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Group Boarding 2018 - first hand experiences

Old Jan 9, 2018, 5:46 am
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Last edit by: Genius1
Please use this thread to document experiences of the new Group Boarding process in airports. I think it's well known how the previous boarding system works, so just the new process please, so that other travellers can gauge its effectiveness.

For discussion, conjecture and speculation about the scheme, please use this thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1878043-boarding-group-introduced-general-discussion.html
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Group Boarding 2018 - first hand experiences

Old Jan 28, 2018, 10:06 am
  #226  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
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just boarded lhr to lba from a7. the woman behind me was bronze in economy with group 3 on pass but went through as 5th person in gp 1. Automatic gates. I am pretty sure that 2 ahead of me had no status and are in economy - they looked jumpy when the announcement was made and had a brief discussion about what to do - they were already in gp 1 queue and I could see they were blue on pass (they may have been connecting in 1st /cw). The went straight through and now sat in economy.

Seems that the gates just let you through regardless.
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Old Jan 28, 2018, 10:37 am
  #227  
 
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Originally Posted by Barnaby100
just boarded lhr to lba from a7. the woman behind me was bronze in economy with group 3 on pass but went through as 5th person in gp 1. Automatic gates. I am pretty sure that 2 ahead of me had no status and are in economy - they looked jumpy when the announcement was made and had a brief discussion about what to do - they were already in gp 1 queue and I could see they were blue on pass (they may have been connecting in 1st /cw). The went straight through and now sat in economy.

Seems that the gates just let you through regardless.
#hewhodareswins
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Old Jan 28, 2018, 12:14 pm
  #228  
 
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Am waiting at A18 for the 19:50 to ARN this evening. At 19.10, there are already 2 men standing in the Group 1 line, still 40 minutes before departure. One person standing in the Group 2 line. I have to say I really really can't understand what the need is to join a line so early, especially if the new system prioritises better than it did before. Maybe they still have years of disappointment from the previous system! Will update more as time progresses

Announcement outlining Group boarding approach just provided by the gate team - along with invitation to bring bags for checkin as usual..
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Old Jan 28, 2018, 12:23 pm
  #229  
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Originally Posted by ThatT1Feeling
still 40 minutes before departure.
But you are at the gate 40 minutes before departure too? I hope purely to catalogue the group boarding process.
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Old Jan 28, 2018, 12:26 pm
  #230  
 
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Swedes are obsessed with priority boarding and class system (even if they all furiously deny it and try to be “lagom “)
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Old Jan 28, 2018, 1:56 pm
  #231  
 
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The calm before the storm at MCO gate 80, note groups 1,2 and 3 are all in one lane

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Old Jan 29, 2018, 12:54 am
  #232  
 
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Originally Posted by Genius1
But you are at the gate 40 minutes before departure too? I hope purely to catalogue the group boarding process.
Touch But yes it was just as a roving reporter.. I was sitting down awaiting the scrum which never came. Group 1 boarded swiftly and without incident. Interesting that Group 2&3 were tensabarriered into one line, so Silvers and Bronzies together - and when the lady came round to check that line, there was no prioritising of Group 2 above Group 3..
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 12:55 am
  #233  
 
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Originally Posted by LondonCanuck
Swedes are obsessed with priority boarding and class system (even if they all furiously deny it and try to be lagom )
Excellent. I will look forward to my departure from ARN later today then
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 1:14 am
  #234  
 
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And to finish my MCO adventure, no boarding pass or passport required through the new gates. Straight from the lounge, boarding group 1, look at the camera at the gate the barrier opens and whoosh you are on the plane. Very impressive. Now to figure out where my photo was taken...
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 1:18 am
  #235  
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Originally Posted by firstlight
And to finish my MCO adventure, no boarding pass or passport required through the new gates. Straight from the lounge, boarding group 1, look at the camera at the gate the barrier opens and whoosh you are on the plane. Very impressive. Now to figure out where my photo was taken...
​​​​​​​When you arrived in the USA.
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 1:21 am
  #236  
 
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Originally Posted by Tobias-UK


​​​​​​​When you arrived in the USA.
Oh yes, that was a particularly ropey photo though so amazed they let me through on that, and is the information passed to the airline. I assumed that federal immigration information wouldn't be disclosed to BA...
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 2:20 am
  #237  
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Originally Posted by firstlight
Oh yes, that was a particularly ropey photo though so amazed they let me through on that, and is the information passed to the airline. I assumed that federal immigration information wouldn't be disclosed to BA...
I'm conscious we are going way off topic, but I suspect what you experienced was another trial of ths: British Airways trials biometric boarding at Los Angeles - PASSENGER SELF SERVICE
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 3:25 am
  #238  
 
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No group boarding at GVA as of last night
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 3:41 am
  #239  
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ALC - LGW - Absolutely no attempt at streaming and I doubt that they ever will due to the fact that you have to do emigration (when they can be fagged) just before arriving at the gate. Why Iberia find this so hard to achieve when they do so all the time with Vueling, I cannot tell.

LHR - TXL Club summoned down Lane 1. What happened subsequently I know not as I was aboard. To the person who wrote that he cannot understand why people queue, it is to get aboard and get the hand luggage stowed ASAP in my instance. As I am usually in Row 1, everything has to be in the overhead lockers. I have usually had time to visit a Lounge so I have been sitting a while anyway.

What has amazed me is how many of you fly domestically from what I read here.
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Old Jan 29, 2018, 4:06 am
  #240  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
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A colleague of mine is just boarding BA93 LHR-YYZ at a c-gate and has text me to say that group boarding is being policed quite well. In his words ‘a few chancers have been turned away’!

As a silver in CW he is in group 2.
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