For goodness sake, stop queuing!

Old Jun 26, 2019, 7:23 am
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by Mordac
There is a way to stop it. Change the queuing discipline from First Come First Served to Last Come First Served.
Or alternatively, the first thirty non elite boarders have to surrender their cabin bags and have them placed in the hold.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 7:56 am
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The carry on right above the passenger's head may not be a problem in Europe or North America but is getting to be a huge issue in Asia, especially on the China flights. I was surprised or I should say rather shocked when I was told by the crew to be careful of my carry on as I was in business class. I had to ask them what is going on and they said that professional thieves were traveling sometimes and steal from the carry on luggage. They even change clothes so it is difficult to recognize them when they disembark. This happened on a flight from CMB to PVG. They told me the previous week they caught one too.
So I do understand if someone wants to keep their hand luggage in a position they can keep their eye on it or rather to see if anyone else tries to fiddle with it.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 7:57 am
  #63  
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Originally Posted by Saint4805
Or alternatively, the first thirty non elite boarders have to surrender their cabin bags and have them placed in the hold.
Well it does kind of work that way already, in that if the gate agents have been asked to get (e.g.) two dozen bags into the hold, they will typically make an announcement first - which may get say 6 bags volunteered - and then who are they going to get first? Those nearest the desk. Some of us will remember the anecdote of Gold cardholders being by extension targeted, since they were at the front of Group 1, en route to Belfast - this turned out to be a one-off. But those close to the front area of a gate are the ones most likely to be pinged, something I see more in EDI than LHR. If you board later on then the priority is to get close up finished, so they are less likely to be targeted, unlike in the USA.

Personally I think this "must be first to get overhead space" is a bit of a myth since it's only at 80% fill this starts to be problematic. However "must have bag exactly over my head where I cannot see it" is certainly alive, kicking and illogical.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 7:59 am
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by Mordac
There is a way to stop it. Change the queuing discipline from First Come First Served to Last Come First Served.
Great idea. You'd have to wait for the last person to show up at the boarding area to start sending people down the jet bridge. Punctuality of flights can only improve
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 8:21 am
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave

...............................

Personally I think this "must be first to get overhead space" is a bit of a myth since it's only at 80% fill this starts to be problematic. However "must have bag exactly over my head where I cannot see it" is certainly alive, kicking and illogical.
@ c-w-s, Im all too aware that this issue crops up repeatedly on FT but I nonetheless feel that its unfair to dismiss it as illogical or a totally pointless pursuit.

When Im in CE Im not overly-bothered as to when I board. But when in ET - and especially a favoured exit row seat where of course not even the smallest carry-on may be placed under the seat - then I, along with many others I know, will not relish the prospect of ones bag having to be placed, say, three or four rows further back. Even that sort of distance can become surprisingly tiresome when ready to disembark, given the natural reluctance of fellow pax to give way to anyone attempting to make their way back, against the flow in order to retrieve a bag. Sure, you can patiently wait for the whole aircraft to offload, but it rather defeats any benefit of being in Group 1.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 8:56 am
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Flying 2 weeks ago from Victoria to Calgary in a Bombardier Q400, all large carry-on had to be placed under the seat as the overhead compartment was simply too small for carry-on. No problem with thieves, no problem keeping an eye on it and it would be a nice solution to prevent people from bringing too much on board

About the boarding: during my trip to Canada the boarding of the flight to Vancouver in Heathrow (BA85) was extremely well organised. Boarding was not started yet so while people were arriving at the gate, one of the gate agents was giving everybody advice on which block of seats to take place depending on the boarding group. As I was in group 2, I was not going to wait until everybody boarded to see how smooth everything went at the end but it was the first time ever I experienced such a pro-active approach by staff. Perhaps it was of the A380 plane, perhaps the gate in T3 (gate 42) had enough room to do so, but it was extremely well done. Nobody queued, everybody took place on or around the seats and waited until boarding was announced.

On the other hand, when I flew back from Calgary (BA102), arriving with a separate booking from Victoria, I was way too early at the airport and I was amazed how many showed up even before the opening of the check-in desks. Perhaps all came from separate flights as me, but it was the first time ever I had to queue for check-in. I did wonder how all those travellers spend the remaining hours in the airport as most of them didn't have lounge access.

Last edited by TimDP; Jun 26, 2019 at 1:04 pm
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 9:04 am
  #67  
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It's a combination of inattentive/arrogant passengers and weak gate administrators.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 12:55 pm
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Originally Posted by MRM
It's a combination of inattentive/arrogant passengers and weak gate administrators.
I'd also insert 'cretinous' to the passengers part. The same ones who slam their suitcases in sideways in the overhead bins without any thought for other PAX, the ones who walk through airport security scanners covered in bling, pockets full of items that should have gone in the trays and cabin luggage full of ad hoc liquids.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 1:15 pm
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Originally Posted by Saint4805
I'd also insert 'cretinous' to the passengers part. The same ones who slam their suitcases in sideways in the overhead bins without any thought for other PAX, the ones who walk through airport security scanners covered in bling, pockets full of items that should have gone in the trays and cabin luggage full of ad hoc liquids.
Hell is other people, quoth the philosopher. By the way, one fine post for number 10,000. It only took 18 years.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 1:24 pm
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Originally Posted by Pickles
Hell is other people, quoth the philosopher. By the way, one fine post for number 10,000. It only took 18 years.
Congratulations on reaching the big 10k. I'm raising a glass to you as we type.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 2:50 pm
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My personal worst recent queuing experience on a BA trip must have been this week at CTA. The security fast track was closed just ahead of me, so even that increased my queuing times, besides the exit passport control. The check-in queuing was slugish and some were chansing without eligibility for the CE counter.

Now that was all still quite miniscule and not what prompted me to add my comment to this discussion. The gate queueing experience was far from stellar... No lanes, no visual boarding group information and lack of logic for how to board a remote stand plane - especially as it turned out they had deployed two stairs and of course just a few used the rear ones (I was almost tempted to make a point about lack of diligence and reach my seat at row 1 against the stream of rear seated ET pax from the front door ). I'm usually never confused by boarding arrangements, but this time around I was clueless at first and didn't get that they have group numbers over the tannoy. Another passenger asked me about it, because I was obviously not the only one confused. That numbering wasn't exactly obvious, because there was not initial greeting to board BAXXXX to LGW, so I didn't first realise it's a gate specific announcement. I was standing in a corridor IMO, so without any flight or gate number, it becomes confusing. I assume I ended up boarding around group 4, which was completely irrelevant taken the bus shuttle and lack of effective utilisation of the two stairs available. In the end the whole boarding process was very ineffective and the special assistance pax boarded last and ET passengers weren't grouped according to how they should've actually boarded. And sure, we departed anything but on time.

I've seen some efficient boarding with BA at LHR T5, so I second the notion it's more of an issue with contractors at outstations, which aren't apparently sent to London to see how it's done at LHR/LGW. If the folks at Waterside would like to save money from missed slots, then one would definetly consider training your partner companies properly onsite at LHR/LGW/LCY.

BTW, I have to second that JER is great in terms of how BA flights are handled. Swissport is doing a good job, but then again there's quite a few flights to LGW, so it's all a routine for them.

Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Also whereas BA services regularly have a quarter or even a third of their passengers with Silver status or above, and another large chunk in Club Europe, you are unlikely to get that sort of proportion in the USA, when many upgrades get cleared at the end of the process.
I'd say it's also up to how many groups are called at once. If the dispatcher (I assume it's he/she that calls the shot) doesn't pay attention to how big different customer groups are on the flight, then it can be pretty useless to group by any preallocated group numbers. For instance last week at HEL, Aviator didn't do a good job when boarding BA to LHR. Groups 1-3 were all called at once and that meant like over 1/3 or closer to 1/2 of the pax were then queuing as "priority" pax for the Business Class labelled lane, because the call basically was all of CE and all OWE, OWS and OWR, without any further distinction.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 3:01 pm
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Well it does kind of work that way already, in that if the gate agents have been asked to get (e.g.) two dozen bags into the hold, they will typically make an announcement first - which may get say 6 bags volunteered - and then who are they going to get first? Those nearest the desk. Some of us will remember the anecdote of Gold cardholders being by extension targeted, since they were at the front of Group 1, en route to Belfast - this turned out to be a one-off. But those close to the front area of a gate are the ones most likely to be pinged, something I see more in EDI than LHR. If you board later on then the priority is to get close up finished, so they are less likely to be targeted, unlike in the USA.

Personally I think this "must be first to get overhead space" is a bit of a myth since it's only at 80% fill this starts to be problematic. However "must have bag exactly over my head where I cannot see it" is certainly alive, kicking and illogical.
Carry on where I can see it may be 'illogical" in several sectors, however it is a PITA if one has to go hunt for space a few rows behind the assigned seat. At disembark hardly anyone will allow you to go backwards, hence "I don't want to be the last off the plane" syndrome.
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Old Jun 26, 2019, 3:02 pm
  #73  
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Originally Posted by Pickles
Hell is other people, quoth the philosopher. By the way, one fine post for number 10,000. It only took 18 years.
Huis Clos is not a great read unfortunately. The idea is excellent. An all star cast could make it a great offering and I'm sure many A listers would be up for it.
Congrats on the 10k
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Old Jun 27, 2019, 2:15 am
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Originally Posted by Saint4805
I'd also insert 'cretinous' to the passengers part.
Please dont. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics...cine/cretinism
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Old Jun 27, 2019, 2:49 am
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Originally Posted by Scots_Al
Well I was thinking of option 2.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cretinous
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