Boarding Queue Management
 

Why is QF unable - or unwilling - to manage its boarding queues? This morning at MEL domestic was absurd. No policing of who was in the priority queue, and no active management. Deeply irritating!!!

Just do what the important people do in the USA - walk up to the front of the line and push in. :rolleyes:

Yep, I find that to be the case more often than not - the priority queue completely ignored / unmanaged.

The answer is simply to prolong lounge time and get on last - try to get front row so the crew have to find space for your cabin bags if the overheads get jammed full of unchallenged excess bags.

That said, shock - horror, I have been on two recent flights when QF actually boarded the aircraft from both front and rear!

That's only taken them, what, ten years to figure out (compared with VA and JQ)?


(...cue some Tory twit to blame the unions instead of management's stupidity...)

Extra lounge time is the answer. Unfortunately on my last two flights I have over done it and got paged. No problem arriving at the gate as everybody had boarded and I had a clear run on board.

Part of the problem is
- the signs are not high enough to see from a distance
- the signs are not consistently on the left or the right

God bless JAL
 

Now there is boarding at its finest.......so simple but Qantas don't care or else they would do something about it. Hmmmm......Do I maximise lounge time and leave boarding to last min to avoid the scrum or do I cut lounge time to ensure I get to board as intended and secure overhead locker space above my seat.... Decisions decisions🤔 Red Roo care to shed light as to why the seemingly most basic things are just too hard for QF?

There was almost a riot at SCL today. Everyone lined up neatly behind the sign showing their row numbers and then the gate staff rearranged the signs. Not once, but three times. People just started laughing at the agent trying to achieve perfection after shuffling to the new sign location. Everyone gave up and just formed one long line - which, strangely enough, worked.

On a recent Dragonair flight from (I think) Shanghai to Hong Kong there were three separate boarding lines - F, J and Y. Staff checked everyone's pass before boarding commenced and made sure interlopers were despatched to the back of the correct line.

That works if there are enough staff assigned to do such a task. QF seems to have no surplus staff for anything at all - and I suspect they don't really care anyway.

I wish I could - but my cultural reluctance to queue jump is too strong!

I've seen this in action at BNE prior to boarding a 744 to LAX. Nicely formed two queues, business/priority and other (forgive me if the groups aren't exactly right), then the gate agent spins the sign around. Cue predictable chaos as some try to switch and some don't. Lovely.

I boarded a CX flight from SIN which take the idea to its extreme level. They fenced off a section of the boarding gate lounge for J (and I assume it is also used for elites and pax who require assistance and families with young children). Everyone there gets a seat, and board the flight at the appropriate time. The rest of the masses get held up behind the fence, and participate in the "scrum" while watching the elites board. I guess it works in SIN, but trying this in other countries may result in absolute chaos.

Sort of the opposite to VAs pens (which work quite well)
If you sit down in the gate area the only queue you can access easily is the normal queue, the priority queue is kept separate and well identified by the carpet colour as well (works well imho given most elites will be at the lounge until relatively close to flight)

Last month on QF12 the boarding process was a total farce. Every punter and his dog just surged forward. There was absolutely no management of who was boarding. I ended up boarding in the Y line because it was the shortest.

DXB premium boarding.
 

I also think EK and Dubai have mastered it.....a lift from J & F lounge straight down to aerobridge, no departure gate pain needed. Clever.^