lindauk2014

Flew back from AMS yesterday. As normal, EC made up most of flight and formed a nice friendly queue. Muffled announcment and some people started leaving the queue to go to the front. Others followed. What had been a queue then turned into a scrum. Someone shouted for the BA staff to explain what was happening and the lady said "we are boarding CE and Gold - no-one else". Trouble was, any CE/Gold at the back of the scrum then had to pick their way through the mass.
I can understand why they would do it - but the queues are always so long for priority boarding that you generally have to take the word of the person in front of you as to what you are in the queue for.
I did experience in TLS last week but that seemed a bit easier.
Tweeted BA last night - i'm sure would be okay if everyone knew what the new procedure was and the airport staff would make clear announcements.

scottishpoet

I expect much if this is left to the gate agents discretion.

Depending on the age of the child, if its "passengers that need assistance" then I expect P3 + child, possibly along with P" and if lucky even P1

If it is an older child then following the rules P1 followed by P2 followed by P3 and the child. I am not aware of guesting in the priority boarding process. Lounge access does explicitly mention "you and a guest". priority boarding does not mention guests

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...ilver-benefits

vibguy

Most BA procedures are very complex and open to some interpretation, I am afraid that for this case you will need legal advice and will need to endure some appeal hearings after you have followed that legal advice.

BA4EVER

Really, how hard would it be to make an announcement a few minutes before boarding to the effect of,

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. My name is X, and I'll be helping you board your flight today. Please pay attention to this announcement, as our boarding procedures have recently changed. We will be boarding the aircraft today by class of service and elite status. If you are seated in our First/Club cabin you will be invited to board first. Once our premium cabin passengers are onboard, we will invite BAEC Gold members and Oneworld Emeralds to board, followed by BAEC Silver and Oneworld Sapphire, and then BAEC Bronze and Oneworld Ruby. If you are not seated in our premium cabins, please remain seated until premium cabin passengers have boarded, and wait until your group is called. Once all premium cabin and elite status passengers have boarded, general boarding will begin through the economy class lane. Thank you for flying with us today."

vibguy

Nice try but this is not the correct procedure!

bafan

It might not be, but it probably ought to be.

MPH1980

And everyone will have stood up and queued before the ground crew got to the words "board your flight".

Globaliser

Making an announcement is not the hard part.

Getting the passengers to listen, understand and comply is what is difficult. Especially when many of those who do listen and understand then believe that they are special enough to not have to comply.

vibguy

Never blame the customer. A boarding procedure should be easy to understand, also by dummies and non FF's. Or BA will have to impose a minimum education level and refuse customers who are not clever enough to understand their complex boarding rules, complex hand baggage rules and ticketing rules (meaning of non refundable, non changeable,...).

BA4EVER

They do this on every single flight on every single airline in the US, and people are mostly compliant. Surely this isn't so difficult.

bullroot

I asked the question via ba.com contact form the other day, they came back and said 'the new priority boarding process is not active on that route, so you will board as per normal'. I replied to let them know that the last 3 times I flew the route, the new process WAS in effect and hence my question. They then replied and said as you are GCH and with family, you can all board together when Gold is called.

I wouldn't rely too much on that response though, seeing as how the initial response was totally incorrect...

Then when I flew the route yesterday, they called the new process. At which point EVERYONE who was already in line (gold, silver, bronze) went to board and the boarding agents didn't enforce the process at all. Bit of a shambles really.

thepinkponce

Once again the BA1334 LHR to NCL is a free for all. Announcement made for business UK, gold and emerald but bronze and silver boarded at the same time. Queue for miles with people on row 1 struggling for bag space.

I asked the gate staff why, and they knew it wasn't right but said I should complain. I asked why I should complain when they've made an announcement and know that they should be making certain people wait when they approach. I was told they needed another member of staff to enforce it which is ridiculous. It's every single week now - not once have I seen it implemented on this route.

lost_in_translation

LHR-OSL on BA761 last week - CE and Gold called first and I witnessed two interlopers ahead of me being turned away, not sure what happened after that as was in CE and boarded before any other group was called. Thumbs up.

LHR-OSL on BA761 last week - CE and Gold called first, whilst I was boarding Silver/OWS also called, thumbs up again.

OSL-LHR on BA766 last week - CE and Gold called in an attempt at priority boarding, but only given in English for some time. The entire waiting flight surges towards the gate and no one is turned away, thumbs down.

OSL-LHR on BA769 this week - no attempt at priority boarding, instead 'we would now like to call boarding for flight BA769'. Fortunately, the flight was at most half full so there wasn't too much in the way of chaos.

All in all, a mixed bag.

wythy

To be fair to the gate agent, they witness countless Turnarounds during the day and most likely came to the conclusion, like every other station, that the new procedure makes not a jot of difference to the speed of the boarding process - Which is the aim of the exercise despite what BA may claim.

Fitch

Also it would not be unreasonable for gate staff to assume, based on past experience, that management support would be sorely lacking if push came (perhaps literally) to shove.

If you're earning average wage or below, are you really going to put yourself at risk of abuse or even assault to operate a process which doesn't help you do your job any better ?