fransknorge

Flights today so far:
- ABZ LHR: boarding called according to the new rules and enforced. A couple of Bronze trying to board as the same time as Golds were sent away. No a single yellow tags visible, nobody to put them on bags. Not a issue, load is 60%. We depart 15 minutes earlier than schedule.
- LHR DUB: first call for Club Europe, then Gold, Silver, Bronze in one go.... Again no yellow tags in sight, nobody to put them. I arrived at the exit seat row and proceed to put my two carry on in the overhead to find no space, despite nobody seating there except for me. FA positioned there during boarding did not secure the space.

BA, be consistent please.
We will see what DUB LHR later this evening looks like.

Cammo

AMS LHR this evening well marshalled. 1 line for club and golds, 1 for silver and 1 for bronze.

Fitch

Earlier this week LGW-GLA and GLA-LGW.

LGW now has the new signage but the announcement was "Business UK, Gold, Silver and Bronze, Oneworld Emerald and Sapphire..." ??? It was a very full flight but we got away on time and landed on schedule, so no issues to report.

GLA still has the old signage (after all this time !) but the announcement was correctly done. Again, quite a busy flight, but no issues with bags or anything else. It was slightly irirtating to be dumped in a remote corner of the airfield, but to be fair to Gatwick, the buses were ready and waiting and we were at baggage claim in no time.

I do struggle to understand why it's so hard to get all staff to read from the crib sheet (as the agent very professionally did at GLA) ? And why is it taking so long to get simple banners to outstations ?

All very strange !

peck

LHR - FRA yesterday was excellent - no scrum and a very well policed line (I wouldn't have argued with the lady in charge believe me). It's probably the best BA boarding experience I've had in the UK, so was very impressed.

On the way home on today's BA903 had a great flight, hassle free boarding (well other than the usual bus fun of course), lovely chat with one of the friendliest CCs I've come across and whizzing through immigration thanks to the massive new bank of automated passport thingys.

Overall, very good indeed. All I want from a business trip like this is a hassle free flight and this time BA really delivered.

ECR

I think it would work very well if they had separate queues like this.

vibguy

LHR-BRU this afternoon (16:25 flight) : one call for CE/GOLD/Silver/Bronze boarding together in one group (half of the plane), then the ET. Old procedure, worked fine. No tagging of bags, no policing of hand bags, full plane, worked fine.

EuropeToAsia

I keep admiring how well CX do it at HKG. 4 lines: IIRC First&Emerald, Business&Sapphire, Premium Economy&Marco Polo, Economy. Each line is policed with ID and boarding pass checked and stamped before boarding starts. DYKWIAs are consistently sent off to the correct line (and overly modest pax invited to join a "higher" line if applicable). Sure, CX have loads of space at their gates at HKG. Still, I think it's doable in Europe and on short haul too.

oxtailsoup

BA109 LHR to DXB tonight.

Utterly pee'd off. In F.

Family and Kids allowed to board first (including older kids). Took 30 minutes to do this as most of this flight (school half term) was families with kids. Pre boarding.

F and CW and Golds not allowed until after this was completed.

Is this normal? Just feels strange having to stand for 30 mins whilst half the plane is filled. Doesn't feel very premium at all.

bafan

LHR-DUB and DUB-LHR - announcements that boarding is for CE and Golds through the priority gate, but the queue was full, presumably of CE plus golds, silvers and bronze pax, all of whom were let through on a first come first served basis...

No one at the gate handing out yellow tags, either way.

PETER01

I'd say it was normal in my experience of travelling with Jnr P from an early age for many a year. He's well past school age now but in all our many years of travels with BA and during the school holidays it was always pre-boarding first.

My interpretation of that is although baording has technically started it hasn't really. So F, CW and Golds are still 'first to board' if that makes sense.

IIRC it was announced those with young children/requiring boarding assistance etc etc but there were always parents with teenagers taking the p!ss which gate agents should stop. (Although I have seen it personally that people have hidden disabilities which may not be prevalent)

wythy

There's no real operational benefit for allowing young children to board first, nor is there any recommendation from BA to do so. Only people with reduced mobility should be given the benefit of boarding first for obvious reasons.

PETER01

I'd disagree. It is quicker in my view to have pre-boarders and it is easier for parents/people with young children/babies to board first and get them settled.

It's common sense when you have babybags/a buggy etc etc. to have such folks settled and seated before main boarding begins.

BA do make mention of this on their website fyi so they do infact have an official policy on this.

http://www.britishairways.com/en-no/...amily-check-in

At the gate, we'll invite families with young children to board first, so that you and your family can get settled on board.

HilFly

I would board children and extra care passengers last.

When they board first, kids are getting fed up and antsy before boarding is finished. Many of the people needing extra help are taking aisle seats, so what's the point of boarding them first if they have to move to let other passengers to get to their seats?

Hubbabridge

I have never understood what pre-boarding means; if a group of people are boarding how can that be pre-boarding? Pre-boarding is shopping, having a glass of champagne in the lounge and charging your IPAD.

MPH1980

It's a way of getting around the idea of people having priority boarding. E.g. we are going to pre-board these people before we board everyone else. And since it's pre-boarding, you with priority boarding can't complain.

But you'll also notice in LHR that pre-boarding can mean gathering everyone behind the gate desks without actually letting you go down to the plane. Which with small children is a right PITA as you need to be able to let them run around.