Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[greenfish]

That's ridiculous.

Maybe some FA's are resisting the change, aren't aware ot ar not interested.:evil:

You do need to put in a complaint as the FA is supposed to stop boarding the standard queue and serve those in the priority queue as they arrive.

The FA needs a re-education on a direct level and if you don't put a complaint in, you are denying Qantas the opportunity to do so.

I guess my post on AFF is a tacit complaint. I deliberately posted sufficient detail to make Red Roo's job easy, if QF are interested in following up.

 

[Timba-Jet]

Just attempted to board my flight to BNE (20:05 ex Syd).

Wandered to the front of the priority queue (one guy in front of me) - stood there for a bit, and the FA checking in the general boarding line hollers out "There's only 1 Flight Attendant, guys" i.e. forget about priority boarding.

Agree with Serfy, this is simply unacceptable. Either Qantas havd done a poor job with staff training/rollout or you had a rogue/incompetent FA.

So many other airlines and non-airline can manage separate PB/VIP lines with 1 agent, even teenage staff at the cinemas can do this. Hope this is an exception not the norm at QF.

 

[pshepvic]

Agree with Serfy, this is simply unacceptable. Either Qantas havd done a poor job with staff training/rollout or you had a rogue/incompetent FA.

So many other airlines and non-airline can manage separate PB/VIP lines with 1 agent, even teenage staff at the cinemas can do this. Hope this is an exception not the norm at QF.

Exactly. Tell them to go down to the Virgin terminal and watch how it's done with one staff member on every single flight! (I know Liam said it was a mess yesterday but I've got to say that is very rare - I've seen PB work almost perfectly on every VA flight I've taken except for one since it was introduced - even in Adelaide with no lines they actually made a call in the lounge early enough to give us time to priority board first before the general call!)


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[skywalkerLAX]

I've only had a couple domestic flights in the past few weeks and the QF Boarding was a zoo every single time despite C-Ticket or OW Status. Priority Line, whats that? :evil:

Looking forward to my first DJ Flights starting the coming weekend. Maybe they get it together a tid better!!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Agree with Serfy, this is simply unacceptable. Either Qantas havd done a poor job with staff training/rollout or you had a rogue/incompetent FA.

So many other airlines and non-airline can manage separate PB/VIP lines with 1 agent, even teenage staff at the cinemas can do this. Hope this is an exception not the norm at QF.

In fairness to the F/A concerned, there's probably been no training on how to deal with boarding a 734 with only one F/A. If ground staff are told to do a boarding call telling WPs etc to use the dedicated boarding lane etc it can lead to ground rage like almost happened the other day in BNE so the sole F/A is left between a rock and a hard place.

Maybe a Duty Manager needs to be the other person on the gate otherwise if they send a 2nd F/A up that only leaves one F/A in the whY cabin to direct pax to their seats & thell them where to put hand luggage as the CSM is at the front door.

They need to sort something out because the boarding of a 734 (excluding to/from CBR) has become the proverbial elephant in the room.

 

[serfty]

...

They need to sort something out because the boarding of a 734 (excluding to/from CBR) has become the proverbial elephant in the room.

Many of us have seen how AA do their priority AAccess boarding with one agent.

They stop normal boarding, check your BP for your right to use the lane, scan your barcode and then resume processing those in the normal queue. (You are then free to join the queue in the airbridge. )

Maybe this FA is finding it a bit to non egalitarian or something.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Many of us have seen how AA do their priority AAccess boarding with one agent.

They stop normal boarding, check your BP for your right to use the lane, scan your barcode and then resume processing those in the normal queue. (You are then free to join the queue in the airbridge. )

Maybe this FA is finding it a bit to non egalitarian or something.

I'd say that's the case.

Picture the scenario with one F/A staring down the barrel at 2 queues. I think they would be apprehensive about having to ignore the general boarding queue, then boarding say 20 premium pax already in the PB line before starting on the other queue. I can see potential aggro happening in the general boarding queue with folk who don't 'get' the concept of Priority Boarding & feel that they should have equal rights to be boarded with everyone else.

 

[dfcatch]

I'd say that's the case.

Picture the scenario with one F/A staring down the barrel at 2 queues. I think they would be apprehensive about having to ignore the general boarding queue, then boarding say 20 premium pax already in the PB line before starting on the other queue. I can see potential aggro happening in the general boarding queue with folk who don't 'get' the concept of Priority Boarding & feel that they should have equal rights to be boarded with everyone else.

The sooner the FAs get with the program and follow PB to the letter - the sooner the general folk will "get it".

AA general folk "get it" because AA enforce PB to the letter (generally speaking).

That's why it works.

BTW - same reason why PB on QFi works perfectly as well

 

[Sprucegoose]

In fairness to the F/A concerned, there's probably been no training on how to deal with boarding a 734 with only one F/A. If ground staff are told to do a boarding call telling WPs etc to use the dedicated boarding lane etc it can lead to ground rage like almost happened the other day in BNE so the sole F/A is left between a rock and a hard place.

yes agree it will work anywhere else in the world a gun is used to enforce the law, but us civilised types need a bit of retraining!!

If management are behind it, it shall work. It will need to. The big Virgin switch is on!!!

 

[pshepvic]

I'd say that's the case.

Picture the scenario with one F/A staring down the barrel at 2 queues. I think they would be apprehensive about having to ignore the general boarding queue, then boarding say 20 premium pax already in the PB line before starting on the other queue. I can see potential aggro happening in the general boarding queue with folk who don't 'get' the concept of Priority Boarding & feel that they should have equal rights to be boarded with everyone else.

AA can do it with one agent. VA can do it with one agent. And I've never seen anyone get angry. Maybe a few rolled eyes, but so what really! Heck, even JQ can manage priority boarding!

I just don't see why QF can't just because there is only 1 person at a gate. It's a very poor excuse.

In fact on the subject of people getting angry, I would expect that more QF customers would be likely to have seen PB operate elsewhere, and if there was going to be an issue it would be more likely to be on carriers with less experienced travelers.

Maybe they should play "Up in the air" on loop in the terminal to educate people on how priority boarding works...or maybe show it to their staff too.


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[serfty]

...

Maybe they should play "Up in the air" on loop in the terminal to educate people on how priority boarding works...or maybe show it to their staff too....

There's nothing cheap about loyalty ...

 

[pshepvic]

There's nothing cheap about loyalty ...

Although some would say that even if not cheap, it should be easy!


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[Red Roo]

Hi all,

It’s great to hear that some of you have been able to enjoy access to our new domestic premium boarding lanes, now available in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Thanks for all your feedback - as you can appreciate, departure gate layouts vary across and within each port, so please bear with us as we continue to fine tune and bed down the new boarding procedure.

At this stage we are working through the right solution for our Boeing 737-400 aircraft and hope to have it in place as soon as possible. We apologise for any confusion this may have caused and I should have an update for you soon.

Cheers,
Red Roo

 

[reductionist]

Hi all,

It’s great to hear that some of you have been able to enjoy access to our new domestic premium boarding lanes, now available in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Thanks for all your feedback - as you can appreciate, departure gate layouts vary across and within each port, so please bear with us as we continue to fine tune and bed down the new boarding procedure.

At this stage we are working through the right solution for our Boeing 737-400 aircraft and hope to have it in place as soon as possible. We apologise for any confusion this may have caused and I should have an update for you soon.

Cheers,
Red Roo

Great, thanks for the update. Thumbs up.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi all,

It’s great to hear that some of you have been able to enjoy access to our new domestic premium boarding lanes, now available in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Thanks for all your feedback - as you can appreciate, departure gate layouts vary across and within each port, so please bear with us as we continue to fine tune and bed down the new boarding procedure.

At this stage we are working through the right solution for our Boeing 737-400 aircraft and hope to have it in place as soon as possible. We apologise for any confusion this may have caused and I should have an update for you soon.

Cheers,
Red Roo

to be honest red roo... there are probably a half dozen members on this site who have travelled extensively (serfty mentions AA priority access, others can describe how it is done on CX/KA) who could provide a workable solution in about 10 minutes. not only to this but to many other issues. sometimes it might be worth tapping into those resources

 

[JohnM]

Hi all,

It’s great to hear that some of you have been able to enjoy access to our new domestic premium boarding lanes, now available in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Thanks for all your feedback - as you can appreciate, departure gate layouts vary across and within each port, so please bear with us as we continue to fine tune and bed down the new boarding procedure.

At this stage we are working through the right solution for our Boeing 737-400 aircraft and hope to have it in place as soon as possible. We apologise for any confusion this may have caused and I should have an update for you soon.

Cheers,
Red Roo

With respect, Red Roo, when the gate attendant makes the mind-boggling comment that was made in PER on Monday last week that the PB lane wasn't being used because it was a single door aircraft (QF762 PER-MEL - a B767), YET TWO non-PB lanes were feeding into just that, it says to me that very little to zero training was undertaken with at least some staff - not to mention the absence of logic .

 

[aliens]

Personally I could not care less about PB. I prefer to get on to the plane at the latest I can so that I don't need to spend any extra time on a plane. I always get an aisle seat so no big deal. I like that QC call members late so we don't have to queue at the gate or the bridge (in theory).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Personally I could not care less about PB. I prefer to get on to the plane at the latest I can so that I don't need to spend any extra time on a plane. I always get an aisle seat so no big deal. I like that QC call members late so we don't have to queue at the gate or the bridge (in theory).

that's great... but there are those of us that want to ensure there is space for our carry on in the overhead locker. YMMV

we still want the option!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re boarding of the 734, AFAIK the brief the F/A's received when boarding a flight with one F/A is to rope off the Priority Boarding lane and just use the single general boarding lane.

Obviously there would need to be communication between the sole F/A boarding the flight & the gate agent doing the PA calls so they don't do the priority boarding lane spiel when there isn't one.

IMHO you really need two F/A's these days as if there is someone with an oversize bag too big for carry on they need to get ground staff to come & deal with it which sometimes involves making a phone call if they're not right at the gate (eg BNE Domestic terminal satellite gates 16-21) otherwise boarding will come to a screetching halt.

The reason for more people taking extra hand luggage to begin with is PS & QP members only being allowed one free bag to checkin which was effective 01 June 2011.

I know people have already said "DJ manage fine with one F/A", however do they also have a second pair of hands in the form of ground staff (hard to tell the diff as they all wear the same uniform) or is there only a sole DJ F/A at the gate with no assistance from ground staff?

 

[reductionist]

Re boarding of the 734, AFAIK the brief the F/A's received when boarding a flight with one F/A is to rope off the Priority Boarding lane and just use the single general boarding lane.

Wait, am I understanding this right?

The staff have been told not to open the priority boarding lane for QF flights on 737 aircraft?