Tobias-UK

That's not the point though, either they have priority boarding or they don't. And sadly, the fact that MAN have already become bored of enforcing the new procedure is of no surprise to me.

boutela

BA 734 to GVA 1500 yesterday was... a bit disappointing. A20, lanes for 1, 2/3 and 4/5. What looked very much like the usual GVA priority line was in, and well out the back of, the Group 1 lane before boarding was called. (The first bloke was standing there around 14:15.) No one was standing in any of the other lanes.

Group 1 was called after pre-boarding, but then very quickly (maybe five or six people had gone through) Group 2 was called up too. Oddly, when Group 2 was called there was no shuffling at all that I could see in the big line, and I saw only one person heading up the 2/3 lane. (Fair play to her, any 2s in the first line had only themselves to blame! I suppose it's possible that she was held at the head of the lane until the entire Group 1 lane had cleared—I was through before I could see—but in that case calling Group 2 so soon was a bit cruel.)

Some old habits die hard, it seems.

EsherFlyer

Not just MAN though ...

BertieBadger

BA1441 EDI to LHR (delayed) at Gate 11.

Snake of tensa barriers closed off at front, so lots of people milling about the gate area. Not much in way of distinct queues. Signs indicated 1/2/3 for priority, 4/5 general.

Actual boarding done by the book, Group 1 only called first, with emphasis on only. About 10 pax maybe. Decent delay before I heard 1 and 2 only. Seemed an improvement over old system.

Interestingly due to delay BA1445 to LHR was boarding at the adjacent gate 10 at the same time. Gate area seemed less crowded but I heard their boarding calls, and they started with 1 and 2 together, rather than just 1.

Maybe aircraft difference? BA1441 is 767 so more people. Or maybe just inconsistency!

HighwayToHEL

BA2942 LGW to EDI.

”Would all passengers seated in rows 1 to 4, and all our Executive Club gold, silver and bronze card holders, please board now”

i don’t think anyone was left seated at the gate.....

UKtravelbear

AMS-LGW last Monday - two lanes at the gate - 1 for groups 1-3 and the other for 4&5

I wasn't there at the start of boarding though but given that the passengers waiting to board were all queued up in the groui4/5 lane I'd assume it was announced.

LondonCanuck

Just boarded BA93 toYYZ. Went from A10 so bus gates, but was pleasantly surprised. A mile long “normal queue”, and walked straight up in priority lane. IMHO, doesn’t make sense to do groups for buses anyways, but was quite quick to get on the bus!

dombo17uk

Just boarded LHR to LIN. Boarding seemed ok once it got going. Maybe a bit of confusion between group 1 and group 2&3. But first on and all seemed well. Went from A19 at T5 and seemed pretty good to me

xenole

The groups 1-3 and 4-5 thing that seems to be occurring a bit to often is just the same as F, CW, GCH, OWE, Sapphire, Ruby and then everyone else. Less to say but it's not changed that much for a lot of flights.

jwhite9185

Surely all it needs is for the ground staff to close off the lanes with the already set up tensa barrier until boarding starts, so as to stop people forming a queue 20 minutes before the plane has even arrived on to stand. Then only permit group 1 to enter, then 2, then 3. Same with the regular line too.

Or did you mean calling groups 1,2 and 3 all at once?

xenole

Yes.

wanderingjock

Just got my boarding passes for AY from TLL to HEL and from HEL to LHR and both have GROUP 1 printed in big letters on them. Have AY always done this or is it part of the BA roll out? These were BA coded flight numbers.

pumatwin

Last Week.
LHR-LAX. Boarding done by groups with a number of announcement about the new boarding procedure. Was in 1 and passes were been checked down the line. Not sure how the other groups went after I boarded.
LAX-LHR. Arrived from the lounge and boarding had already started. 2 boarding signs 1-3 and 4-5. Joined what I thought was 1-3 before realising that 2 queues had formed for 4-5 going into 1. Went to the front of 1-3 and boarded swiftly.

PETER01

Another small data point.

LHR-MIA (T3)

Well set up at Gate 42 which is a very large gate. Lots of BA staff, 8-10 at least but the announcements, although crystal clear as to what was happening and repeated 3 times and including which door entrances to go through, could have actually been a bit louder over the tannoy. However, about 20-25 people were hovering right at the entrance to G1 and G2 &3 entrances which were next to each other with G4 and 5 away at the other end and had already formed a big line.

I saw quite a few pax with G4& 5 on their BP's and it was very clear they did not understand the English announcements or had any idea what group boarding meant. Perhaps an announcement in Spanish would have rectified this given the route?

A couple of lovely old ladies who spoke very little english were in front of me at G1 with G5 on their BP's seemed genuinely confused and asked me and I advised them where they should be and they seemed grateful and off they trundled. I saw quite a few pax being refused entry to G1 as well as G2/3 and then they were directed to their allocated group boarding lines.

Overall it worked quite well on this particular flight and a minor point here but BA staff could have been a little more pro-active in keeping the entrances cleared at the start of the tensa barriers asking people to stay back as there were lots of staff there.

streetmagix

LGW-VCE on the 1st of Feb (BA2586). Mobile boarding pass had 'Group 2' on it, by the time I got to Gate 4 there were already boarding. No groups, no priority line either. A completely free for all.

Once the doors had closed we pushed back by about 3 meters then stopped. We moved forwards again and the airbridge was reconnected to put 3 or 4 bags in the hold as they'd run out of space in the bins.

A rather poor show from BA Ground Staff.