On QF613 the other day BNE-MEL I arrived from the lounge after boarding had commenced. The signs were there, but at first glance the two lines seemed almost to merge into one. Eventually got myself into the (much shorter) priority line, but there were some people in front of me who I was fairly sure should not have been there (they had a separate issue which meant they had to go off and have something else done anyway). But it was definitely far more sparsely populated than the general line.
Notwithstanding that it did not take me long to get my BP scanned, two things stand out for me:
1) The signage is not clear/prominent enough. There is a very large 'Premium' sign on the RHS which spells things out OK, but it faces sideways and people jumping into a queue, if slightly back from this sign, cannot read it until almost adjacent to it (I did not hear the announcement). Then there is a much smaller sign facing 'forwards' which says 'regular' (or something similar) with a small arrow pointing left, and priority (or premium) with an arrow pointing right. IMHO this is too small and placed at a point where people who have been lined up in the 'wrong' queue for some time are not going to remove themselves and re-queue in the correct line upon reading it.
2) To reinforce it, QF needs to reject people if they are in the wrong queue. I know this slows down boarding (and makes people irate, but hey, they need to get used to it
) and they are keen to get away on time, but as per the old saying, once you shoot a few, the rest will get the general idea. I think QF should make a conscious and concerted effort for a while to reject people in the wrong line (I don't mean bar them from boarding, just send them to the correct line) - this should have a positive impact on ensuring people take notice of which boarding line is the one for them. Short term pain for long term gain. They may already be doing this but I have not noticed it.
If 2) was done, then 1) may be sufficient as far as signage goes, but the signs are the front line as far as this process goes. Not everyone pays too much attention to, or is at the gate for, the announcement, and then it becomes a follow the leader situation, and the gate staff seem reluctant to 'reject' people in the incorrect queue.
It is working to a degree, but IMHO needs some tuning.
(I had been rerouted from SIN via BNE due to QF10 running very late a few days). The 3 pax I saw sent off to somewhere else because of a BP irregularity (not sure exactly what) were what looked like grandma, daughter and grandson (with daughter doing the talking). They certainly ended up on the flight as I saw one of them at the other end. I don't know that they should not have been in that line, but it seemed that way. I wasn't taking a lot of notice, but it seemed to me this group was one BP short.
