Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[medhead]

QF759 Gate 13, today. Gates 12 and 13 were boarding at the same time. Walked around the throng to the end of the premium line. Then had the joy of hearing the people in front discussing how they were in the wrong lane with their friends in the normal lane. Their friend offered to let them in, they just replied we're here now what will they do send us to the back?

Get to the scanner, the pax said something about the wrong lane. The gate agent said "Get to the back of the line". Then the three of them burst out laughing and the pax go onto the aircraft.

At my turn I just said "It wasn't that funny" and hand over my platinum card.

The attitude is a disgrace. no wonder this is a constant failure when the staff go out of their way to undermine the whole idea.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

QF759 Gate 13, today. Gates 12 and 13 where boarding at the same time. Walked around the throng to the end of the premium line. Then had the joy of hearing the people in front discussing how they were in the wrong lane with their friends in the normal lane. Their friend offered to let them in, they just replied we're here now what will they do send us to the back?

Get to the scanner, the pax said something about the wrong lane. The gate agent said "Get to the back of the line". Then the three of them burst out laughing and the pax go onto the aircraft.

At my turn I just said "It wasn't that funny" and hand over my platinum card.

The attitude is a disgrace. no wonder this is a constant failure when the staff go out of their way to undermine the whole idea.

Atrocious. I do hope RedRoo still reads this thread despite the airline basically giving up on PB.

 

[opusman]

The attitude is a disgrace. no wonder this is a constant failure when the staff go out of their way to undermine the whole idea.

I've heard almost exactly the same conversations, it must happen all the time.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

As I have mentioned before, the ideals of PB for QF P1/WP/SG/CL is a good idea, but with the layout of a lot of gates at Aust dom airports, its beyond a joke, when you get to see what has happened as Medhead mentioned.
Even if your BP has been scanned at the gate, other than you causing a fuss and AFP being called (with you screaming your PB rights), its best to just merge with the plebs after BP scanning, let the wannabees get their PB.
There are some gates which the larger 330s use at MEL/SYD dom that are good for PB, but for the 737s, PB is of no use at all.

 

[Quickstatus]

Boarding an aircraft should be in zones, just like in the US.

For Dom: (Disabled, families) (CL/P1, J, WP ,SG) (Zone 1) (Zone 2) (etc)

That way PB occurs but if PB eligibles arrive at gate when zone boarding occurs then queue up like the plebs. A few minutes with the unwashed wont cause any diseases as far as Im aware .

As Ive said before there are 2 queues when boarding - before BP scanning and after BP scanning. Zone boarding for PBoarders will eliminate both.

In the end its just a few minutes. The only real benefit of PB is to maximise chances of overhead locker space.

Overwhelming agree that QF should fix this one way or another.

 

[opusman]

That way PB occurs but if PB eligibles arrive at gate when zone boarding occurs then queue up like the plebs.

That's not necessarily what happens; on at least some airlines you will get priority over the plebs at any stage of the boarding process. If there's one person doing boarding they will stop processing the pleb line to let you board immediately.

 

[tm.smile]

QF548 syd to bne last night from gate 8. Boarding was called and a large line formed on the right (general boarding) with maybe 10-20 in the priority line on the left. Two staff on working each of the lines and a third behind the desk. An FA was manning the priority line. I wasn't paying too much attention at the time but I believe boarding began with boarding of both lines sinultaneously. Whilst not perfect, I did get on quickly.

 

[Quickstatus]

QF548 syd to bne last night from gate 8. Boarding was called and a large line formed on the right (general boarding) with maybe 10-20 in the priority line on the left. Two staff on working each of the lines and a third behind the desk. An FA was manning the priority line. I wasn't paying too much attention at the time but I believe boarding began with boarding of both lines sinultaneously. Whilst not perfect, I did get on quickly.

It really comes down to the CSM getting the FA into action. Though maybe they are busy with other tasks that they cant spare a second FA?. Maybe have a roving gate agent?


There is a possibly benefit to boarding last if you have status (though it relies on star alignment). See JohnK's post in the Operational Upgrade thread.

 

[medhead]

As I have mentioned before, the ideals of PB for QF P1/WP/SG/CL is a good idea, but with the layout of a lot of gates at Aust dom airports, its beyond a joke, when you get to see what has happened as Medhead mentioned.
Even if your BP has been scanned at the gate, other than you causing a fuss and AFP being called (with you screaming your PB rights), its best to just merge with the plebs after BP scanning, let the wannabees get their PB.
There are some gates which the larger 330s use at MEL/SYD dom that are good for PB, but for the 737s, PB is of no use at all.

Yet, VA have the same gate arrangements and I honestly believe they've failed with PB once in my approx 150 flights with them when eligible for PB.

I don't believe anyone is making a suggest to do anything other than join the line after the scanner. I'm as militant as the next person about people pushing down the aerobridge. I thought that as far as the airline is concerned you've boarded the flight when you get scanned at the gate, at least according to the computer. I'm happy to getting premium boarding upto that point.

 

[Pleb Status]

QF759 Gate 13, today. Gates 12 and 13 were boarding at the same time. Walked around the throng to the end of the premium line. Then had the joy of hearing the people in front discussing how they were in the wrong lane with their friends in the normal lane. Their friend offered to let them in, they just replied we're here now what will they do send us to the back?

Get to the scanner, the pax said something about the wrong lane. The gate agent said "Get to the back of the line". Then the three of them burst out laughing and the pax go onto the aircraft.

At my turn I just said "It wasn't that funny" and hand over my platinum card.

The attitude is a disgrace. no wonder this is a constant failure when the staff go out of their way to undermine the whole idea.

I think this story summarises the state of QF PB at this time. We all know that enforcement has been non existent for years now and any attempt to rectify the situation at this stage is pointless.

It is so broken, I think the only way forward is to remove dom PB completely for say 6-12 months and then introduce it again (with new branding and better implementation) at the start of 2017 with strict enforcement from day one.

 

[Quickstatus]

Report back from an ex QF CSM:

FA are responsible for manning the doors during enplaning and something about not being able to move a certain distance from doors during boarding process.
Usually only one FA released for boarding duties as Door 1L is opened.

Some sectors there may be more than one FA for boarding process.

Sometimes a ground agent helps out.

She mentioned that some flights, over half the passengers on an Dom 737 have status Gold or higher. Not unusual to see 10CL 20P1 20-30P and more SG . She has been on flights where over 90% of pax are plat or higher especially on the weekday SYDMEL MELSYD flights

The FA view is that a focus on priority rather than efficient boarding slows the boarding process.

 

[PaulST]

Report back from an ex QF CSM:

FA are responsible for manning the doors during enplaning and something about not being able to move a certain distance from doors during boarding process.
Usually only one FA released for boarding duties as Door 1L is opened.

Some sectors there may be more than one FA for boarding process.

Sometimes a ground agent helps out.

She mentioned that some flights, over half the passengers on an Dom 737 have status Gold or higher. Not unusual to see 10CL 20P1 20-30P and more SG . She has been on flights where over 90% of pax are plat or higher especially on the weekday SYDMEL MELSYD flights

The FA view is that a focus on priority rather than efficient boarding slows the boarding process.

Struth! Having said that, I usually glance around at boarding passes on pax around me in the premium queue and see a lot of bronzes.

I suspect the whole problem is that there's so much pressure to get pax on board that they just don't have time to care, which is still no excuse when they advertise the benefit...

 

[Quickstatus]

Struth! Having said that, I usually glance around at boarding passes on pax around me in the premium queue and see a lot of bronzes.

I suspect the whole problem is that there's so much pressure to get pax on board that they just don't have time to care, which is still no excuse when they advertise the benefit...

Ex CSM says On time performance trumps priority boarding considerations. On the international wide body flights with 2 or more aerobridges it is easier to enforce

 

[medhead]

Report back from an ex QF CSM:

FA are responsible for manning the doors during enplaning and something about not being able to move a certain distance from doors during boarding process.
Usually only one FA released for boarding duties as Door 1L is opened.

Some sectors there may be more than one FA for boarding process.

Sometimes a ground agent helps out.

She mentioned that some flights, over half the passengers on an Dom 737 have status Gold or higher. Not unusual to see 10CL 20P1 20-30P and more SG . She has been on flights where over 90% of pax are plat or higher especially on the weekday SYDMEL MELSYD flights

The FA view is that a focus on priority rather than efficient boarding slows the boarding process.

The ex-QF CSM seems to making up excuses. With 1 FA doing boarding there is no efficiency reduction by enforcement of PB. They can only process 1 pax at a time and it makes no difference which line that pax is in. Even with 2 FAs doing the processing there is no loss of efficiency if they double process pax in the PB line first. This sort of hazy thinking explains why Qantas staff constantly fail to provide the promised level of service.

Having said all that, I'm pretty sure in my most recent experience it was a gate agent doing the processing. They were not seen on board the aircraft.

 

[Quickstatus]

The ex-QF CSM seems to making up excuses. With 1 FA doing boarding there is no efficiency reduction by enforcement of PB. They can only process 1 pax at a time and it makes no difference which line that pax is in. Even with 2 FAs doing the processing there is no loss of efficiency if they double process pax in the PB line first. This sort of hazy thinking explains why Qantas staff constantly fail to provide the promised level of service.

Truth in what you are saying. However exQFCSM says that when PB lane gets scanned first before any on Gen lane, Pax often migrate to from G to shorter PB lane anyway and then it gets messy so most don't bother and it becomes FCFServed. She suggests that the only way is to have a ground agent at the start of the PB lane enforcing entry into the lane. Thats extra staff. Oh wait they were laid off in the transformation.....

 

[medhead]

Truth in what you are saying. However exQFCSM says that when PB lane gets scanned first before any on Gen lane, Pax often migrate to from G to shorter PB lane anyway and then it gets messy so most don't bother and it becomes FCFServed. She suggests that the only way is to have a ground agent at the start of the PB lane enforcing entry into the lane. Thats extra staff. Oh wait they were laid off in the transformation.....

Sure that is likely to happen. But it is also likely to only be until the pax learn. As in my case on friday, they knew they were in the wrong lane, but they also knew they won't be kicked to the back of the line. If they were actually kicked to the back then they wouldn't do it again next time.

VA can manage to do this without anyone screening the lines. They have clear announcements, they enforce and pax know the system. By comparison Qantas is a messy failure.

 

[eastwest101]

Ex CSM says On time performance trumps priority boarding considerations. On the international wide body flights with 2 or more aerobridges it is easier to enforce

I suspect this is likely to be the case, its a simple tale of Qantas selling one thing (Priority Boarding) while motivating their staff to do something different (on-time performance), while I agree with medhead that this is a bit of a furphy when you look into the mechanics or do a time and motion study on boarding single aisle aircraft, there remains another competitor whom with almost the exact same aircraft manages to execute priority boarding abut 98% of the time.

I would ask the people whom say that on-time performace trumps priority boarding about what other company policies and procedures trump priority boarding in Qantas? Do they depart without doing the correct paperwork? Do they consider weight and balance of the aircraft? Do they ensure the catering is on board? Do they do their headcount and pax checks correctly? Do they take the wheel chocks out early? Is the aircraft cleaned? Do they check and account for all luggage equipment and hatches? You can bet that there would be disclipinary consequences for omitting some of the other things - so I would bet London to a brick that no-one has ever been questioned about the implementation of priority boarding in Qantas. I can only assume that since Virgin are able to execute priority boarding as per their procedure means that someone is held acountable for priority boarding at VA.

They should just stop advertising the benefit in my opinion - its clear that their ground and air crew can't/won't deliver it.

 

[Quickstatus]

I suspect this is likely to be the case, its a simple tale of Qantas selling one thing (Priority Boarding) while motivating their staff to do something different (on-time performance), while I agree with medhead that this is a bit of a furphy when you look into the mechanics or do a time and motion study on boarding single aisle aircraft, there remains another competitor whom with almost the exact same aircraft manages to execute priority boarding abut 98% of the time.

I would ask the people whom say that on-time performace trumps priority boarding about what other company policies and procedures trump priority boarding in Qantas? Do they depart without doing the correct paperwork? Do they consider weight and balance of the aircraft? Do they ensure the catering is on board? Do they do their headcount and pax checks correctly? Do they take the wheel chocks out early? Is the aircraft cleaned? Do they check and account for all luggage equipment and hatches? You can bet that there would be disclipinary consequences for omitting some of the other things - so I would bet London to a brick that no-one has ever been questioned about the implementation of priority boarding in Qantas. I can only assume that since Virgin are able to execute priority boarding as per their procedure means that someone is held acountable for priority boarding at VA.

They should just stop advertising the benefit in my opinion - its clear that their ground and air rew can't/won't deliver it.

Perhaps not enough passengers complain about it?. "Squeaky wheel gets the most grease" Qantas changed their lounge dress code presumably enough passengers complained enough..

 

[eastwest101]

Perhaps not enough passengers complain about it?. "Squeaky wheel gets the most grease" Qantas changed their lounge dress code presumably enough passengers complained enough..

Possibly - I'm not entitled to it very often and don't get too upset about it myself, but its the principle that an airline can promise one thing and then fail to deliver it that bug me a little. There's also the thin end of the wedge argument - if Qantas thinks it can get away with not providing its own advertised and published benefits to its highest spending customers then what is next?

Say QF advertised that all its WP members would say get a free drink on a flight, or be allowed more checked luggage or say they promised that their WP customers get access to Business Class check-in counters. If they only delivered the advertised benefit less than 50% of the time then every man and his dog would be on here/social media and twitter with "epic fail" comments. So why is it acceptable to advertise and then not implement priority boarding?

The problem now is almost intractable - there need to be real consequences for passengers failing to board in the correct line, and there need to be consequences for QF staff who dont enforce correct boarding procedures.

 

[medhead]

The thing that got me most was this is the first time that I've seen Qantas staff overtly failing at PB. I don't normal get upset about lack of PB because most staff routinely pretend it doesn't exist. But to openly acknowledge PB and do nothing is just another step again.