Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[cmon0005]

Speaking of PB, slightly OT but kind of relevant, I do most of my flying with QF, however for work we have to fly VA due to company travel policy.
It makes me laugh everytime I fly with VA, being a no-status flyer on VA, I don't get PB, however almost every flight I've had at peak hour (5pm flight) the PB lane has 30+ waiting.
Meanwhile the normal lane has a handfull of people, yet the VA 'status' flyers stay in their long queue for fear of feeling non-premium if they go into the short and quicker queue.

 

[Fruitcake]

Speaking of PB, slightly OT but kind of relevant, I do most of my flying with QF, however for work we have to fly VA due to company travel policy.
It makes me laugh everytime I fly with VA, being a no-status flyer on VA, I don't get PB, however almost every flight I've had at peak hour (5pm flight) the PB lane has 30+ waiting.
Meanwhile the normal lane has a handfull of people, yet the VA 'status' flyers stay in their long queue for fear of feeling non-premium if they go into the short and quicker queue.

That's presumably only true if there's two agents working the gate. Which I have hardly ever seen. If there's only one agent, being at the front of the standard queue means you are at the back of the premium queue.

 

[cmon0005]

That's presumably only true if there's two agents working the gate. Which I have hardly ever seen. If there's only one agent, being at the front of the standard queue means you are at the back of the premium queue.

I've done 3 MEL-SYD returns in the last 4 weeks each flight has only had 1 agent scanning (except for 1 SYD-MEL sector where was 2), and they were doing it in this fashion:

Turn to PB scan 2 people, turn to standard queue scan 1 or 2, turn back to PB do another 2-3. There was no consistency in the number of each queue they scanned each time.

 

[RWJ777]

Speaking of PB, slightly OT but kind of relevant, I do most of my flying with QF, however for work we have to fly VA due to company travel policy.
It makes me laugh everytime I fly with VA, being a no-status flyer on VA, I don't get PB, however almost every flight I've had at peak hour (5pm flight) the PB lane has 30+ waiting.
Meanwhile the normal lane has a handfull of people, yet the VA 'status' flyers stay in their long queue for fear of feeling non-premium if they go into the short and quicker queue.

The analogous situation is the J / WP / SG queues at screening security; sometimes the status queue is much longer than the other queues and yet some people slavishly stick to it rather than joining the hoi polloi in the other queues. Silly.

 

[ashleyn]

The analogous situation is the J / WP / SG queues at screening security; sometimes the status queue is much longer than the other queues and yet some people slavishly stick to it rather than joining the hoi polloi in the other queues. Silly.

Most of the time in my experience

 

[ozmille]

The analogous situation is the J / WP / SG queues at screening security; sometimes the status queue is much longer than the other queues and yet some people slavishly stick to it rather than joining the hoi polloi in the other queues. Silly.

This is one of the reasons I have so many Express inwards cards, even last week from row 13 on an A380 the priority queue at immigration was quite long, I took the overseas passport holder queue and went straight to an immigration agent without queueing, each to their own I say

 

[Shane B]

I don't really get the point of domesic PB when you just get shuffled into the next single file on the aero bridge??

When I travel in J I usually board last as to not have the queue of people shuffling past me. I notice the Federal pollies always board last.

 

[ckck]

A few weeks back I was boarding one of QF A333's via the dual aero bridge, one bridge for J the other for the unwashed masses

Priority boarding was working a treat, there was none of that "priority having your boarding pass scanned" only to wait in queue on the bridge issue that one usually encounters.

The flight was from MEL-SYD.

 

[simongr]

I don't really get the point of domesic PB when you just get shuffled into the next single file on the aero bridge??

When I travel in J I usually board last as to not have the queue of people shuffling past me. I notice the Federal pollies always board last.

As has been reported many times part of the reason is to ensure access to the overhead bins.

Also I would rather sit on the aircraft rather than stand in a queue.

 

[sail0r]

worked fine last Saturday SYD-BNE

maybe fellow pax K Rudd had previously told them to get their sh#t together.

(worked for everyone but me, I got dorked as WLG had printed me out a J ticket on old stock and it had no bar code, so I had to get a new BP at the desk)

Loved the left hand seat on the 767, no company.

 

[Newk]

As has been reported many times part of the reason is to ensure access to the overhead bins.

Also I would rather sit on the aircraft rather than stand in a queue.

yes, yes, yes to both
And, as I've oft posted the need wouldn't be so pressing if there was greater enforcement of cabin baggage limits

 

[RWJ777]

And, as I've oft posted the need wouldn't be so pressing if there was greater enforcement of cabin baggage limits

But that would require QF FAs to do their job and enforce rules! I have seen people bring on three largish pieces of hand baggage; it's so unreasonable and selfish given that many pax don't restrict their storage to the space above their seats and think nothing of placing it in the bins above other pax' seats.

 

[gogo419]

The analogous situation is the J / WP / SG queues at screening security; sometimes the status queue is much longer than the other queues and yet some people slavishly stick to it rather than joining the hoi polloi in the other queues. Silly.

I thought I would be smart and do that in PER earlier this year... Big mistake!!! Had about 15 people in front of me in the status line whilst the no status line had 5.. The time it took for those 5 people to go through.. Atleast 20 status pax breezed past security, several of which gave me a nice smirk as they went through...


Gogo

 

[Berlin]

I thought I would be smart and do that in PER earlier this year... Big mistake!!! Had about 15 people in front of me in the status line whilst the no status line had 5.. The time it took for those 5 people to go through.. Atleast 20 status pax breezed past security, several of which gave me a nice smirk as they went through...

Yep- that was exactly my thought when I read the above. Yes, the non-status line might often be shorter but it's usually full of the kind of travelers who are usually on Deathstar and got a good deal on Qantas for a change.

In the status line, I'm actually always eager to learn from people who fly even more often than myself: Some of those are amazingly agile when it comes to taking the laptop out etc., I learned quite a few tricks over the years

 

[richie9x]

The analogous situation is the J / WP / SG queues at screening security; sometimes the status queue is much longer than the other queues and yet some people slavishly stick to it rather than joining the hoi polloi in the other queues. Silly.

Even though it may be the case that the premium security line is longer, often the premium queue will move faster as it is filled with frequent flyers who are familiar with the routine. Quite often in the normal lanes you get one off passengers who need to be re-screened because they set off the metal detector, large families that have trouble herding all their kids or people who think it is the US and start taking off shoes, belts and jackets.

It is largely a judgement call based on the circumstances. But sometimes I will go in the premium lane even if it is longer.

 

[11sjw]

I don't really get the point of domesic PB when you just get shuffled into the next single file on the aero bridge??

So I can walk right through in the PB lane with no one in front of me or go to the rear of the other queue and be behind 50 people. You don't get why i would use PB? Generally it is so I can grab some overhead storage directly above my seat, PB aids in this.

 

[QF WP]

PB worked yesterday morning on QF605 BNE/MEL....but given the hour (5.55am), most people just wanted to get on board and go back to sleep. There was a lot of unused breakfasts left in the trolleys . I will admit that the Greek Yogurt with Boysenberry was delicious...I was temped to ask for more

 

[simongr]

Ok I know this:

But I emailed QF last week on this as I am a bit over it and my wife flying in J with the boy got nothing even resembling PB. Text of the email below:
_________________________________________
Hi

Membership number 1234567

I am quite a passionate advocate of premium boarding and see it as a real benefit of being a Platinum member or flying in Business class. This is done exceptionally well on international flights but quite inconsistent and poorly on domestic flights.

Therefore I was very disappointed with the delivery for both my flight last Thursday from SYD to MEL on QF411 on a 738 and my wife’s flight SYD to MEL on QF431 on a 763. On my flight there was just a general melee at the gate with no effort to police the Premium boarding lane. Similarly I asked my wife if Premium Boarding worked on her flight. One of the reasons I upgraded her and my son (3 ½) to Business for such a short flight was to avail benefits like Premium Boarding the reduce the stress of flying for an infrequent flyer. Sadly she did not experience Premium Boarding at all.

As I said the ability to board the aircraft when I want without queuing and allow me to get to my seat and find overhead bins space is a real tangible benefit of status or class of service and it is disappointing that it is so inconsistent. I find that generally in SYD Premium Boarding works – obviously not last week but it did today from gate 17 (which I wasn’t expecting as these tend to be regional gates). In MEL it more often doesn’t work than works and on my limited trips to BNE it hasn’t worked either.

I would really like to understand why it seems so difficult for Qantas to get this to work when it seems to work every time at Virgin. Each time I walk past the queue to the gate there is some hesitation and anticipation as to whether I am going to be punted back to the back of the line due to the inability or unwillingness of the crew to operate Premium Boarding.

Any explanation you could provide on this would be much appreciated.

Regards

simongr
_________________________

I had a voicemail on Friday (only came through today - stupid Vodafone) from QF saying that their exec team (I assume this is a team that deals with this sort of stuff and and a member of their leadership team) were investigating and one of them would call me back.

I appreciate the position Red Roo is under here - only being able to report what he is told and not being able to influence the outcome - hence the email direct. I am also wondering if the P1 status might influence the amount of investigation done.

I will report back if I hear anything...

 

[drewbles]

This is one of the reasons I have so many Express inwards cards, even last week from row 13 on an A380 the priority queue at immigration was quite long, I took the overseas passport holder queue and went straight to an immigration agent without queueing, each to their own I say

Likewise. Especially in MEL where Express Cards are currently useless due to re-modelling. They have removed the express exits to landside and I always use smartgate. I think i'm up to around 15 QF Express cards, and 4-5 VA ones. Good thing they have no expiry (I stockpile them for when/if they re-open the Express exits or to give to others who travel less and may get stuck in the non e-passport queues to help the situation).

 

[TonyHancock]

I will report back if I hear anything...

I hope you get further than me. I received a couple of calls and a space available domestic upgrade, after previously receiving a voucher. I wanted neither. I just want QF to deliver the published benefit. If it can't be done then withdraw it as a benefit. I have already diverted 90% of my domestic business to DJ.

It's not as if I want QF to fail. I really want them to be successful. QF can deliver excellent service and I really enjoy it and benefit when they do.