Richmond_Surrey

How bad is it going to be on LHR-GVA with 12 rows of CE and rest of the plane probably status passengers too? Should I expect zoo at the gate?

Got kicked out of my chosen exit seat after check-in opened, very annoying.

Worcester

Be thankful all the knives and other weapons will have been confiscated at security...

Markie

On my LHR-SIN flight last Saturday there was a man in a suit working the line and pulling out First Class passengers and sending them to the front. All pre-boards had already gone on.
After that they said 'Club World, Gold Silver and oneworld card holders' using any line to come forwards'.
It was like a stampede as people tried to work out the shortest line and ran towards the desks.

Richmond_Surrey

Boarding wasn't bad, except the fact that Priority boarding queue was very long.

And the seat I was kicked out at check-in, was empty. It's second time it happened to me, that I was shifted from chosen seat and it was empty later on.

Fitch

You are clearly not the Chosen One

dastonm

No implementation of Priority Boarding on last Friday evening's BA0824 LHR-DUB. Boarding was called for all passengers simultaneously at 2050hrs for a 2115hrs departure. As it was a full flight, the scrum at the gate was considerable.

Why do BA find it so hard to consistently implement their standard operating procedures? I can accept at out stations this is more of a challenge, but at LHR there can be little excuse.

South London Bon Viveur

Are BA aware of this? They must be- surely? If so, what are they doing about it?

This is a fiasco.

I know it's "First World Problems", but then again so is "Monopole is cr*p" and "Why is there never any redemption availability for Barbados?". Indeed, my gripe here is somewhat self-defeating because as a mere Silver who only flies premium cabins some of the time, more often than not I am a beneficiary of the chaos, but the bottom line is that priority boarding is a key component of the premium experience. It is a real benefit to be able to board with a little more time and without having to shove your way through a scrum and it seems to me that BA are not enforcing it at all. Moreover, the problem seems to be getting worse rather than better. This is not rocket science but should be so straightforward, it almost makes me think that there is some sort of deliberate attempt by Gate Staff to ignore the process (for whatever reason)- I can't think of any reasonable explanation.

Maybe someone connected with BA can comment?

liamvad

I did LHR-BHD-LHR last Thursday,on both flights the boarding process was handled perfectly,no hassle,BAEC club members first,then everyonelse,why can't this be done always,I have no idea....but was real nice to see it work ok.

Ziz

Absolute free for all in Stockholm on Friday evening. Announced CE, golds, silvers could board in teh priority lane on the left, them immediately said 'all other passengers can use the lane on the right'. Everyone boarded at once. The plane was half empty and running late so maybe they didn't want it to take longer than necessary by using priority boarding.

LHR FLYER

exact same in Stockholm last night on the 18:05. Luckily the crowd stuck to the right hand lane and didn't just use any of them. Sweedes were well behaved ^

Worcester

I emailed BA customer service (yes I know) after witnessing an elderly couple looking rather stresses in the middle of the melee I think it was at gate 11 which was quite cramped at the best of times and the GA's had just called CE/Bronze/Silver/Bronze on a slightly delayed flight to BRU.


I thought I was trying to be helpful, in fact I started the email that this was a comment and not a complaint and explained that I thought the new boarding procedure was a good idea and regulating the flow onto the aircraft improved the experience for everyone but it needed to be applied consistently.

This is the opening line of the email I got back.

Ziz

Indeed the crowd does seem well behaved most weeks. But I find the queue for the priority lane hilarious--presumably everyone in it has lounge access, but they go down early to form a priority queue well in advance of boarding starting.

MADPhil

I guess that the auto-responder just assumes you are complaining and looks for a subject. One could conduct some amusing experiments!

frank_poulankh

Ridiculous at AGP today. Grown men shouting at each other and elbowing old people, women and children out of their way. "Zoo" is a word that's used a lot in this thread, but they really did remind me of rampant baboons at feeding time.

BA could have staffed the gate better and run the process with some authority, but adult passengers need to show some compassion for others and take responsibility for their own behaviour.

PoincianaKings

What I find so disappointing is that after all the song and dance BA made about the new boarding system (how many e-mails was it to BAEC members?) that they cannot be bothered to actually ensure the new procedure is actually implemented consistently (even at LHR). It cannot be *that* hard for BA management to see the 46 odd pages on here or indeed pop down to T5 and witness what happens can it?

Even more frustrating is that other new policies such as ensuring the yellow tag is on the appropriate bag have been implemented well. Heck BA even have ground staff 'guarding' security at T5 to ensure that passengers are yellow tagged. Of course, I am well aware that the meaning of yellow tags aren't always followed by CC when rearranging overhead lockers but thats for another thread.

Why is it that BA can ensure one ground crew policy is implemented but not the other?