GLAFlyer

GLA to LGW, this morning. They announced that it would be group boarding. Gate 19, two lanes (1 to 3 and 4 to 5). Before they started the boarding one of the gate agents came to the passenger end of the lanes and opened the group 1 to 3 lane. She asked for people in group 1 and sent them along the lane, but boarding not started yet. Then they announced boarding for groups 1 to 3, at once but the group 1 were already at the front of the queue. Not sure if group 2 were sent down the lane after group 1. Boarding complete well before push back time.

Lost-in-Space

MAD > LHR > ABZ, Sat 24th March

MAD > LHR. Boarding from T4S, gate A25, which faces the back of some duty-free shops, so space is already tight. On top of this a partially boarded IB flight at the adjacent door had just deplaned pax due to some issue and they had spilled over into the BA space. So the gate area was pretty crowded. About 40 minutes before departure a lady arrived with a trolley of signs and baggage sizers. She used to a paper plan to know where to place the Group signs on the tensa barriers.

Once this was done, everyone started to line up at what they thought were their boarding positions, although from observation quite a few didn't know anything about Groups. Just after this a BA gate agent came and changed all of the signs' positions, which then resulted in a couple of hundred people (it was a 767) re-arranging themselves! A few minutes later they announced Group 1, which I was in, so didn't see what happened after that.

LHR > ABZ. Was in the F Lounge and the info screens said A19, so just had to go downstairs. Got there early for a reason. I checked in online, had no checked luggage and was seated in an Emergency Exit. The last couple of times I was rejected by the auto-gates, as the agents need to do a physical check. Went to an agent who asked me to come back as he was just logging in. Sat down and saw the Groups forming. The signs said Group 1 to the right and Group 2 to the left of the same line. After just a few minutes there were already about 20 pax in the Group 1 & 2 line. Went back to another agent and explained that I needed to be cleared. She asked for my boarding pass and to stand on the yellow marks. A bit of typing and she handed me my boarding pass and said you're all OK. I said that I'd go to join the line. No, no need, she said, you're boarded, please join the other pre-boarders! Score, boarding Group 0?! Looked back and there were quite a few quizzical faces wondering why I got to join the pre-boarders! They started boarding just after that and off I went.

jwhite9185

Kuwait this morning.

An announcement was made for group 1 - first and business. As they had ripped the boarding passes as everyone entered the gate room, everyone was left with the stub - minus any group number. Slightly chaotic to say the least.

SWISSBOBBY

And I thought ZRH was always so organised... another swiss myth busted.

thebigben

I used to think Swiss airports were good, but I am less and less impressed the more I travel. The only ground-related incident outside Switzerland I've had is a whisky bottle that was (somewhat improperly) packed in my luggage being smashed in BOS. So, while most of my travel is going to Switzerland... I've had long delays at immigration or baggage reclaim in both GVA and ZRH.

Geordie405

BA270 LAS - LHR on March 19th had one queue for Group 1, one for Groups 2 - 3 and one for Groups 4 - 5. The usual pre-boarders were called first, then it was Group 1 so that worked well.

BA1334 LHR - NCL on 20th March was well handled too, with Group 1 being called first but passengers not realising they could use all of the electronic gates rather than just the one immediately in front of the queue. Boarding seemed to be pretty efficient but we then had a delay while a missing passenger's bags were offloaded and then there was a further delay due to what I understood to be some form of ground hold due to an emergency flight over LHR's airspace.

BA275 LHR - LAS on March 25th from gate 35 (T3) was certainly better organised than my last flight from there where it was a total zoo. Pre-boarders included a large number of cabin crew who just got in the way at the top of the airbridge while waiting for the rest of their party to show up. The cabin crew were apparently dead-heading to LAS but were clearly intent on partying and then tried to use their staff ID to use the "Aircrew" line at immigration, much to the annoyance of the CBP agents who insisted on the appropriate paperwork being provided before they would start processing them.

lostinlondon

Quite orderly today LHR-IAD, but a bit surprised that CW is Group 2? Mayhaps that's meant to be, but doesn't make loads of sense to me.

rossmacd

That is correct. F and Gold/OWE are Group 1.

Globaliser

It's a good reminder to CW passengers that they're not nearly as important as they'd like to think they are.

The groups were identified in the other thread: Boarding by group to be introduced [general discussion] but the new forum formatting means that it might be easier to re-post the lists in a slightly different format:-

lostinlondon

Definitely no problem being put in my place Last LH before group boarding was introduced was on AA in J and they put J ahead of (or with) OWE. Appreciated seeing the strict enforcement at LHR.

KARFA

These are the AA boarding groups https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...ng-process.jsp

J is in the same group as OWE on a 3 class aircraft, but in a group ahead in a 2-class international aircraft

metoo1

Can't remember the gate number at T3, but there was plenty of space: Wife and I flying CE, no status, both had group 1, no prior experience boarding intra-europe BA in the last decade, we only fly back and forth to the states usually, direct. So, here is my newby experience.

- was Group Boarding properly used?
By gate agents, yes, by passengers...well I suppose. Just a huge scrum of people in the 1/2/3 area of 1/2/3 tix holders which made its almost impossible to get through when they called group 1. We made it thru right as she announced group 2. There was no signage or instructions that we saw. other that the Group 1/2/3 and 4/5 sign (hidden by people!).

- did passengers / staff understand what to do?
Kind of. There was a sep line for people wanting to check carry on into the hold...we didn't understand that at first (US domestic flyers here, where "gate checking" on lawn dar^h^h I mean CRJ700s and 145s mean dropping your bag at the end of the jetway), but then figured out what that was for despite there being no signage or announcements. As I made it to the agent she was announcing Group 2 and she asked me "Group 2?" I said "no, Group 1...this is an interesting system..." to which she commented "well there isn't enough space". I took a second to glance back past the scrum to the football pitch sized empty gate area beyond and shuffled on down the jetway...

- was it enforced?
Yes, seemingly so.

- was it an improvement on the previous system?
Can't comment, but as a paying CE passenger I found it to be slightly stressful to have to push thru the hoards of people.

Edit: I'm relating this experience to US domestic first travel, which is a little unfair as usually there are only *maybe* 2-10 first class and status boarders in the priority lane for US domestic on the 50 passenger jets that I'm normally on.

Edit 2: I just read the short haul boarding groups at the beginning of the wiki. Boy there must be a LOT of status holders out there....seemed like half the plane was in the 1/2/3 area...

Of course, I have no better solutions

Yetak

DoctorCopper

NRT: two lanes (1) Groups 1, 2 & 3 and (2) Groups 4 & 5. Pax line-up, presumably, by group number. A few minutes before boarding starts, ground staff rotate the signs so that 1, 2 & 3 becomes group 1 only and 4 & 5 becomes group 2 only. Much muttering and raised eyebrows followed by shuffling between queues and some pax not in groups 1 & 2 trying to find a seat

LHR: A couple of days later waiting to board a European flight there were several well labelled lines. Pax queue appropriately. Group 1 called for boarding, those pax moved forward to have boarding cards scanned. These were met with a frosty remark ‘Group 1 only, that’s those people over there’ accompanied by an arm gesture indicating those queueing in Groups 4 & 5. No one dare move. One said ‘OK, I’ll go and stand with them’. Gate agent then went and checked the labels and apologised that she’d got the order of lanes mixed up.

It’s not rocket science, is it?

Doc Copper

Quarky Quark