wyvern

I disagree - if it is managed in the way Virgin Australia do it (and I've not experienced AA that many times, but guess it is similar) the announcement is worded strongly in terms of 'stay seated until called forward' before they say 'boarding is commencing', the area around the fast track queue is kept clear, and the queue is policed.

BA could do it if they wanted to (maybe it would be harder at outstations) but the signage and the separate queue is the start of this - some staff training is maybe is the next stage?

It's not that bad at present, except when the queue is not policed, or there is a large influx from the lounge...

economyman

In ORD First passengers and Golds board directly from the side door of the First lounge before general boarding commences. If you like being on board early this really works well (as long as you get back in time from pre-flight dining which is in the other lounge). Whilst at most airports BA do not have the facility to offer this, they could board in order of priority and it would achieve a similar result.

Unfortunately in the long run ORD will lose this facility too with the move to AA's terminal.

csutter

I've never perceived priority boarding to be as much of an issue as everyone else here, apparently. Maybe it's because I usually travel on less busy flights because they better fit my schedule, who knows.

My only real gripe is the total chaos that is T3 Gate 24 departures, but I can't really think of a way to fix that, except maybe to have a Club only bus for departures like they do for arrivals.

Other than that, two points that I find slightly odd:
- WT+ seems to be the last group called for boarding by row number, after WT, when it would be an easily implemented real enhancement to call them before WT
- Policing at T5 seems to be lacking on occasion, whereas outstations tend to be very good at that. I remember standing in a huge FT queue in OTP when the 10 people in front of me were - one by one - told to sod off by the gate agent and I ended up being the first to board

Hoch

Might priority boarding have less to do with the number of entitled passengers but the fact that these days people are carrying more and more hand luggage and this is not being strictly enforced? Take for instance long queues for boarding on a LH flight. The moment there's a whiff of boarding people are up and ready to go even though they'll be sitting down for 7+ hours. Why? I think so that they can claim the overhead locker space without having to worry about it being full. Even in CW, though less so in F, I have noticed the jostling for space. The idea seems to be 'the sooner I get on the less I have to worry about'.

H

Land-of-Miles

It is nothing to do with the hand luggage except more hand luggage puts pressure on passengers to board early.

If you call 100 people to board (from a total of 200 passengers) all at once you get a scrum.

If you call 20 and let them board, then call 30 and let them board, then call the remaining 50 and let them board you have a better managed process.

You make the scrum worse if the 100 other people not called with the 100 "priority" passengers know that they can board unchallenged with the original 100. You make the scrum worse still if you start to process "non-priority" passengers at the same time as priority.

THAT is the problem. It is poorly thought through and poorly implemented boarding processes.

CT-UK

As Hoch has said I think carry on is the main driver. On business timed flights luggage space in CE can be a joke especially row 1 or 2. I have often noticed those that are hanging around the gate area ready to pounce as soon as boarding is announced have the max amount of luggage.

Now if BA could speed up luggage delivery maybe less people would carry so much.

Oh and yes why not call F and Gold then J and Silver before others. Also limit young children to under 5s maybe and one parent per child....

Captain Schmidt

Was flying with Mrs S on MU in domestic F from KMG once and went to leave the lounge to meander down to the gate. Was told very politely to stay in the lounge and they'd tell us when to leave. Did as I was told and 10 minutes later, the lounge angel came over and said the flight was ready for us to board. As we left the lounge, I went to turn into the concourse and was quickly shown towards a door that led to steps to the tarmac where a van was waiting for us that then whisked us across the apron to the aircraft. We got on - last to board - they shut the doors and off we went. Incredibly civilized, though I understand that it's not like that in domestic Y in China.

Captain Schmidt

Following extensive customer feedback, BA has decided to enhance the boarding process by moving to a first-come, first-served boarding system.

Land-of-Miles

The baggage problem is real but it is separate. There is no longer enough space for all bags that people want to bring on-board that is problem B. In turn this puts more pressure on the boarding process which itself has structural flaws i.e. Problem A.

The 2 problems are linked and interact with each other but they are not the same problem.

Vinotraveller

In regard to policing the fast track, I have not seen any evidence of that at all. Even Ryanair and Easyjet are better at enforcing that side of things!

In terms of the argument about bronze, as a soon to be Silver member ;-) I am in two minds about this! Personally I got to Bronze by taking 25 shorthaul sectors in Y, so my miserable 250 tier points felt well earned! Personally though I would have no issue with Bronze being called after Gold and Silver as long as the lines were properly policed. The last few flights I have taken had relativeuly short fast track queues as it happens, and the one on Sunday had around 20 infants plus hangers on who got on before us!

Land-of-Miles

The issue isn't bronze passengers having fast track per se, it is surely that right now a bronze traveling Y currently has as much right to be front of the queue as a Prem travelling F. When you think that the numbers swell the lower down the status pyramid you go, this puts huge pressure on a process that was sub optimal even before BA introduced the bronze tier.

Some clear ordering (as you would experience if you were to fly AA) would be very helpful here.

South London Bon Viveur

I really don't understand why they can't have a Club/Silver etc bus for departures as well as arrivals. It seems to defy logic, but maybe someone here can enlighten me. Also, maybe they could start boarding at both front and rear to speed things up.

Lioneye

Cost.

Don't lose sight of the fact that BA's aim is to maximise profit for its shareholders. This involves balancing services against costs. We, as customers, suffer when the balance is skewed.

exilencfc

I'm not sure luggage is as big an issue as it's being made out to be. When I flew Lufty from LHR-FRA last month the borading scrum was just as bad and lufty has far tighter rules. Not that they seemed over keen on enforcing them mind you...

Land-of-Miles

LH has the self enforcing electronic boarding gates ex Germany though don't they?