HighLife

Tim1975

A the root of this recurring issue are two facts:

1, load factors are increasing. Planes are fuller which means more people in all lines and more of an issue with hand luggage stowage which is what gets people so wound up about priority boarding.

2, people of travelling more. You might think that you are a frequent flyer but there are a huge number of other frequent fliers on some routes too.

not going to suggest a solution to these issue, because they come with downsides, but it does seem to me to be wrong when status passengers in economy who BA are quite possibly making a loss on (depending on how much they drink in the lounge) are harming the experience for non-status and status people who have shelled out huge figures for F and CW tickets and are likely to be the more profitable passengers.

Tim1975

Why. You have a seat in First. There will be space for you bag. Sit down until the line is almost gone and board last in a relaxed fashion. First is all about comfort and relaxation.

wyvern

Priority boarding as it stands is better than no priority boarding. On many flights it offers status/premium pax a shorter queue.

However, it is not perfect, and I would suggest the following:

1. BA should police the queue better.

2. If there is a priority queue and a standard queue feeding several BP check desks (as at most airports), if the priority queue has passengers these should be called forward to all desks while the non-priority queue waits, until the priority queue has cleared.

3. There is an argument that priority boarding should not be offered to Ruby/Bronze, or if offered it should be after it has been offered to other groups (i.e. Gold/Emerald/First called forward to the queue first, then Silver/Sapphire/Club, then Bronze/Ruby/WTP).

I don't think there is room for more than two queues, and I think having boarding groups as with some other airlines would overly complicate matters, though there could be three calls forward to the queue (Gold/Emerald/First, Silver/Sapphire/Club, then Bronze/Ruby/WTP - though this would only benefit those waiting at the gate before boarding starts).

When all pax leave the lounge at once that is bound to result in a bigger priority queue, but this would be resolved by feeding the priority queue to all desks until it has cleared.

I definitely prefer what we have now to what we had a few years ago when priority boarding was just a rushed announcement as boarding commenced.

Where there is not a priority queue (still at some outstations) I now walk up to the desk and ask if priority boarding is offered - IME invariably priority boarding is then offered in this situation.

shorthauldad

Boarding by fare basis?

wyvern

Or by CIV ? I think it is better to keep it simple...

Land-of-Miles

The underlying problem is that a single priority queue is being asked to "prioritise" any potential "priority" customers simultaneously. It can never work and is a wholly stupid approach. Given the binary single priority/non-priority divide, many flights will have more "priority" customers than non-priority.

The whole thing is a joke and could be sorted out really easily just by calling in a rigid order and enforcing it. This would cost nothing. It would take no extra time. It has no downside (apart from late arrivers who would be in the same position anyway). AA make this work really well and BA could too but it seems BA are content for priority boarding to be like priority baggage and empty token gesture to feed a bit of marketing collateral rather than a real service.

All that is when the ground staff even bother with announcing priority boarding which they simply do not at many outstations.

The addition of the ludicrously easy to attain bronze tier to the status mix makes things a lot worse than it used to be.

Globalist

Two thoughts on this one besides the obvious, priority boarding is a zoo a larne number of times.

1. In HK CX has the same problem. Their fast track queues are enourmous even though they (occasionally) clear that first before starting the normal queue. For F since last year they have a seperate entrance right at the counter next to the fast track queue.

2 in BKK TG escorts F passengers from the lounge to the aircraft. Generally this is done 15 minutes before departure. They bring you, you get shown to your seat, the door closes and you are off. If the masses are late in boarding the escort also helps to bypass the waiting line.

So there is priority boarding (first) vs maximising an efficient boarding (last). mind you in F you hardly need to fight for carry on storage space.

Globalist

exilencfc

I wonder if part of the problem is not having enough gate space to effectively police the priority line. That and not dealing effectively with people sneaking in when they shouldn't be.

That said there seem to be two seperate problems vis large queue for BP check and large queue on the jetbridge

Land-of-Miles

I think this is caused by the BP and passport checkers trying to complete their work ASAP and then move on to another gate. Once all PAX are boarded they can go even if there is still a huge queue on the jetbridge.

It would be better to manage the boarding process better so that queue doesn't develop. This might mean the staff spend a bit more time at the gate, which may have a cost so that would clearly be a non starter for BA.

stifle

3. hand baggage only fares.

Unfortunately the usual argument popping up is the old canard that the entitlement line for priority boarding should be drawn immediately below the status of the person posting.

Land-of-Miles

I don't think it is, I think most would accept the AA style priority tranches as being fair and equitable. HBO probably increase the jockeying for space on boarding but that isn't the root cause here.

What is ludicrous is having a single announcement for uncle Tom Cobley and all.

wyvern

So keep the two queues, and have multiple pre-board announcements (medical needs/infants, first/emerald/gold, club/sapphire/silver, WTP/ruby/bronze). To make this technique work, everyone else needs to be told to wait in the first sentence of the announcement.

However, better policing of the priority queue, and feeding of all the BP check desks from the priority queue until it is clear while making the standard queue wait, would help the processing of priority queue.

stifle

Which they will ignore

Land-of-Miles

Once it became the norm for chancers to be told to bugger off and sent to the back of the queue rather than allowed to board the message would cascade quite quickly.

I honestly don't know if a Y passenger who is a BAEC blue can rock up at the front of the fast track queue and board first, but I strongly suspect they can.

The non priority folk milling around the entrance to the priority area also cause access problems. The whole queue should be totally clear pre-boarding except for those actually standing in the relevant lanes.