Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[CaviAck]

QF priority boarding in Cairns this week worked perfectly. From memory, it always has. Despite there being a long queue, nobody seemed to jump into the PB lane.

Kudos to the passengers. The lanes were clearly signed as well.

You sure you're not talking about VA here?

That being said it was a shambles when it first started in CNS. Roping, signage and what not was a mess. That reminds me my last QF departure from CNS was a joke as well, had the ropes up but the signage was off and no announcement.

It would also seem that pax out of CNS aren't usually the status holding kind so the premium boarding line is usually empty anyway that or a lot of them stay in the lounge till the last minute or as long as possible. The FAs man the non-premium side of the desk and so everyone just lines up in the one line leaving the premium side empty.

 

[straitman]

The day that Qantas get some consistency in their methods and signage will be the day that PB becomes anything better than hit and miss with them.

 

[Danger]

Well look what I found lost in Canberra this morning:

 

[kermatu]

Well look what I found lost in Canberra this morning:

Hilarious. Of course the other pax have already boarded through the same lane, and kindly shut the door behind them.

 

[QF WP]

At which Gate was it hiding? Having said that, 70% of pax flying ex-CBR are probably CL, P1, Plat or Gold. Probably would be easier to have signage "if you are Silver, Bronze or have no OW status, please queue here"

 

[BVT]

At CBR very recently, there was a call for all J passengers, CL, P1 And WP passengers to board first!

I thought I was dreaming!! The aircraft was a 717 and with a weekend light load.

Boarding (for me) worked like a dream.

 

[Danger]

At which Gate was it hiding?

About gate seven or eight. I think it was the first gate as you turn right on leaving the lounge. As far as I can tell it's the only gate that has a sign.

Having said that, 70% of pax flying ex-CBR are probably CL, P1, Plat or Gold. Probably would be easier to have signage "if you are Silver, Bronze or have no OW status, please queue here"

I would argue that that's irrelevant. It's a published benefit.

 

[RichardMEL]

So the other day at SYD Gate 8 (domestic) was a major fail for QF.

Flight 862 SYD-OOL as you can imagine school holidays so packed to the gills - lots of kids at the gate and what appeared to be a tour group from a north asian locale. Anyway when I rocked up at the gate slightly prior to boarding time there was a mass of people, mostly the group but some kids also, in the priority line area.

Boarding was called, so they all just shuffled forward and were handled by the agent. this led to the rather ironic and amusing situation where the PB was full of clearly non status folks (a few BP's I saw had zero FF information on them) and an *empty* Y line with a bemused waiting F/A at the reader.

To be fair, it appeared to be a bunch of tourists mostly. to be unfair, there was no handling at all by QF.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Worked like a dream in Sydney yesterday. Left the lounge when flight was called and arrived at the gate to find a long line being processed and priority boarding empty. Walked to the top, handed boarding passes to agent and straight through. This was QF1517 to CBR. I actually congratulated the lass who processed my boarding pass on it working so well, but she looked pretty sour at the comment, so maybe I phrased it badly....

 

[drron]

AA have taken lessons from QF.At both ORD and MCO it was 1 line only so if you arrive at the gate after boarding has started it is line up with everyone already called.

 

[Aeolus]

My turn to rant. Had a flight from SYD recently boarding at Gate 3. Long queues, I went and queued at the left line (thought there were clearly 2 lines) only to have a woman behind me complaining to her partner on top of her voice that I jumped queue and she should just tell me off and so on, hoping that the whole world could hear, including me of course. I even took the trouble to look at her NB boarding pass to ensure I'm at the right queue. Anyway, she carried on for a while but didn't have the guts to approach me directly (kind of wished she did). I was already quite upset over the situation but made worse when I noticed there's only 1 crew letting the non-priority pax through and only allowing 1 priority pax in every 3 while the ground crew was just sitting at the desk not doing anything. Understand that there were only 4 FAs on that flight and as a result they could only afford one for check-in duties but why can't the ground crew assist? Heard VA got this system to work, maybe it's time to try out VA rather than ending up getting high blood pressure from this farce.

 

[TonyHancock]

Heard VA got this system to work, maybe it's time to try out VA rather than ending up getting high blood pressure from this farce.

That is the route I chose. With Platinum FF's able to select the first row of economy and priority boarding it makes sense for me to stick with VA for my domestic travels.

When I have to fly QF domestically, primarily for international connections, I just work on the premise that there will be no priority boarding and get to the gate nice and early to get to the front of the queue.

 

[kermatu]

Two pretty simple things to get right - boarding and seat selection. If this is causing people to choose a competitor, boy I hope QF is paying attention to this and gets it fixed.

I'll add shadows to the list. Frustrating as hell to see a row 4 (in a 737 for example) shadow taken by a NB when there are empty seats behind.

 

[Groundhog]

Sad story yesterday out of Syd. PB not really working here



I used the economy line and beat all the other PB PAX in.

 

[TonyHancock]

Interesting at MEL this morning QF staff encouraging pax in the regular queue to use the PB lane. (Presumably to try to speed boarding up.)

 

[boomy]

Interesting at MEL this morning QF staff encouraging pax in the regular queue to use the PB lane. (Presumably to try to speed boarding up.)

On my flights most pax don't need any encouragement, they will proactively use the PB lane every time (to help speed up boarding off course ).

 

[RooFlyer]

SYD to HBA this morning. I count 30 people in the PB lane when the status is still ' go to gate' when I arrive at the gate. 2 in the ordinary lane. Join that one and, as usual this non priority queue starts boarding first, as the 'priority' lane person is making the boarding announcement

 

[Kefci2000]

Sad story yesterday out of Syd. PB not really working here

View attachment 58703
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I used the economy line and beat all the other PB PAX in.

Bahhhhhh

I am platinum so I only use the platinum queue

 

[TomVexille]

ADL yesterday. Absolute shambles

 

[opusman]

were kicking people out of the priority line

Really? That's a new development if so, I've never seen or heard of them actually enforcing the priority line like that.

MEL-BNE on Friday arvo for me was a shambles, 50/50 in both queues and the bogans in front of me were actually joking with their friends in the normal queue next to them about how they were special because they were in the business queue. Of course the hostie doing the boarding just smiled at them sweetly and sent them on their way.