group!

scottishpoet

are you proposing that BA scraps pre boarding for anyone that needs more time?

Alfsawful

No, but there are only ever 14 max pax in F, they should be boarded first, or at least given the option to ‘board at their leisure’

The amount of people who abuse the pre boarding is ridiculous! Meanwhile those who have paid for First have to queue with the remaining Group 1 which often numbers in the 100 plus or more.

Radiation Station

I agree that boarding anyone who opted not to use contraception first does send a strange message to BA’s most lucrative and loyal customers.

South London Bon Viveur

I wonder whether the AA boarding system is better. Maybe marginally so, but there's not a lot in it. As someone has pointed out, on some flights Group 1 seems to be the largest group, which to me suggests that a change is needed. I appreciate that those previously in Group 1 who get relegated to Group 2 will be very unhappy, but it might make more sense. The difference between AA and BA for short haul seems to be that, as far as I can tell, you don't get mega Business class cabins on AA, as the size of the cabin is fixed and determined by seating layout. Therefore you just won't get 40 odd people (plus Y flying status pax) piling into the business class cabin, which can happen on BA.

Alfsawful

lol

Alfsawful

Is that a lame attempt at sarcasm??

Geordie405

Usual group boarding shambles at both LAS and LHR the other day. I struggle to understand how something that should be so simple is always such a mess.

LAS on Sunday 7th August before the BA274 departure: pre-boarders included "and anyone with children" so not just children under the age of two etc. but simply anyone with children. Cue a mad rush of parents and teenage kids to the priority boarding queue. Once they had all boarded, the announcement was for "Passengers in our Club World Cabin....and Group 1" which, of course, is backwards as Group 1 should be boarding before Club World which is Group 2. Another stampede, including someone so keen to board that they literally shoulder-charged their way past me and then seemed indignant when I called them out on it.

LHR yesterday ahead of the BA1404 to Manchester: we had the usual automated announcement about the flight being busy and people could come forward to check bags and they'd be pre-boarded. Lots of people came forward, had their bags tagged, and then ripped the tags off before getting to the plane. I was in ET but there was a chap in CE who was complaining to the cabin crew about this. If you're gate-checking a bag then there's absolutely no need to pre-board as your bag will be in the hold, and you don't need overhead bin space. We also had extended families pre-boarding with a single child. When it came to Group 1 boarding the priority lane was blocked by bag taggers, and one of the automated gates was blocked by someone who had an issue with their BP and the staff weren't able to assist because they were tagging bags.

To top it all of I had a screaming kid in my row who wouldn't keep her seatbelt fastened and was making her displeasure well and truly known! Of course as soon as we took off she fell asleep, exhausted from the 30-minute temper tantrum!

Clareym66

Travelling with 3 other people next week (2 of them children if it makes a difference) all on same booking. I am BA silver. Will we all be able to use the fast track?

BertieBadger

It's +1 typically, so if none of the other members of your party have relevant status, then the answer is no.

fluffymitten

No priority boarding, or any boarding by groups, on the LGW-GLA that's due to depart, according to my partner who has just got on

subject2load

It’s now close to five years since the introduction of the Groups system.

The whole idea - as announced by BA back in late 2017 - was “to simplify boarding, reduce congestion at the gate and make things easier for you.” And yet, thinking about my own experience across all BA flights taken since then, it’s remarkable just how often the very opposite of those three objectives is actually achieved.

If gate agents feel they have freedom to a) call groups in whatever order / combination they see fit on any given day, and b) not bother with any serious policing or enforcement, then a good percentage of passengers will inevitably lose the sense of faith and observance they may once have had. They too - like the agents - eventually become non-believers.

With little evidence of a determined will on the part of management, it’s hard to imagine that Group Boarding will ever work consistently well in the way it (so easily) could do. Safe to say that if there were genuine interest in prioritising the policy it would have been fixed long ago.