Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[Oneworldplus2]

Last night, PER-SYD red eye. Not working.

 

[tm.smile]

Rest of my status run:

21/4 DRW-BNE QF825
No priority boarding to be seen

21/4 BNE-TSV QF978
Priority boarding worked well, priority on right, others to left

22/4 TSV-BNE QF975
No priority boarding

22/4 BNE-SYD QF553
Priority boarding on right, others on left, worked well

 

[GCC]

MEL - SYD this morning worked like a dream onto 767. SYD - MEL yesterday morning onto 737 seemed fine but by the time I got from the lounge to the gate priority boarding was a bit redundant as most people had already boarded. That has generally been my experience in SYD.

 

[nlagalle]

Just got off QF445 SYD-MEL worked a charm in SYD.

 

[wafliron]

Just got off QF445 SYD-MEL worked a charm in SYD.

I just got off QF445 too Where were you sitting?

Agree it did work well in SYD. I thought the announcements were much clearer and more detailed than normal too - several people in front of me in the priorty queue actually exited it and swapped to the regular queue after the announcement was made. There were still pax in the priority lane that shouldn't be there though - person two in front of me was SG and person directly in front of me had no status.

 

[nlagalle]

I just got off QF445 too Where were you sitting?

Agree it did work well in SYD. I thought the announcements were much clearer and more detailed than normal too - several people in front of me in the priorty queue actually exited it and swapped to the regular queue after the announcement was made. There were still pax in the priority lane that shouldn't be there though - person two in front of me was SG and person directly in front of me had no status.

27J (or may have been 29J).

As I walked from the J lounge I didn't hear any announcements.

 

[Stephen65]

I did flights last week from MEL, BNE and PER and it worked well every time. The barriers and the red carpet were set up correctly and at least two announcements were made explaining what to do.

 

[wafliron]

27J (or may have been 29J).

Righto. I was JASA'ing it up in 4E.

 

[Blackadder]

28/4 QF 431 SYD-MEL, No priority boarding...

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Indeed I got myself into a little "trouble" by using the lift relatively early for QF93 and was eventually dispatched back, via the lift, for the extra security.

Hmm I have to ask, what extra security is this? I did QF93 a couple of months ago, and there didn't seem to be any extra screening at the gate... I left the United lounge (Priority Pass at the time), then went to the gate on the same level as the lounge, but was directed upstairs to the main level. At the entrance to the gate area, there was one member of contracted security staff standing there checking boarding passes (but not passports), and letting everyone through. There were about 5 security staff sitting down and doing absolutely nothing not too far away from here, though there didn't seem to be any tables set up for manual bag inspections, and I didn't see anyone getting a pat down at any stage of the boarding process... has this changed in the last couple of months, or was I (and my entire flight) just lucky that day? The only extra security I observed were security staff standing in the aerobridges doing nothing.

Anyway, back to PB!

13/4 BNE-AKL: Arrived at an empty gate after the boarding call was made in the lounge, though there were the usual 2 lanes set up, with staff manning both scanners

14/4 AKL-BNE: The gate agent called for those requiring special assistance, as well as WP/OWE over the PA, before calling for economy. She then said to those standing around (ie. not over the PA) "any Business passengers?" and invited them to use the marked lane... she wouldn't have needed to do that if she'd included the J call in with the WP/OWE call!

18/4 BNE-ADL: Worked a treat, with staff manning both scanners

18/4 ADL-PER: The airport was busy so the A/C was parked at a VA gate. The agent said they would "soon be calling for WP/OWE/J to board.... then they failed to do so, and instead called the back rows of economy to board, followed by the "can board now or at their leisure" line for premium pax. This was essentially useless, as everybody had already swamped the gate before the agent had a chance to finish the call.

18/4 PER-BNE: Two signed lanes, however the lane ropes ended a little before the scanners, and the main line had taken on a V shape to both scanners... at least 15 people from the main line went through the priority scanner before I finally got fed up and pushed through.

30/4 BNE-ADL: Signs for both lanes, which the queue observed (main line on the left, priority on the right). There was only one person scanning BPs, located on the left. She saw me standing in the priority line, yet she kept scanning Y BPs (again, about 10), before someone in the main line felt sorry for me and invited me to be scanned in front of them (which was totally unexpected, as they had no doubt been waiting much longer - so I thanked them!)... the staff member was then puzzled by my BP, as they had moved me from my pre-selected seat after online check-in, so there was a new BP waiting for me at the gate - though I had already received a new BP in the lounge with the new assignment (1D to 1C on a 734 - not impressed as there was much less legroom due to no cut-out in the bulkhead)... she eventually scanned me through.

30/4 ADL-BNE: This time the A/C was departing from the QF end. There was no PB signage to be seen, and the only boarding announcement made was "Welcome to Qantas flight ***. Boarding has now commenced through gate **"

How freaking hard is it to have premium pax processed in one line, and other pax processed in another??? It's not rocket science!!! I had to chuckle at the PB line for QF94 on 21/3 though on departing LAX... the line had at least 150 people in it, and it was only opened a couple of minutes before the main boarding queue. As 79B (A380), I was in the first group of Y pax called for boarding, and was about the 10th through (was only PS at the time) - seems like I got the real priority treatment on this occasion haha

 

[medhead]

18/4 ADL-PER: The airport was busy so the A/C was parked at a VA gate. The agent said they would "soon be calling for WP/OWE/J to board.... then they failed to do so, and instead called the back rows of economy to board, followed by the "can board now or at their leisure" line for premium pax. This was essentially useless, as everybody had already swamped the gate before the agent had a chance to finish the call.


30/4 ADL-BNE: This time the A/C was departing from the QF end. There was no PB signage to be seen, and the only boarding announcement made was "Welcome to Qantas flight ***. Boarding has now commenced through gate **"

How freaking hard is it to have premium pax processed in one line, and other pax processed in another??? It's not rocket science!!! I had to chuckle at the PB line for QF94 on 21/3 though on departing LAX... the line had at least 150 people in it, and it was only opened a couple of minutes before the main boarding queue. As 79B (A380), I was in the first group of Y pax called for boarding, and was about the 10th through (was only PS at the time) - seems like I got the real priority treatment on this occasion haha

Someone else has experienced my weekly hell in ADL. At 6am they often don't even make an announcement. Just walk up the ramp, get to the top and say "let's go". It is a complete joke.

Edit: just fired myself up to send in feedback.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Someone else has experienced my weekly hell in ADL. At 6am they often don't even make an announcement. Just walk up the ramp, get to the top and say "let's go". It is a complete joke.

I truly feel sorry for you!! I get very easily irritated by long lines, so if I had to put up with this every single week, it would make me seriously consider switching back to VA as my preferred carrier (particularly if this happened often on full 767 flights)!

 

[medhead]

I truly feel sorry for you!! I get very easily irritated by long lines, so if I had to put up with this every single week, it would make me seriously consider switching back to VA as my preferred carrier (particularly if this happened often on full 767 flights)!

Pretty much the plan, just got to get through my next 6 departures. Booked out July with VA yesterday. I was especially annoyed this week as they started boarding 10 minutes early when there was a 10 minute ATC delay into Sydney. This type of delay is so regular that it is a surprise when it doesn't happen.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Pretty much the plan, just got to get through my next 6 departures. Booked out July with VA yesterday. I was especially annoyed this week as they started boarding 10 minutes early when there was a 10 minute ATC delay into Sydney. This type of delay is so regular that it is a surprise when it doesn't happen.

Flights can still pushback 5 minutes 'early' so if your original departure time was 0700 which is put back to 0713 the a/c can pushback at 0708. If the crew are ready to go quite often the CSM will send them up early to get the show on the road so if you have fail to board pax there's more time to track them down (read get them out of the lounge) so the flight doesn't incur any further delays.

You can generally tell ATC delays when the amended departure times are not rounded off to the nearest 5 minutes as airlines are not that pedantic so if your flights has an amended departure time 0713 the boarding time on the boarding pass will say "0653".

 

[medhead]

Flights can still pushback 5 minutes 'early' so if your original departure time was 0700 which is put back to 0713 the a/c can pushback at 0708. If the crew are ready to go quite often the CSM will send them up early to get the show on the road so if you have fail to board pax there's more time to track them down (read get them out of the lounge) so the flight doesn't incur any further delays.

You can generally tell ATC delays when the amended departure times are not rounded off to the nearest 5 minutes as airlines are not that pedantic so if your flights has an amended departure time 0713 the boarding time on the boarding pass will say "0653".

Cheers OBB. This was a 610 delay time, I wandered down to the gate at 533 and boarding was well under way. Anyway, they blamed ATC for the delay, normal on Monday morning IME. As you say the delay is usual an odd number of minutes.

Of course, we also then had a DG issue with the nice old lady in the seat in front of me. Hope I'm not catching JohnK's luck.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Cheers OBB. This was a 610 delay time, I wandered down to the gate at 533 and boarding was well under way. Anyway, they blamed ATC for the delay, normal on Monday morning IME. As you say the delay is usual an odd number of minutes.

Of course, we also then had a DG issue with the nice old lady in the seat in front of me. Hope I'm not catching JohnK's luck.

If the LOL was seated in front of you I hope she had status! :mrgreen:

What was the DG issue?

 

[medhead]

If the LOL was seated in front of you I hope she had status! :mrgreen:

What was the DG issue?

She was an assistance passenger, not sure about status.

The problem was she had 6 or 8 batteries that might have been for a CPAP, but oxygen was also mentioned. She didn't know what the rating was on the batteries and it wasnt marked on them. They were wrapped in bubble wrap and insulated from each other. Anyway, just a bit of stuffing around deciding if they should go in the hold. Eventually the LOL produced the manual and everyone was happy. Thinking about it now she probably didn't have status since the whole issue started when she wasn't happy about putting her hand luggage under the seat because of the 6 batteries. :shock:

 

[medhead]

Well, after 3 feedback emails in 3 weeks, I written letter noting that I've raised the issue before and a long phone call last Wednesday night that mentioned plans to roll out priority boarding network wide, it would seem that ADL Qantas are going to stick their head in the sand instead of doing something about the situation. This morning and also last Monday morning boarding has been well under way when I've walk down to the gate 5 to 10 minutes before the posted boarding time.

That suggests to me that ADL management has decided the way to stop the complaints is to make sure boarding is make sure I miss boarding so I have nothing to complain about, it's a totally cynical approach to take. I was dealing with the lack of control by getting to the gate early and playing the push to the front game, that seems to be preferred by Qantas management in ADL. Seems that is not good enough, seems that the answer to the published benefit of priority boarding is not even pre-boarding, but to push the "most valuable customers" down to the back of the boarding queue.

Oh well, Qantas' choice, Virgin Australia FTW - in ADL at least.

 

[Moopere]

Oh well, Qantas' choice, Virgin Australia FTW - in ADL at least.

Its about all that you can really do now.

I try, as you have, to provide useful feedback to businesses that I actually want to deal with, and have a relationship with, but who is failing in my eyes at least in some ways thats important to me.

Sometimes you get a useful response and the relationship continues, sometimes you don't and you either have to suck it up or move to a competitor. I think its only reasonable though that one at least try to motivate change and keep the relationship alive. What more can a customer do?

 

[medhead]

Its about all that you can really do now.

I try, as you have, to provide useful feedback to businesses that I actually want to deal with, and have a relationship with, but who is failing in my eyes at least in some ways thats important to me.

Sometimes you get a useful response and the relationship continues, sometimes you don't and you either have to suck it up or move to a competitor. I think its only reasonable though that one at least try to motivate change and keep the relationship alive. What more can a customer do?

Yeah, indeed. Exactly, what I try to do is at least be constructive. I really think it is only the early morning flights that are the problem. And it isn't even lack of PB that annoys me the most, it is the total mess they make of boarding in general. But, as a non South Australian, I find the locals can have strange ideas about some things, witness banning plastic shopping bags for free but not for sale. I wouldn't be surprised if someone in charge in ADL is offended by the whole special treatment idea.