New Boarding Process- has anyone noticed an improvement?
Apr 30, 2016, 11:55 am
#781
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: BA silver.
Posts: 213
LHR to ZAG earlier today (Saturday) - as with my flight to BRU a couple of months back, all priority categories were called forward as a job lot. I don't think there were many of us. Both of these flights were on the weekend, which I suspect is the reason, but I'd like more data.
Apr 30, 2016, 1:49 pm
#782
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: usually LON
Programs: BA Gold (OWE), Tesco Blue, TK Elite (*G), Oyster Diamond Jubilee edition
Posts: 1,546
I reached the B gate just before general boarding started at LHR, so no idea how it went at the beginning.
At ATH they take it easy and boarding was not even announced in the lounge when the Final call was flashing on the screens and people boarding. There was something I assumed was fast track and which I used, but again no idea if it really was a fast track and how it went at the beginning or after boarding was finally announced in the lounge.
At ATH they take it easy and boarding was not even announced in the lounge when the Final call was flashing on the screens and people boarding. There was something I assumed was fast track and which I used, but again no idea if it really was a fast track and how it went at the beginning or after boarding was finally announced in the lounge.
May 2, 2016, 5:16 am
#783
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Oxford
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 13
On Friday, for the first time ever, I experienced Business UK, golds and silvers being called, rather than all priority boarding being called together. This was from LHR-GLA. Boarding took over an hour (!) so it was dreadful, definitely not an improvement. General boarding started before bronze was called (if it was called at all - once I realised general boarding had started I didn't hang about!). I'm happy to let people with Business UK and higher status go ahead of me, but I don't want to completely miss out on priority boarding when it's the one decent benefit of bronze status.
May 2, 2016, 5:54 am
#784
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Provincie Antwerpen, Vlaanderen, België
Programs: MUCCI Gold
Posts: 2,513
On Friday, for the first time ever, I experienced Business UK, golds and silvers being called, rather than all priority boarding being called together. This was from LHR-GLA. Boarding took over an hour (!) so it was dreadful, definitely not an improvement. General boarding started before bronze was called (if it was called at all - once I realised general boarding had started I didn't hang about!). I'm happy to let people with Business UK and higher status go ahead of me, but I don't want to completely miss out on priority boarding when it's the one decent benefit of bronze status.
It's not really priority as such if you think about it for Bronze members. The best that you can hope for is boarding via a separate queue at the same time as general boarding begins.
Any reason why it took so long that you could see?
May 2, 2016, 8:22 am
#785
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Oxford
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 13
I've always been called to board with Golds and Silvers before, so had assumed that was the norm. I think the delay was caused by the usual chaos with too many HBO fares and not enough room in the overheads, but it's never usually as bad it was on Friday.
May 2, 2016, 8:48 am
#786
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Provincie Antwerpen, Vlaanderen, België
Programs: MUCCI Gold
Posts: 2,513
I guess this is a situation where the bronze "perk" is worth comparatively little, with a likely high percentage of gold and silver cardholders and a sizeable proportion of passengers travelling with cabin baggage only (whether on a HBO ticket or not) putting a lot of pressure on the limited overhead locker space.
May 2, 2016, 11:37 am
#787
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 138
BA428 to Amsterdam this morning, all status and club europe called at the same time, so the queue for fast track was longer than the general boarding. Although they held general boarding back until they had let three quarters of the fast track line through
May 2, 2016, 11:44 am
#788
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: SYD
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH D, QFF, EB
Posts: 404
SOF - LHR today, the checking of passports and boarding passes worked well with the general queue being held as passengers approached the priority queue but that is where it fell down.
Once past the boarding pass check it was a holding pen and when they opened the door to the air bridge there was a brief mention of business passengers but absolutely no checking of passes.
Once past the boarding pass check it was a holding pen and when they opened the door to the air bridge there was a brief mention of business passengers but absolutely no checking of passes.
May 2, 2016, 2:30 pm
#789
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London, ARN, HEL, ..... or MAN
Programs: BA GGL / GFL, Mucci Diamond!, HH Diamond, Radisson Premium, IHG Gold, Hertz Gold
Posts: 6,088
PRG-LHR this morning - actually done properly for the first time I have seen for weeks.
CE & Gold / EMD, then Silver / SAP, then Bronze etc.
Almost all of my other flights have been a mess, other than MAD-LHR last week - was interested to see that IB has boarding groups printed on the BP, like AA. Hadn't seen that before and it kind of worked.
CE & Gold / EMD, then Silver / SAP, then Bronze etc.
Almost all of my other flights have been a mess, other than MAD-LHR last week - was interested to see that IB has boarding groups printed on the BP, like AA. Hadn't seen that before and it kind of worked.
May 2, 2016, 3:05 pm
#791
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Canada
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 1,256
I think bronze boarding would work just fine if it were implemented properly. You could say 'CE and gold board now' then 'silvers board now' then 'bronze board now' then 'general boarding.
Oh wait...
Oh wait...
May 2, 2016, 3:52 pm
#792
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: London, Sth Africa or LAS
Programs: VS Silver, BA Blue - finally; but hotels.com Gold :)
Posts: 1,858
I can provide a datapoint of boarding order done properly last Friday at AMS. Gate D24 too, which is badly laid out. CE and Golds were invited to come forward. The one or two Silvers who weren't listening got asked to stand aside when their BPs checked.
A sea-change from the scrum at D24 the previous week ... following which I heard three separate requests, to the CC, for raising a formal complaint as people boarded.
A sea-change from the scrum at D24 the previous week ... following which I heard three separate requests, to the CC, for raising a formal complaint as people boarded.
May 2, 2016, 4:36 pm
#793
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: LON BCN SYD
Programs: BA, OZ, A3, VA, VS, DL, QF, former BD and others
Posts: 1,077
I have started walking up to the front of the queue and saying 'Disculpe, fast track' - not ideal but unless they implement two queues not sure what else is best to do.
May 2, 2016, 5:09 pm
#794
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold; FB Silver; SPG; IHG Gold
Posts: 3,044
I flew BCN last week and priority boarding was enforced in the sense that they checked priority status of those in the Fast Track queue and let them board first, albeit with no apparent distinction between CE, Gold, Silvers etc so that anyone with status was allowed to board.
May 2, 2016, 5:20 pm
#795
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: The greatest wee nation on earth.
Programs: Iron Maiden FC, GE, Rapidly falling down the Tiers to oblivion.
Posts: 2,604