OverTheHorizon

The July issue of The Club contains this little gem (my bolding) :

"When it comes to boarding, there is a trial in place in which travellers will enter the plane from the rear, in order of row number. This means that those seated at the front of the plane will board first to avoid walking past other passengers who are already seated. For those travelling in First class, they will board first, from the front row to the back row of the cabin... "

Did I miss the memo ?

golfmad

No but you may have missed the references to it in this thread:

BA - Looking forward to welcoming us back!

See post 214 onwards.

OverTheHorizon

Yes, I did read that thread and I was pretty clear that pax would be entering at the front door as previously but in order of row number descending...

​​​​​​To my mind though, "[] travellers will enter the plane from the rear, in order of row number." evokes a Ryanair-style use of steps at the tail!

Probably just BA's poor drafting - wouldn't be the first time

florens

Can‘t wait for the first tail tipping incident.

Scots_Al

From the quote you’ve given, I’d agree it sounds like rear steps. But that’s not just Ryanair-style - it’s a common occurrence at GLA, for example to use both air bridge and rear steps on BA.

moral_low_ground

My friends who recently went to Ireland on Aer Lingus commented on this. Boarding started much earlier (ie more than 45 mins before departure instead of the usual 30). Two rows were called at a time starting with those at the back.

They said that it was all a bit pathetic because people turned up at the gate at the usual time so missed their row and then you wait till the end to walk past everyone just like before. In addition, you end up in the aircraft with everyone else so does it really make that much of a difference (air circulating etc) ? They said there was no on board service with Aer Lingus (ie None) and they counted maybe 2 people going to the rest room so it looks like everyone just sat there for the whole flight with masks on. Getting off was the reverse with people supposed to stay in their seat until the row in front had left.

Flying is going to be such fun

Johnnieboy

That actually sounds like an improvement, much more civilised than the mass standing up and cramming the aisle for 5-10 minutes!

corporate-wage-slave

The BA system is different to this (mind you, when I was in T2 last week, EI were doing it slightly differently to this report too). Namely that with BA they will announce first pre-boarding for infants and those with mobility issues. Then they will announced (for example) boarding for rows 30 to 37 (typically this is only about 4 people); then they announce boarding for rows 25 to 37, then 20 to 37. So if you are late to the gate you don't have to wait until the end. But under this system and under the current circumstances it is a good idea to be at the gate in good time.

Aer Lingus has always boarded very early for as long as I can remember. It's not unusual they are airborne well before departure time, they don't seem to have the 10 minute maximum early departure as BA has/had.

Delboy65

reminds me of the rear exit staircase on a B727

alex67500

Pretty standard at LCY as well, you board at the front or rear steps depending on where you're sat on the plane.

RoyalSwazi

It’s pretty common in OSL as well. There are signs inside the boarding bridge indicating which rows should go down the stairs onto the tarmac and board from the rear. It’s used primarily by SK and DY - I am not sure if Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizzair do too as I’ve never witnessed their aircraft boarding at OSL.

paulaf

How does departing work, leave from the front first, suppose depends on airport if bridges or coaches? Just thinking about testing queues on arrival would be good to be at the front!

golfmad

That sounds very similar to Delta for me last week and can be policed quite well to manage social distancing. On the flip side does BA announce the egress process like Delta requesting that passengers stay seated until the row in front have collected their belongings and started to move forward? This is much harder to police and was a dismal failure on all four of my flights with people from behind simply ignoring instructions and moving forward as if nothing had changed.

corporate-wage-slave

This has been more recent, last 3 or 4 weeks I'd say, that yes, they do ask people to remain seated until the row in front has moved off and created space. And, um, I can't report how well that works!

Boeing77W

I’ve taken a number of domestic flights in the last few weeks and I’ve been amazed at how well behaved people have been on disembarkation. All sat patiently, waiting for their rows to be called. On that note, I did also witness one gentlemen climb over the seats to get out from the window while the customer in the aisle seat was waiting for space to move out