BA boarding by group number?

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Viewing 7 posts - 46 through 52 (of 52 total)

  • DerekVH
    Participant

    Well I am sure some people will not be surprised and I must admit I did chuckle to myself.

    Flying to AMS from T5 yesterday the new boarding arrangements had obviously been postponed due the snow problems the previous day.

    I was about 4th in the in the premium lane when BA called for people to check in their cabin bags “free of charge” as the flight was full.

    Four “volunteers” duly went up to the desk and got their baggage labels and were told to drop the bags at the aircraft door as they boarded.

    As their reward they got to wait with the pre-boarders of which there were only a couple and one family.

    I was directly behind them when boarding the aircraft and needless to say all four of them took their bags on board and marched off down the end of the aircraft.

    You have to admire their cheek but this will make a nonsense of BA’s new policy before it has even started.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    They didn’t invent the game,they’re just players!


    Peter
    Participant

    Had an interesting boarding at Honolulu on AA 772.

    Firstly there was a phalanx of wheelchairs with the SLLs (the Sick,the Lame and the Lazy) plus those with children (a red eye flight) of all ages and those with their “service” pets.

    By the time we boarded (AA Platinum) the pointy end was more than half full of pre-boards who had recovered markedly following their boarding.

    Same thing on the BA flight out of Atlanta earlier this week. Tight-head scrum had nothing on those waiting to board. Some genuine pre-boards but a lot of “feebles” travelling with their teenage children/grandchildren who boarded on mass with the blessing of the ever so bored gate staff. First boarded as a separate group, quite rightly, then a pause of about 10 minutes followed by a free for all rush.

    Roll on the suggestion earlier for blocking boarding acknowledgement of all passengers not specifically being called. An idea for BA would be to require those who want pre-boarding before 1st class, CW, BA Exec Club, to pay a surcharge per passenger on booking/check-in as well.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    Coincidentally, I’ve just sent this complaint to easyJet on the same matter. As a family we pay something like £600 per annum for the easyJet+ cards and this type of thing makes me question the value of it, on the other not having it would be even worse!

    My wife and I travelled on the above flight. The boarding process was a shambles with no preference given to PB or SB passengers.

    SB/PB passengers were given some sort of priority at the gate into the holding area, although it seemed that non-priority pax were being allowed in on the RH side at the same time as SB/PB on the LH. This clearly doesn’t work as once inside the holding area the queues mingled, with people pushing into the SB queue on the LH.

    When it came to board the aircraft, there was no secondary check to give priority to PB/SB onto the aircraft. We had seats 1E and 1F, and by the time we boarded, the lockers above rows 1-5 were full and had been closed, meaning that my wife’s bag had to be placed above row 6 or 7, and when I complained the Cabin Manager kindly moved someone else’s bag to make space for mine.

    I appreciate that it is hard to change the selfishness of human beings, but it should be up to the cabin crew to monitor that people do not place their baggage in front row overhead bins and then move to the back. This complicates and slows down boarding and disembarcation and ultimately everybody suffers.

    It is unfair on those who choose to pay for SB or easyJet+ that there is insufficient differentiation of the service level.


    PhilipHart
    Participant

    Or @DerekVH, one can very easily tear off and discard the baggage label between the gate and the aircraft door 🙂


    suffolkpunch
    Participant

    As a principle, I have no problem with boarding by group nos.

    But, it does not seem to be consistently applied.

    From LCY to GVA, only Club and Gold are priority or group one -whilst silver, bronze etc must join the general boarding and this is strictly enforced.

    But, from GVA to LCY/LHR they Board by the group structure that BA have quoted.

    Same planes.

    Different staff


    fatbear
    Participant

    Reading the BA inflight magazine on a flight 3 days ago, it said the boarding changes are to be implemented in December 2018. Don’t know if this is a misprint, but I saw no evidence on the new boarding procedures on my two flights over Christmas

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