slayers_88

LHR to BCN Last Friday: We were in group 4. BA staff had not removed the sign from AA separating the queue into groups 1-4 and 5-9, so most people were in a single long queue as they probably did not know much about BA groups and the fact that there are only 5 groups. So the staff had to be turning people away all the time (some of them complained about the signs saying groups 1-4 and 5-9). The staff boarded groups 1-3 together and then 4-5. This made me wonder why they don't just have 2 groups: priority and non priority, instead of 5, making things easier for everyone. Bad organisation from BA I'd say.

BCN to LHR last Sunday: We were in group 1. Staff at Barcelona did seem to be checking boarding passes and organising people into different queues before boarding, although I got the impression that there were only 3 queues (group 1, groups 2-3, and groups 4-5), but cannot confirm it.

Worcester

MAN today, gate 142, slight free for all as late arrivals could note quite believe there would be a queue for those on the 1-3 group.

ThatT1Feeling

LHR B gates early yesterday morning LHR-CPH. Very clear instructions - quite a big Group 1 contingent but with 7 rows of reasonably full CE, that's 25+, plus Goldies.

I was about tenth to board - a guy behind me got turned away as Group 4. Not sure if a language barrier or whether he was chancing it. Heard Group 2 being called when I got to the bottom of the escalator so it seemed like a textbook boarding this time around.

Mapman

Day trip to LUX. Boarding came up on screen in CX lounge at 0720 so ambled to gate 3. Queue in corridor with no separate line for priority. Inside gate announcement for assistance although difficult to hear as speakers seem to be in roof. G1 announced but already a longish queue had formed. Joined as announcement for G1 and G2 made. No policing of BPs.

Not really any issues as far as I can see, simply an observation that the system is not implemented as it should be.

CloudCoder

LHR-IAH on Feb 25. Gate agent with a tremendous speaking voice repeatedly announced that you should wait until your group is called, because if you queue up in advance, they need that space for other groups. I assume his efforts were successful, but how would I know? I was the first passenger in group 1.

GaxxyFlyer

Group boarding was enforced at LCY this morning. Very impressed to see someone from group 4 in front of me being sent back.

Off topic, I was chased down the stairs by the gate agent who seemed to have second thoughts about me flying to Dublin on a driving license. She was very friendly though!

T8191

Typical LGW this morning, BA2772 at Gate 10. Agent opens door to airbridge, retreats to her desk at the end of the holding area and starts to announce ... after 3 words, everyone just surged through the door and onto the aircraft.

Absolutely ZERO effort to control boarding, other than by remote announcement.

Physci

Sealink

Shocking. Why are they so reticent to be assertive with pax? It actually works!!

T8191

Cheeky, as usual!!

We had seated ourselves near the door, to avoid having to rudely push through the potential scrum. We were thus able to join the general charge in a reasonably 'early boarding' manner, and obtain overhead locker space above 1A/C

The lady in 1F was most seized by the need to board early. She hovered halfway through the doorway as soon as it was opened. Indeed, we half-expected her to make her own way on board without further ado.

sunshinebob

This must be one of those 10 abreast planes I keep hearing about uncle T. Did not know they were on the Jersey run...

DelTroon

Yesterday at MRU (Mauritius) 2 lanes, Groups 1,2 & 3,and Groups 4,5, & 6. When the aircraft was ready for boarding both queues were allowed through at the same time - what's the point!

fluffymitten

I had experience of this 22 Feb LHR-GLA and 25 Feb GLA-LHR.

My ticket was in Group 1 for both legs.

On arrival at the LHR gate, it was impossible to tell which queue to join due to the number of people pre-queuing. Only possible to figure it out by walking to close to the front of the queue and then following it back to make sure you joined the right one.
GA called forward groups 1 and 2 to board trhough the e-gates. They then called forward goup 3 to go through the manned entry. The e-gates weren't working so they then had two people and three groups of passengers to manually scan. Except they didn't stop annoncing that groups 1 and 2 should be using the e-gates.
Flight took an age to board, and left about 20 minutes late.

Similar at GLA. Couldn't tell which queue I was supposed to be in due to signage being right by the gate door and the queue snaking quite far back. Some people let me slip in front of them as I was lost as to where I should be. They called forward group 1 and, by the time I got to the group 1 lane, they were calling the next group forward and I was tutted at for queue jumping.
Again, flight took ages to board and departed late.

My partner does GLA-LHR or GLA-LCY quite a bit and hates the new system. Hasn't had a punctual flight since the trial started.

I got a few feedback surveys from BA and made sure I commented on how I didn't feel the process led to an efficient way to load the aircraft. Too many people with decent status on commuter routes makes the groups pretty much pointless.

IMH

Not quite as good when we departed last week, but it could have been a one-off.

We left the F lounge a few minutes after the flight was called and got to the gate to see other passengers from the lounge queuing. After a few minutes Group 1 was called then -- maybe 15 seconds later -- Group 2. Roughly 200 passengers felt this applied to them -- and on this route that's possible. After a while a more senior staff member arrived and was clearly not impressed with the way things were going. She started checking BPs for group numbers, but there wasn't really much else she could do by that point.

Samaras

I had two flights last week, GLA-LCY and LHR-GLA. Group boarding was done well on both flights and departures were on time.

Roll on to today GLA to LHR, flew out of Gate 22. Left the lounge when the flight was called along with a bunch of other passengers. Met with a chaotic scene at the gate.

Everyone with status was in the same queue and apart from
a small number of group ones who must have been there from the start.