South London Bon Viveur

Agree. This evening from VIE (also Celebi I think) the boarding call was for the Y rows at the back, with CE and Status mentioned almost as an afterthought as being entitled to board "at their leisure". It's not the end of the world but it does show inconsistency and it surely cannot be that hard to have a system and enforce it!

On the plus side we had an ex BMI Mid Haul 321 today, so CE was well and truly enhanced with a 2-1 seating arrangement and fully reclining seats

CCayley

It's good to know that 'your experience' trumps the evidence provided by others contributing to this thread.

BardLucyHumeXI

If running even a little behind schedule, I think BA should get the aircraft loaded as fast as possible, and that means allowing anyone who gets to the desk quickly onto the plane, instead of sending them back.

This will wind up a lot of people who feel they aren't getting what they are entitled to (and I would be one of those), but I will happily stand in a queue (or even a minor scrum) for a few minutes if it means arriving at my destination 5 minutes earlier.

However, when everything is on schedule and there is plenty of time, BA should enforce their rules, if only to avoid annoying people who are aware of what the priority rules are.

Tim1975

i agree but lets not scapegoat the Bronzes because they are not really the cause of the problem. There are usually far more Silvers than Bronzes on a flight.

Think about it - Bronze status holders cannot be the cause of long priority lines because BY DEFINITION Bronze holders do not fly very often (or they wouldn't stay at that status)

personally (and I speak as someone who has been Bronze and Silver over recent years) I think that something is cocked-eyed when status trumps those with tickets in premium cabins. I know that frequent flyers are valuable, but when the experience of those who pay good money for premium cabins is devalued that can't make commercial sense for BA. It has always struck me as wrong that as a silver flying on a £400 WT ticket I get to guest into a lounge, but as a bronze on a £2500 CW ticket I don't

nux

An average bronze status holder in isolation may not fly very often, however there are a lot more bronze members overall than silver. I have noticed a lot of bronze tags in the priority boarding queue over the last year, almost more than silver/gold.

monkeymagic

As someone who has flown to TLV a lot recently on BA, I can say that seems to be standard practice on that flight.

For the afternoon flight, the cabin crew always turn up late and there is a huge amount of confusion as they ask all priority boarding to queue from the right, then open up first, then business to the left, then often change their mind again and try and shuffle people to the back. I fly in club and end up in the back of the queue sometimes with all the reshuffling

The other time I've seen such shambles was in T5 to venice when I was flying to venice in club. I was stood in the priority boarding (and there was a premier card holder in front of me also in club), we were pulled out of the queue by one last asking for business passengers, only to be told by someone else a few minutes later to go to the back of the queue as 'half the flight is business'. We looked pretty stupid as a result, like we were trying to jump the queue.

I do find it a bit silly these days that sometimes half the flight has priority boarding (especially the common business routes)

Paralytic

My anecdotal experience is that Bronzes are the cause of the problem on early morning EDI-LHR flights, where it seems that 50%+ have priority boarding.

I base this on seeing a higher proportion of Bronze hand baggage tags, compared to those that are Silver or Gold. although it could be that those that get status for the first time want to let others know.

FF

I was told that this applies to the flight crew, rather than cabin crew. Reason is because they now stay in a hotel a bit further away but their union won't allow an earlier report time, notwithstanding the rush hour traffic at that time of day. It's a real frustration for the BA staff at TLV....

paul4040

As a Silver, I will stick my neck out here (as I have done elsewhere) and say that I'd be very happy if they enhanced away priority boarding for Silvers and Bronzes. I don't really need it and on busier routes the "Priority" line is actually longer than general boarding!

Paralytic

Do you typically fly in economy or premium cabins?

paul4040

Both. Club Europe and Euro Traveller, and quite a few domestics.

In fact the whole priority boarding thing is nonsense in my eyes. Get rid of it altogether. When you have an 737/Airbus with status passengers and CE passengers - both sets of those passengers will be seated at or towards the front. Every time I've gone to, say, 2A, I need to stow a bag, so I stand in the aisle, blocking everyone else who gets on.

It is bizarre that passengers at the rear aren't the first to board in the interest of on-time departures. There is often so much unnecessary faffing. I would prefer to be able to saunter up as one of the last, and take my seat with little fuss.

I can see where you're going though. Passengers with hand baggage only should be policed more effectively. I typically have a hard case in the overhead locker and a small bag which always goes under the seat in front. CE pax have no excuse; there's an empty middle seat to put a bag under.

South London Bon Viveur

Except that one might argue that status passengers on the whole are more experienced travellers and generally manage to board/find seat/stow luggage more efficiently and quickly than others.....

paulwuk

I had a gaggle of women at security this evening, all waiting for the lovely security lady to frisk someone. The security bloke was idle, so I caught his eye and walked to the front and through, grabbed my laptops, into the bag, and walked off while putting my belt back on. Usual stuff.

However the protests as I marched through: "There's a queue don't you know, my flight's in 30 minutes and I'm not pushing" came the screams as I went through. Sigh. I'm hardly a frequent flyer and even I know that there's effectively two queues at heathrow through the arch.

A glance back as I exited the hall showed that the first woman from the gaggle had gone through and amazingly enough her bangles had set off the detector. Bags were piling up on the "to be scanned" pile.

Foolishly I'd taken the "pleb-track", not the "fast-track", as there were fewer people queueing. Fast track moved far better. In the words of Clooney: Asians.

81romeo

..not if you are used to sit in row 1 unfortunately...

paul4040

Then don't choose Row 1.