phoneticduck

Apologies upfront, this is a bit of a rant.

I would have considered myself as one of those with an arguably irrational affinity for BA, who despite the changes over the years, still derived a level of satisfaction from what I still deemed to be a better overall experience.

But today I saw BA in a different light.

Nothing major but rather a series of small things that as the trip progressed started to compound and irritate me immensely.

- T5 galleries north. Why did none of the 6 different seat power sockets i moved around to find work, except those at the business centre?
- with no exaggeration, 80% of the pax were priority boarding, the queue for which started 50mins before departure.
- Why when they announced the pre-flight welcome to oneworld alliance members did they mention Aer Lingus in the same breath as actual OWA airlines such as Qatar and Iberia?
- Why did the scottish FA who was doing all the PA mutter his words to the point it was in large parts incomprehensible (i even recorded some of it with my phone to check it wasn't just my hearing). I honestly think he might have been drunk.
- Another FA who was tasked with doing personal greetings to the Golds on the flight walked up and down looking completely dazed and confused, squinting at a print out trying to find them, and then proceeded to give the most laboured/insincere greetings possible.
- after landing, we sat for 15minutes with no update or communication from the crew. When we eventually got on stand they then explained why. Too late. By then everyone was really pissed off.

It occurs to me that perhaps I was just having a bad day and none of this should have bothered me, or I just got lumbered with the worst crew in the fleet for that flight.

All I know for certain is that the experience has taken whatever shine was left on BA for me away. It was the one flight where I actually wanted to get the sms asking for feedback and didn't!!

CloudGazer

It sounds from your description like it might have been a bit of both

The piece about PA announcements resonates with me. Occasionally there are announcements that are either so good it's impressive or so bad you wish they'd save their breath when clearly nobody would be able to bear/understand.

A recent flight we were on had a pilot who sounded like he was doing a voice over it was so smooth!

UKTraveller4Fun

The priority boarding is indeed a joke! They even have stands now suggesting they do it by order rather than all at once then they come over the PA and invite everyone! Recently flew F and was invited to board (after a delay that was never announced but meant left the CCR 30 mins earlier than needed) along with business class, golds, silvers and bronze! You can imagine the queue, I decided enough was enough, went down the non priority queue, asked why everyone at once, got told that's the way BA does it, pointed to the sign and then watched the reaction as I showed I was travelling F just as they were about to tell me to get to the back of the queue!

I appreciate staff can have a difficult time but boarding as per procedure is certainly something they should be able to manage and not just bypass because it makes their announcements easier!

When I Travel The World

Maybe if they took away priority boarding from bronze pax that might drop a bunch of people off.
Either that or force group boarding.

Takiteasy

I sympathise with you. There are bad days where a small annohinh fact makes you even more aware of what would have been another unnoticed glitch.

However I would say the point above is self-inflicted. Why would you go to the gate 50mins before boarding when you can stroll in 25 mins before and avoid the zoo?

Thomathy

Too true. Given that it can take less than one round trip to earn bronze, it seems a very low bar. They might as well say “Priority boarding for all those who have ever been on an aircraft before.”

I favour the method at LCY, dropping both Bronze and Silver. Just CE, CWLCY, and Gold / Emerald priority boarding. Still often queues of roughly equal length mind you, but it’s an improvement.

Or perhaps restrict it even further. Priority group 1 consists only of HM Queen Elizabeth II herself, Group 2 of her immediate family and GGL, and Group 3 consists of “It’s a knockout” royals, along with Bronze, Silver, and the general public.

This would improve matters no end.

EuropeToAsia

​​​​​​​:d^

Worcester

I have noted that the crews seem significantly less enthusiastic. Monday was typical when after meal service the crew vanished and seem somewhat put out when asked for drinks. Don't get me wrong many crews are brilliant, but I may be wrong but I rather suspect the moral of BA rank and file under Cruzis is rock bottom and showing signs of digging.

Nightbus to Dalson

I've flown domestically lately a fair bit in SE Asia & they board in blocks by seat row numbers.
It's fast, efficient & they send anyone trying to jib it straight back with a flea in their ear

lost_in_translation

This is in theory similar to how it's supposed to work for LHR short haul too post the changes to boarding about a year ago! CE/Gold, then Silver, then Bronze, then general boarding. However, given the short turnaround times for BA short haul ground staff largely seem to have abandoned this by now and just call CE/Gold/Silver/Bronze all at once.

I think at the end of the day this is related to the cabin baggage problem. If BA were stricter about cabin baggage allowances there would be more time to enforce proper priority boarding.

rossmacd

Short compared to what?

Other carriers seem to manage far better with similar (if not lower) turnaround times.

lost_in_translation

Short compared to BA long haul where the stated priority boarding order seems to be followed much more frequently. I'm not saying it's the correct decision, just trying to explain what I think is the logic behind what currently happens.

Frequent flyer 101

Funnily enough it's actually faster to board randomly, rather than back to front. The reason being that everyone is trying to get to the same place on the aircraft and congestion in this area is created.

ahmetdouas

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corporate-wage-slave

Oh come on, I can only stretch to 2 out of 10 on my rant rating. One for the lack of power points, half for a 15 minute delay at LHR (reluctantly since that's about normal is it not?), half for the 80% priority boarding bit. The latter will only significantly improve if Silvers are removed from this category, since Sapphires will be numerically the largest group. In any case it's voluntary: go last, and despite what "everyone" says, you'll get on board, and so will your bag. You'll only lose a lot of stress.