Study phase.... what does that exactly mean? When do you think they will row that out, and if they do which routes in Europe?

SB

From my experience it seems to work better for those flights leaving from the C gates or the D gates. Never has worked for me at the B gates.

C-gates are the best.

Just had a look at the new setup in Terminal 2 en route to the Privium lounge.

The new entrance to the Sky Priority area takes the form of an arch, with large, clear and lit signs on either side. There was a queue to get in, but in the time I watched only one pax was admitted. The bouncer referred everybody else to the riffraff area further on. This required a lot of explaining and gesticulating, with quite a few people reluctant to move on. In other words, they were behaving just as they do at the gates. No matter what the signs say, no matter what the staff stay, "we want to check in / we want to board here and now!"

Policing the arch must be a lot of fun.

I suspect I may have a B gate in a little while. Will report on the Sky Priority exeperiece. May even make my way to the gate early, so I won't miss anything.

Johan

Mumbai
 

I would like to know if with Sky Priority platinum FB can now board together with business class in Mumbai or not yet.
Last time I was send back because I'm FB platinum and not Delta Business class (next I will use only Delhi Airport with KLM instead Mumbai with Delta).

Gate B24. Signs showed "gate open" as I made ny way from security. That's a totally pointless message where B gates are concerned. Turning the corner onto the B concourse, I could already from afar see a crowd blocking the thoroughfare between the gate and the moving walkway. When I got there, the display showed "boarding" and announced that it would be completed in a few minutes. No Sky Priority signage anywhere. The senior GA assisted a family with an infant, a child and more hand luggage than the average family of six would check for a month-long vacation, then disappeared. Shortly afterwards the junior agent opened the priority lane and in what was almost a whisper invited SP pax to board. There was no PA announcement, and I wonder whether she would have even mentioned SP had another pax and I not spent several minutes discussing the concept right in front of her desk.

Since I was the third to board, I do not know if priority boarding was enforced. The number of J pax was exactly zero, the crowd waiting at the elite line did not exactly look like a bunch of elites, and I seriously doubt that about 1/3 of the pax on a midday departure had elite status.

My first SP experience cannot be described as impressive.

Johan

Were you boarding an E190 via jetway or a F70/100 via bus?

I think this whole Sky Priority thing at Schiphol is primarily an image thing, they changed the signs and that's it. Staff will act exactly the same as they did before unless they properly instruct their gate agents this will never change no matter how they call it.

E190 via a pretend jetway to the aircraft stairs at ground level. Funny thing was, almost all the aircraft parked at the B concourse were F70s, whereas the Fokker farm was ful of E190s put out to pasture.

They actually managed to complete boarding seven minutes before STD. As the captain announced our imminent departure, we could all hear ominous banging and clanking noises from the luggage holds. These continued for quite some time, until the captain finally announced that they "had just discovered" that a pax was missing, and his luggage had to be off-loaded. We were fortunately spared the Polderbaan, and thus still managed to arrive exactly on schedule. Made my train, which is what counts.

Johan

Not unless the gate agents make an exception... With Delta Business/First are still the first ones to board. After this SP, followed by zones 1, 2 and 3.

KLM just has SP, thus allowing you to board at the same time as the WBC passengers.

At TLS the new Sky Priority is really a time saver at busy moments. Will try AMS in a little while. Regarding the way that boarding for Elites is done at the bus gates... It takes a bit of a thick skin to not simply wait in line but to walk to the front of the line and say 'I am Elite blah blah' but you do get to cut in line. Not much point unless you really want to be on the first bus.

SkyPriority worked for me!
 

Had my first experience of SkyPriority with KLM yesterday, and it largely worked. My journey took me from BHX to UIO via AMS in Business on an Award ticket.

I checked in online and both BPs had the SkyPriority logo. There was no SkyPriority signage at BHX, but then no queue at the Premium check-in and bag drop desk. Security will now 'fast-track' you if you enter the security area at the AF/KL end of the BHX terminal (previously you had to go right to the other end to use the official fast track lane). Business and Elite passengers were invited to board first, although no one checked BPs.

On arrival at AMS I had a few minutes in the lounge before heading to the gate (D47) for the AMS - UIO flight. There was a long queue for the security scan at the gate, but there was a manned SkyPriority lane and I was put in front all the non-priority pax. I found a seat in the gate waiting area near the door to the plane. A large plasma screen cycled through various information screens, including one that stated the boarding sequence (Business/Elites, then pax with children, then groups based on row numbers). Again, Business/Elites were invited to board first, but this time the BPs were carefully inspected.

On arrival at Quito my bag was about the fifth one off, so priority baggage also worked.

Great to hear that it works to some extend!

Any Silvers experienced SkyPriority? I was wondering if SkyPriority will be stated on the boarding pass of Silvers, have a upcoming flight soon, if not, I will just keep my card on hand the whole time!

Not this time !
 

Had many longhaul legs in the past few months where ElitePlus was neatly printed on my boarding passes, SkyPriority was no problem and flights void of the notorious hiccup with EC seat selection for DL Elites on KL flights.

Tho this morning at check-in for return flights at WAW my 4 boarding passes did not even show my DL FF number and neither had ElitePlus printed as usual and unlike my outbound flights.
It seems as though outsourced handling is not in tune with the new system.

Guess will have to waive my DL Diamond pass again at boarding time to get ahead of the "pack" (or "gate-lice" as we fondly call them in the US) ;)

"Gate lice" and "pack" (or "cattle") are actually 2 different terms. A "pack" (or cattle) refers to a crowd or long line of travelers (usually kettles). Gate lice are only those who crowd gate areas.

You can have a "pack" at a security line but you can't say that about gate lice.