Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[Fruitcake]

I am not too worried about priority boarding. What really gets me is economy passengers walking thru business and even sitting next to you waiting for the toilets. They all look and stare. Cannot get any peace and quiet time!


What I have noticed though and maybe others have too==> is the inconsistency.

All East West flights are closed off, But flights North South are not like 737 flights 2 hours or more North of Perth.

I have status match and have only ever flown once. I am not too worried about priority boarding. What really gets me is economy passengers walking thru business and even sitting next to you waiting for the toilets. They all look and stare and you cannot have any peace and quiet time.

The inconsistency is really big. Mostly East West and VV are closed off. But flights up down are not ie Perth and 737 flights 2 hours or more north.

[Second quote is from the thread http://www.australianfrequentflyer....e-like-flying-virginn-39999-2.html#post621268]

I guess the thing to take from this is that DJ and QF are equally consistent with their inconsistency in keeping Y pax out of the J cabin. Would you say that both operators need to lift their game?

 

[eastwest101]

QF667 this morning BNE to ADL on B738 departing BNE domestic gate 20. Partial success but partial fail. I wasn't entitled to it and will post up a pic later on. Priority line and normal line were both present and the pre-emptive scrum formed. First announcement was for Rows 13-29 and QF Business class, and other priority boarding. The partially dispersed, Second call was final and the rest (presumably).

During boarding I saw about 20 people use the PB lane, a few J class pax used PB (J was 100% full) and a few who I am pretty sure weren't high status Y pax use the PB lane (Y about 85% full). The second FA scanning boarding passes on the PB side called people through from the front of the "normal line" when she wasn't busy (which is fine by me). I would guess that about 50-70% whom used the PB actually qualified for PB but didn't see anyone rejected from the PB lane so there didn't appear to be any enforcement or alternatively 100% of the people who used PB were actually entitled to it. I know what my guess would be....

I boarded almost last as I had an aisle exit row seat.

 

[QF WP]

I'll be on BNE/ADL tomorrow night then ADL/MEL and MEL/BNE Wed night (all in J). I'll be posting to this thread about my experiences - but I'm not expecting anything in ADL after medheads' previous comments

 

[tm.smile]

Just flew QF464 MEL-SYD tonight

Arrived at the gate form QP as boarding was well under way. Main queue was on the right, PB was on tbe left. (Why they place PB on left is beyond me as most people entitled to PB is coming from QP and have to cross through main queue). Signposted and PB queue was far shorter than main queue. Seemed to work.
Edit: I was seated in 24K in whY

OT... Crew were a little curt throughout the flight. eg: welcome on board was a terse "Left hand side on the other aisle"
Loving the new olympic safety demo - thank god they've cut the "we know you're more than capable of operating a seat belt" line...

 

[NM]

Arrived at the gate form QP as boarding was well under way. Main queue was on the right, PB was on tbe left. (Why they place PB on left is beyond me as most people entitled to PB is coming from QP and have to cross through main queue).

I have found inconsistency as to whether PB is to the right or the left. Often I have seen the large free-standing sign advertising PB is in operation was on the left, so join the line on the left, and then when you get to the actual line split its signed as PB to the right! Often you can't see the small signs with the arrows located at the line split point until you get close to the sign. Some consistency would be good.

 

[NM]

Arrived at the gate form QP as boarding was well under way. Main queue was on the right, PB was on tbe left. (Why they place PB on left is beyond me as most people entitled to PB is coming from QP and have to cross through main queue).

I have found inconsistency as to whether PB is to the right or the left. Often I have seen the large free-standing sign advertising PB is in operation was on the left, so join the line on the left, and then when you get to the actual line split its signed as PB to the right! Often you can't see the small signs with the arrows located at the line split point until you get close to the sign. Some consistency would be good.

 

[JohnM]

I have found inconsistency as to whether PB is to the right or the left. Often I have seen the large free-standing sign advertising PB is in operation was on the left, so join the line on the left, and then when you get to the actual line split its signed as PB to the right! Often you can't see the small signs with the arrows located at the line split point until you get close to the sign. Some consistency would be good.

As I have said early in this thread, I think the biggest problem is the very poor small signs atop the pedestal at the split point. They are graphically very poor (TINY and VERY SPINDLY arrows, and absence of sharply contrasting colour). Just som amateurish compared with the extremely clear AA pedestal signs. No wonder it's a zoo here.

 

[wafliron]

Weird PB experience on QF611 BNE-MEL yesterday morning:

Got to the gate just before boarding started and noticed that there was no attempt to implement PB at all - no rope dividing boarding queue into two lanes, the little sign that normally sits at the entry to the PB / non-PB lanes wasn't deployed (sitting off to the left of one of the left-hand BP scanner, in front of the larger PB sign), and the boarding calls simply began with "economy passengers in rows x to y, and business class passengers, are welcome to board now". Plane was a 738 with two FAs scanning BPs, so not a 734 issue... maybe it was because we were departing from gate 16 which doesn't have an aerobridge? Can't see why that would prevent them from implementing PB though.

However, despite all of the above, somehow PB still managed to work OK. For some reason the pax divided themselves into two lines on their own accord, with the right-hand line being much shorter than the left - possibly because the sign that normally sits at the entry to the PB / non-PB lanes was indicating PB on the right, even though there was no lane-dividing rope and the sign wasn't properly deployed? I'm sure there were some non-PB pax in the right-hand lane, but given the complete lack of attempted-implementation it worked out pretty well.

Maybe your average QF pax has finally learnt that PB exists and how it works, and hence follows the "rules" regardless of whether the signs / ropes / boarding calls are implemented correctly?

 

[Blackbird]

I have found inconsistency as to whether PB is to the right or the left. Often I have seen the large free-standing sign advertising PB is in operation was on the left, so join the line on the left, and then when you get to the actual line split its signed as PB to the right! Often you can't see the small signs with the arrows located at the line split point until you get close to the sign. Some consistency would be good.

It seems to me that PB is on the opposite side to the gate lounge in terms of being left/right.

 

[MatF]

I thought that too, but some recent experiences in SYD where the PB lane was on the same side as the gate lounge has confuzzled me. You can imagine where the scrum formed ....

 

[nlagalle]

Another day, another flight and another PB pass. Nice queue in the general and PB lane was empty.. That was QF408 mel-syd. So to date only 1 fail out of 20.

So please Tony Hancock, stay away from my flights!!! I mean that in the nicest possible way!!

 

[TonyHancock]

Another day, another flight and another PB pass. Nice queue in the general and PB lane was empty.. That was QF408 mel-syd. So to date only 1 fail out of 20.

So please Tony Hancock, stay away from my flights!!! I mean that in the nicest possible way!!

Now let me go to the June and July travel threads and see if I can stalk you!!! I get to fly QF domestically in about 10 or 11 hours so I hope beyond hope I can report a pass.

 

[TonyHancock]

I can't really report a pass or fail for my flight from MEL to SYD today. I arrived at the gate 5 minutes before scheduled boarding. Two queues had already formed and I was number 5 in the priority lane. Two staff members manned the scanners at the gate and called people in the queues to come forward prior to any announcement being made. Both queues were processed simultaneously so I guess one could argue that priority boarding was not actioned correctly......but hey I boarded early and that suited me.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

My take on Dom PB - I honestly think it's people seeing the signs, slowly adapting/changing to it. It has nothing to do with QF enforcing/policing PB, because l haven't seen anyone get booted out/turned away of the PB lane. I have seen a few WP's make a DYKWIA dash though PB lanes, literally pushing people out of the way:shock:

Recently coming from PER, l heard a father/son say, "oh, we're in the wrong lane" and changed lanes, meanwhile, 2 families stroll straight on through (in Y and no status on their BP's) and FA/scanner didn't blink an eye.

 

[eastwest101]

My take on Dom PB - I honestly think it's people seeing the signs, slowly adapting/changing to it. It has nothing to do with QF enforcing/policing PB, because l haven't seen anyone get booted out/turned away of the PB lane. I have seen a few WP's make a DYKWIA dash though PB lanes, literally pushing people out of the way:shock:.

Agree - this thread is now 48 pages long and I don't recall any enforcement by QF noted by any members being observed. Your post makes this pretty clear that next time that father/son fly - what are the chances that they will use PB correctly if they saw others using the PB lane incorrectly without any consequences?

 

[Kangol]

My take on Dom PB - I honestly think it's people seeing the signs, slowly adapting/changing to it. It has nothing to do with QF enforcing/policing PB, because l haven't seen anyone get booted out/turned away of the PB lane.

I disagree. It has everything to do with QF enforcing the rules.
If QF did enforce it, then people would pay more attention to the signs.

As an aside, other airlines enforce it but QF don't - why is it so hard to turn people away? If they are not entitled to something, they should not receive it. They turn people away at lounges who are not entitled to use it, what is the difference between that and turning people away at the gate?

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I disagree. It has everything to do with QF enforcing the rules.

Are they?

If QF did enforce it, then people would pay more attention to the signs.

BINGO.

 

[tm.smile]

Are they?

I think Kangol is actually saying that they aren't enforcing it at all. Both of you are saying the same things, just in a different way

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I think Kangol is actually saying that they aren't enforcing it at all. Both of you are saying the same things, just in a different way

That's what l thought.

'At the end of the day, QF has done a half-coughd job'. Period.

 

[nlagalle]

That's what l thought.

'At the end of the day, QF has done a half-coughd job'. Period.

I'm curious, has anyone seen VA enforce PB and knock people back? I know on a flight to OOL from MEL they didn't as the guy in front of me had no status.