BERbound

No group boarding at Gatwick , agent states it will be introduced 'shortly'.

Robington3rd

mattyw

BA802 to GOT on 19th Jan from A11. I was in group 2, my girlfriend was in group 5, she'd made the booking. We arrived at the gate after they'd boarded groups 1 & 2. She was allowed to board with me after I politely asked the lady who was monitoring the queue whether it was/would be allowed under the new regime.

mccartje

Bit of a mess last Friday night ORD-LHR. Called groups 1/2 together as indicated by the sign but about half way through that sizable group one of the agents inexplicably popped open the barrier for all the other groups (3, 4 and 5, not sure if 4/5 was separate but 3 definitely was), so naturally everyone piled through into the 2 boarding lanes and it was a bit of a mess. They then announce that they are only boarding groups 1/2 to try to control it but the horse had bolted at that point. Meanwhile the agent who caused the mess is having a grand oul laugh in the corner oblivious to her mistake. Growing pains I'm sure, by comparison the LHR-DUB leg of my journey went very smoothly group boarding wise.

Johnnieboy

AMS to LGW on Friday. Big queue at the lower priority group entrance (3, 4 and 5 as I recall), some people hanging around the higher priority entrance but not the massive queue under the old system. Group 1 called, no rush forward and clear access to the BP check. About half a dozen of us were then stood on the airbridge waiting for the plane to be ready. There seemed a clear gap before more people then joined us, which was presumably group 2. All seemed very simple and organised, until the latter groups boarded and there wasn't any room left for hand baggage and some had to reverse up the aisle to check their rollaboards...

WorldLux

Odd. Both on the BA416 and BA418, they've strictly enforced PRM and Families with small children, Club World/Gold, Silver, Bronze, General boarding in recent months. The return flights (BA417 and BA419) are always a mess and usually call CW, Gold, Silver and Bronze in one go sometimes even forgetting the Families with small children.

mickeyjaw

I had 'Group 4' LHR-EDI and GLA-LHR last weekend when travelling on Avios redemptions as BAEC Blue. It made precisely 0% difference to me since I always sit down and wait until the queue has almost completely evaporated before joining the end.

highexpectations

BA8721 GLA-LCY 22/01/18

called forward Grouos 1,2&3 to board together through the priority lane. No segregation or calling one group before the other.

cosmo74

Surely boarding each group separately is not that hard a concept for the gate agents to grasp? If they've been told to do it this way then it makes having 5 different groups completely pointless and this whole group boarding thing a complete waste of time.

thejohn

I did LHR-EDI-LHR over the weekend A5 T5 boarding by group numbers I was group 1 and one person got the walk of shame seemed well organised and fluid, we were all boarded early. The return Gate 14 was again by groups again I was in group 1 about 10 prior to me were boarding 1 got the walk of shame and the gold in front of me was allowed to board her travelling companion who was group 3. again we all boarded early 10 mins this time. IMO a great improvement for all passengers what ever group you are travelling in, all they need to do is sort out the overhead luggage space problems.
John

Wozza2404

Flight to DXB from C gate at T5 two weeks ago was "First and Gold only at this point" and was enforced.

DXB-LHR last week was called as "Only Gold and First Class" but it didn't seem to be enforced (at least 80 people surging forward).

Fitch

To echo a comment in the other Group Boarding thread, the gate staff at GLA do quite often seem to be making it up as they go along. Very frustrating

highexpectations

aks120

I would agree with the frustrations at the Scottish outstations- EDI-LHR on Sunday was a nightmare from gate 6. First off we queued at the signs saying Group 123 and Group 45. However a lot of priority boarders ignored the signs and started a new queue where priority boarding used to be despite an obvious set of queues next to them. BA staff walked past multiple times yet didn’t ever say oh sorry the priority queue is now over there. It was obvious what was going to happen........

They called people who needed extra help........ then nothing. A mass surge from the folks in the non-queue, followed by us in G123 queue which meant a real scrum at the desks. Not one person called groups despite there being at least double the number of staff (an A321 today). Finally one lady say no you should only be boarding G1 but by that time it was too late and G45 had got in on the scrum. Bearing in mind I was third in the G123 queue, I think I must have boarded number 25-30!!

This was worse than the old system. My feeling is the young staff just don’t have the guts to turn pax away even if they are not supposed to board yet - if this is the case then this system will never work!

It worked well on the way up...... until we all got on the same bus - what is the point?!

aks120

TheJayHatch

On BA846 to WAW this morning, arrived at 5a just as they announced “CE and Gold”. Everyone stood up, and proceeded to the jetway. The gate agent tried to assert the eager crowd (albeit a light load) but, resigned, turne and said to her colleague “ Ooh, looks like everyone is Gold this morning!” And they laughed. That was it. So I joined a queue.

There was no-one at the jetway door from BA and and a hi-vis LHR employee didn’t look up. Only the fear of turning up here on a different but popular thread (well, and looking like a prat!) stopped me from asserting my BAEC rights