hphreak

ex-HKG there were 3 lines: J (DM, GO, SL); GR; Y (economy) line
Flight is a 2 class flight with J and Y only. Lines for GR and Y were not opened until J line finished boarding through both sides. Active policing.

ex-SIN also 3 sections for boarding, with 2 lines for security entering the waiting lounge.
For security: J (DM, GO, SL) in one line, GR/Y in the other line.
After security, waiting lounge split into 3 sections: J(DM, GO, SL) in the front; Marco Polo section in the middle (ie all GR members); Y section at the back. Boarding 'dragons' actively policing and directing passengers. There is a special roped access 'corridor' to the front for J.

GR section was as big the as the J section (didn't know there were THAT many greens to be honest).
We were almost out of the lounge before they opened the ropes to let GRs board.

QRC3288

Wonderful news, to the poster above.

Count me as someone surprised. I didn't think GRs were clogging the lines, but it looks like I was mistaken. This change, combined with the fellow in another thread mentioning how CX is enforcing the GR minimum, probably means serious improvements to the boarding process.

chfshifter

Short answer - yes.

For the two flights I took last month CX254 had 4 queues whilst CX256 had 3 queues. I guess the First/DM queue was missing from CX256 as there's no first class on that flight.

hl176

If boarding for everyone is underway and they see someone walk to the F or J queue, will they stop boarding for the next person in W/Y and let the person in the F or J line scan their boarding pass first?

FlyPointyEnd

Yes, that is normally the case. The left side would accommodate any F/J pax who walks up to the priority queue.

sscywong

This morning on 390, three queues. No PEY sold even it's flying by a 33K

I think you can imagine what's happened for 390 using 3 queues... Yes the J lines were h*ll long with just 4 ppl queueing up in GR line. And since they let the GR line flows like half way the J line was cleared, GR in practice gets high priority in boarding...

Of course soon they seems noticed this problem and closed the GR line, ask GR to J line and just let the Y line continues to flow...

I was thinking PEK / PVG / SIN will always use 4 lines system instead of 3 lines... Seems CX is really hard to predict

HKGglobaltrotter

4 lines boarding system only if the flight has F cabin sold I believe.

A bit off topic but re: SIN, I always find SIN boarding arrangement a huge mess. Usually there are 4-5 agents at the counter and only left with 1 agent actually enforcing the boarding procedures at the back by the jet bridge. And you could imagine what'd happen when they announced boarding began.

hphreak

Yeah 4 lines if F cabin is sold (although I heard about flights where there are a lot of DMs and they essentially get the F line?)

On my flight a few days ago, it seems orderly, 2 agents at the counter, 1 directing the J line to the front, and 1 standing next to the Marco Polo sign. All sections were roped off from each other.

So when boarding was announced, no one got up to board except J; GR cannot even rush up due to the rope separating us and the rest of GR/Y.

DieselYVR

Just got this from MPC:

An exclusive boarding line with Cathay Pacific at Hong Kong International Airport
We listened to your feedback and understand that you would like to have more time to settle into your seat before your flight takes off. No matter which cabin you are travelling in, you can now enjoy a priority boarding line* exclusively for Diamond members whenever you travel with Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong International Airport. With less time queueing, we hope you have an even more enjoyable start to your journey.

Now if only they could do this at all the out ports too!

sscywong

Today got the August MPC newsletter

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...l-Airport.html
So after they can "suspend" guaranteed seats for DM as they wish, now they have "conditional" guaranteed F class priority boarding for DM in HK....

I'd rather them keep silent on this...

gpia

The link won't show anything for me, but does that mean 5 lanes now? Or just that there will always be a F/DM line even with no F on plane?

DieselYVR

Sorry for posting a bad link but the one above posted by sscywong works. I edited my post to remove it. It doesn't mention any further details so I'm not sure how this will be executed (subject to actual operational constraints).

I'm hoping operational constraints is referring to times when we are bused to the plane but maybe I'm being too optimistic.

sscywong

I can say with very high confidence that it simply means they will try to use a 4-queue systems whenever they can unless they don't have enough ground staff or there's not enough space for setting up 4 queues...

Which means nothing new

G-CIVC

Enlighten me if I am wrong (I'm not the 390 type ) but I have never boarded a flight without FCL that used 4-queue system...

QRC3288

There are often (but not always) F/DM lines for PEK, SIN and PVG, even if there are only 2 or 3 classes.