The BA boarding process

Old Jan 28, 2014, 3:39 pm
  #91  
 
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Originally Posted by Final 3 Greens
BA need to simplify/enhance the process, I suggest

- Royalty
- Absolute dictators
- Elected heads of states
- UK government ministers
- Foreign government ministers
- MPs
- MEPs
- Local council CEOs (town clerks)
- First class
- Business class
- GGL
- GCH
- SCH
- People with double-barrelled names
- Penguins
- Bronze card holders
- Smelly people
- All other humans
- B List celebs
- Man Utd fans
- dogs and cats

That should do it.

Or they could outsource the process to Ryanair.
+1
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Old Jan 28, 2014, 4:33 pm
  #92  
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Originally Posted by HIDDY
I wonder if that has more to do with the number of status travellers flying at that time of the day? There were no problems on my last GLA-LHR flight. Although busy it departed during a time of the day when more leisure orientated passengers were travelling. It was all very civilised with no signs of people being desperate to board first.
I seem to recall it was done by aft row numbers first but I may be wrong.
As c-w-s astutely mentioned, GLA has its own unique problems which manifest themselves in chaotic passenger flows at and around the gate areas.

Here's a typical picture of what the gate area looks like at 06:15am on Monday mornings...



Queues form at the entrance to the fast track lanes as early as 06:00 - that's a good hour before departure and 30 to 40 minutes before boarding begins. Once the queue starts it grows very quickly and soon stretches all the way out of the gate cluster. This is typical for the BA1475 Heathrow shuttle, which leaves with a full load daily. The situation is exacerbated on Mondays because the BA1475 is timed slightly earlier, departing at 07:00 which more or less coincides with the 07:05 departure of the BA2966 to Gatwick. It has its own fast track queue stretching past the old BA lounge and into the pier.

These queues are building up while the bulk of the Emerald and Sapphire members are squeezed tight in the lounge. However, once boarding is announced in the lounge all hell breaks loose - the queue system invariably breaks down as impatient arrivees cut in or join the general boarding lines which happen to cross the fast track lines. You couldn't possibly engineer a more dysfunctional system.

As a general observation, the pattern of early queue forming coincides with the date oneworld Ruby's were given priority boarding privileges. I mean no disrespect to Bronze members as they are quite rightly availing themselves of a published tier benefit. My annoyance is directed squarely at BA for failing to respond to the new boarding dynamic - a more responsive boarding strategy should have been implemented that takes account of the increasing number of passengers using the fast track channels.
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Old Jan 28, 2014, 10:10 pm
  #93  
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Originally Posted by Final 3 Greens
BA need to simplify/enhance the process, I suggest

- Royalty
- Absolute dictators
- Elected heads of states
- UK government ministers
- Foreign government ministers
- MPs
- MEPs
- Local council CEOs (town clerks)
- First class
- Business class
- GGL
- GCH
- SCH
- People with double-barrelled names
- Penguins
- Bronze card holders
- Smelly people
- All other humans
- B List celebs
- Man Utd fans
- dogs and cats

That should do it.

Or they could outsource the process to Ryanair.
I love this!
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 12:05 am
  #94  
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You forgot families with screaming babies and fake wheelchairers and people with over-powering pefumes or after-shaves or both.

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Old Jan 29, 2014, 2:37 am
  #95  
 
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Originally Posted by uk1
You forgot families with screaming babies and fake wheelchairers and people with over-powering pefumes or after-shaves or both.

And FT "Internet Whingers" should be at the top of the list.
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 4:50 am
  #96  
 
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Originally Posted by uk1
You forgot families with screaming babies and fake wheelchairers and people with over-powering pefumes or after-shaves or both.

With both you mean, babies with aftershave!?
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 5:00 am
  #97  
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Originally Posted by Frenske
With both you mean, babies with aftershave!?
Perhaps giving the babies the aftershave to drink stops them screaming
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 5:56 am
  #98  
 
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Angry

Originally Posted by Tim1975
A the root of this recurring issue are two facts:
...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.
What a ridiculous comment. I am gold and nearly GGL who often travels in Y because there is no availability in W,J or F when buying your ticket 3 days before the flight. And those Y tickets with no Saturday layover will sometimes be over 2000, probably more than a lot of people paid for their CW tickets tickets six months earlier. There's no way BA are making a loss on me.
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 6:12 am
  #99  
 
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On my last flight to CPT from LHR I thought the process was managed reasonably well.

For some reason I'd left the lounge early, and was walking down to the gate when they announced the boarding of F/CW/G/S/B. Unfortunately everyone seemed to think they could board and started to move forward. To aid the people called they had 2-people at the front of the gate checking that people were the correct status, and stopping them going through. This seemed to encourage people who had not been called to sit back down. They then had 4-people working the desks, so the boarding went very quickly.

The best part was when my BP went ping, and I was moved to F
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 6:21 am
  #100  
 
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Originally Posted by alwaysTravelling
What a ridiculous comment.
^ I quite agree... for all the reasons you state.

Then there are those who are in J but who have paid much less than a flexible Y fare who are on their way to Hawaii via Helsinki for no reason at all other than to 'buy' status with BA.

Where do you put them in the queue?
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 6:57 am
  #101  
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Originally Posted by Prospero
As c-w-s astutely mentioned, GLA has its own unique problems which manifest themselves in chaotic passenger flows at and around the gate areas.
Yet that area isn't as busy as it used to be when BA also had flights to the likes of MAN and BHX plus if I remember correctly an extra flight to LHR at that time of the morning. Maybe the entitled stayed longer in the lounge and only came out when boarding was almost finished? Heads were often to be seen poking out from the door to see how the boarding process was getting on only to disappear back in again.
I often wondered what went on behind that door.
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 6:58 am
  #102  
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A Positive Report

KIN (or Kingston Jamaica if you prefer) yesterday. Flying in CW back to JER via LGW.

1. At bag-drop, floor-walking Agent ensures all our bag-tags are tidy, and replaces scruffy ones.

2. Desk Agent confirms bags checked through to JER, and issues VIP Pass for Fast Track Immigration and Security (processes took less than 3 minutes), and Club Kingston Access.

3. Club Kingston Agent calls for passengers to proceed to boarding at T-40, and escorts us all the (very long) way to the Gate for final Immigration processing and Boarding. WT+ and WT pax are nowhere to be seen (not called to Gate yet?) as we settle in with a leisurely glass of fizzy.

It all felt very VIP from start to finish
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 7:09 am
  #103  
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Originally Posted by T8191

3. Club Kingston Agent calls for passengers to proceed to boarding at T-40, and escorts us all the (very long) way to the Gate for final Immigration processing and Boarding. WT+ and WT pax are nowhere to be seen (not called to Gate yet?) as we settle in with a leisurely glass of fizzy.

It all felt very VIP from start to finish
Almost like kids from the nursery being supervised when out walking on the pavement. Did you all have to hold hands in pairs?
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 7:12 am
  #104  
 
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Originally Posted by Prospero
Here's a typical picture of what the gate area looks like at 06:15am on Monday mornings...



I am most impressed by the graphic! ^
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Old Jan 29, 2014, 7:12 am
  #105  
 
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Originally Posted by HighLife
^ I quite agree... for all the reasons you state.

Then there are those who are in J but who have paid much less than a flexible Y fare who are on their way to Hawaii via Helsinki for no reason at all other than to 'buy' status with BA.

Where do you put them in the queue?
That did make me laugh.

You're absolutely right, those of us who do ridiculous TP runs will not make BA anywhere near as much money as those real business travellers who buy tickets late and pay exorbitant amounts. But I guess that's life isn't it?
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