corporate-wage-slave

This thread has the background to the delayed introduction of boarding by group numbers, or Group Boarding to use the BA terminology.

Boarding by group to be introduced [general discussion]

Each passenger will be allocated a group based on their boarding priority and the groups will be called to board in number order. This thread is to report first hand experiences of the new group system after its introduction. It would be good to have short paragraph or two, naming the airport, date/time, route and what happened. If it was boarding initially on to a bus it would be worth highlighting that fact. The sorts of things which would be useful are
- was Group Boarding properly used?
- did passengers / staff understand what to do?
- was it enforced?
- was it an improvement on the previous system?
And similar comments. The existing thread above can continue to be a useful location for more general comments and opinion.
Update 9 January 2018: Boarding passes and overhead display screens are now showing the Group numbers, we are waiting confirmation that Group Boarding has been launched.
Update 9 Jan 2018 - 2: We have heard that Group Boarding has already been introduced, however only on certain routes at this stage (I don't know which) and will be progressively rolled out.
Update 10 January 2018 - it turns out we are in a soft launch stage, see wiki for locations involved. The real launch should be next week.

antichef

I noticed that my BP today had "Group 1" on it for the LHR-ABZ this evening in T5 (as expected as both GCH and flying Business). Thought I would get it called at the gate, but we had the normal Priority Boarding call for Business and GCH.

Also flying on Wed and Thurs, and my boarding passes for both also say Group 1. Will report back.

Tobias-UK

Hi antichef there is a general discussion about the impending introduction of Group Boarding: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...te-tbc-39.html there’s quite a few mentions of the Group number showing on BPs but that’s as far as the roll out appears to have gone.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi.

I am in the cx fra lounge now doing fra lhr edi

fra to lhr no group on the boarding pass
Lhr to edi group 1 ( directly below the seat number)

regards

ps sorry I did not see the other thread .if group boarding is not done at lhr this afternoon then this post can be deleted

tbs

mtdd

Don't really understand the topic. I boarded BA155 yesterday travelling in CW and I did notice that the BP had Group 2 on it. I had zero idea what this meant, but in due course found myself at gate A10, for the usual refugee transport across the tarmac to a plane parked somewhere in the stygian gloom of Heathrow in winter. I did note that what seemed like 50% of the assembled refugees were in the so-called "priority" boarding line and there as quite a bit of jostling to get onto the bus. But to be honest, the whole procedure seemed just as unpleasant as I remembered it from a couple of years ago (the last time I conferred my business on BA) - and Group Boarding, had I even been aware of it, seemed an utter irrelevance.

corporate-wage-slave

Just to reiterate: this thread is intended to track your personal, real life experiences of Group Boarding after it has been introduced and I don't think we have seen an example of it yet. You are all so keen! The other thread signalled above is perhaps the best place for the wider issues.

mtdd

Don't really understand your objections: two people including myself experienced this life-changing event yesterday and reported on it. Basically that it was a non-event. So not that much to report. But it was personal and real life, in a morbid sort of way.....

mtdd

<br /><br />Don't really understand your objections: two people including myself experienced this life-changing event yesterday and reported on it. Basically that it was a non-event. So not that much to report. But it was personal and real life, in a morbid sort of way.....

rockflyertalk

orbitmic

My BP for this morning flight had group number in but boarding was, if anything, even messier than us usual ex-LHR: no nnouncements, no policing, just a big ‘the pushier the better’ boarding management. Very poor.

airline brat

BA440, LHR-AMS, 09 Jan--group numbers on boarding passes but the usual, uncontrolled herd approach for Priority boarding--Club Europe/Gold/Silver/Bronze all called forward at the same time. No managment of the Priority queue, a complete shambles. Why bother if you're not going to actually enforce a process to truly priortise your Priority passengers?

Globaliser

But it seems that the process hasn't started yet.

I'm starting to wonder whether this thread ought to get locked until group boarding is actually brought in.

highexpectations

Flight today from Glasgow to Heathrow. Left lounge 35 mins before departure. Using Gate 21. Normally priority queue to the right of the general queue is filled with bronze, silver and anyone who has priority. Noticed that only five or six people occupied the priority queue. There was a ground staff agent holding back a large quantity of people. I walked up to her and asked if this was priority and she asked if I was group 1. I duly showed her my boarding pass (Gold and CE and therefore eligible for group 1 boarding) and she let me straight through. So I jumped ahead of the huge group of people who would have ordinarily been ahead of me in the priority queue. This ensured I got my wheelie case above me and gave me a nice feeling that my status in the BA Executive club is important.
Once I had entered the priority queue, I heard them call forward Group 2.
So Glasgow are trying to follow it. Having said all of this, had i left the lounge 5 mins later I’d have been behind a lot of folk in Group 2 or even 3.

antichef

It is now happening at EDI!

Early announcements made for groups to split into 1, 2 and 3 into fast track area. Group 4 to general boarding.

Then called pre boarding followed by Group 1 Just boarding in that group, so no idea how the rest are going.

MrBambi

Group 2 was on my BP but not used at MAN this morning for the 0640 flight to LHR - just the usual Business and Gold/Emerald then silver/Sapphire etc.

Will be be interesting to see how they introduce it at MAN as there isn’t the room in T3 to keep people in the separate groups unless policed before joining priority / general queues.

I did notice some additional seating around Gate 141 which might alleviate the general scrum that’s occurs when boarding a BA flight from there.