Priority boarding on QF domestic - what is the story?

[Shan Man]

So you're confident that every one of those people in the premium lane are indeed entitled to be in that lane, rather than lining up there because they know all the gate agent is interested in is getting everyone on board, regardless of status?

Apologies. Point recieved and let me reposition what I meant.

My determination of if PB is a sucess is if I am able to turn up at the gate at any point in time during the boarding process and be able to join the PB line without hoardes of unworthy inside if it. Thus getting into my seat sooner and the net result being, I am able to board before the vast majority of PAX.

If I am unable to determine if someone is inelgible to be there, how am I to know that I have been deprived? If I end up being two people later onto the plane out of 150-200 people, I can accept the 1% variance as nothing is perfect.

What might be a more accurate statement is I have only ever experienced a total breakdown of PB probably 3 or 4 times in the last 15 months. One of which was in CNS where I just walked to the front and showed my BP to the FA who scanned me on next. No questions asked

 

[jdp]

Complete fail this morning QF415 in Sydney gate 12. The bronze in front of me was boasting to his mates about how Qantas never stops him. Sure enough they didn't. It was mentioned in the announcement but the line was out into the main part of the terminal and no large sign at the gate so it was chaos.

Full plane as well - you'd think this is when they'd make more of an effort.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Complete fail this morning QF415 in Sydney gate 12. The bronze in front of me was boasting to his mates about how Qantas never stops him. Sure enough they didn't. It was mentioned in the announcement but the line was out into the main part of the terminal and no large sign at the gate so it was chaos.

Full plane as well - you'd think this is when they'd make more of an effort.

Alternatively, you might think that the FAs just want to board everyone as fast as possible and don't care about a few DYKWIAs. I suspect this is more likely to be the case for a full flight. That said, if they offer the perk, they should enforce and FAs and ground staff alike should be educated to enforce it. In fact if ground staff check the queues ahead of pax reaching the scanners the FAs would have not have to deal with potentially disgruntled pax on board who got shunted out of the priority queue.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Alternatively, you might think that the FAs just want to board everyone as fast as possible and don't care about a few DYKWIAs. I suspect this is more likely to be the case for a full flight. That said, if they offer the perk, they should enforce and FAs and ground staff alike should be educated to enforce it.

In fact if ground staff check the queues ahead of pax reaching the scanners the FAs would have not have to deal with potentially disgruntled pax on board who got shunted out of the priority queue.

I agree totally & have mentioned this several times already in this thread. All the FA's should have to do is a greet/scan/go - not get into a long winded debate with DYKWIA types on whether they should be in that lane or not & how "I used to be WP until you bumped me back to gold" etc etc.

Airlines need an 'enforcer' at the head of the queue to ensure the right people are in the right queue from the start.

Airlines need to decide who the enforcer is ie do they used un-uniformed staff eg admin/salaried types who have plenty of spare time on their hands or roster additional staff on for each flight purely to police PB queues which of course would be at additional cost.

 

[eastwest101]

....need to decide who the enforcer is ie do they used un-uniformed staff eg admin/salaried types who have plenty of spare time on their hands or roster additional staff on for each flight purely to police PB queues which of course would be at additional cost.

Indeed - I agree totally, with the addition that the longer QF delay enforcement then the more resources and time they will need to do this enforcement if and when they decide to do it....personally I think they know in their hearts that they really can't or won't do it, they just want to be able to advertise the benefit but have no intention of enforcing the benefit for J class and Plat customers. Either because they are unable to, or, are unwilling to provide the resources to enforce it (signage improvements notwithstanding).

Otherwise this thread would not be +3000posts or >3 years old.

 

[mannej]

No issues with PB prior to the 621 (BNE) or the 773 (MEL) on Thursday (21/6). Made it quite easy with the 18 month old in tow not to have to wait in the general line considering it's length for both flights.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Apparently I'm on QF some feedback panel - after most of my recent domestic flights I've been asked to complete an email survey. In my most recent survey I made the comment that Premium boarding isn't working again (as it wasn't on both legs of that particular trip).

Was told that there is some work being done to improve signage.

 

[medhead]

I've heard something about colour coded signage being investigated.

 

[SQ421]

I agree totally & have mentioned this several times already in this thread. All the FA's should have to do is a greet/scan/go - not get into a long winded debate with DYKWIA types on whether they should be in that lane or not & how "I used to be WP until you bumped me back to gold" etc etc.

Airlines need an 'enforcer' at the head of the queue to ensure the right people are in the right queue from the start.

Airlines need to decide who the enforcer is ie do they used un-uniformed staff eg admin/salaried types who have plenty of spare time on their hands or roster additional staff on for each flight purely to police PB queues which of course would be at additional cost.

And yet the competition, absent any such "enforcer" manages to get it right more often than not.

Go figure.

 

[Brettmcg]

I've heard something about colour coded signage being investigated.

Last time I flew ex-SYD they had a new black sign which listed Business, Platinum and OWE with an arrow pointing to the PB lane, and the normal General Boarding sign in red.

Interestingly, the barrier ropes had been setup in an unusual triangular formation at the top of the queue. Not sure if this was to prevent plebs from joining the PB line or just poorly setup by a geometrically-challenged ground crew member :S

I'll take a picture on Friday which should illustrate it better than my post.

 

[Buzzard]

All 3 flights last weekend PB worked perfectly.

In fact I have never had a problem in AUS with PB. Just lucky :shock:

 

[ozbeachbabe]

And yet the competition, absent any such "enforcer" manages to get it right more often than not.

Go figure.

With all due respect to the competition, to the best of my knowledge they don't have the same volume of Platinum frequent flyers on their flights as QF have purely because QF have been around a lot longer.

VA have only been seriously chasing the corporate market in the last few years when they moved away from their LCC image & introduced a J cabin.

 

[blackcat20]

With all due respect to the competition, to the best of my knowledge they don't have the same volume of Platinum frequent flyers on their flights as QF have purely because QF have been around a lot longer.

VA have only been seriously chasing the corporate market in the last few years when they moved away from their LCC image & introduced a J cabin.

But they do also allow SG to have PB. And I like that, at least in Sydney, they have different coloured carpet to make the two lines more obvious.

 

[medhead]

The competition do enforce boarding by controlling the process. This is an advantage of the LCC process, customers know if they try to board contrary to the announcements they well be sent away. Qantas customers don't know that and it would be difficult to instill such "training" on the customer.

Last time I flew ex-SYD they had a new black sign which listed Business, Platinum and OWE with an arrow pointing to the PB lane, and the normal General Boarding sign in red.

Interestingly, the barrier ropes had been setup in an unusual triangular formation at the top of the queue. Not sure if this was to prevent plebs from joining the PB line or just poorly setup by a geometrically-challenged ground crew member :S

I'll take a picture on Friday which should illustrate it better than my post.

I have seen the funny thing at the top of the queue. Can't remember where and it was only once.

 

[Jack_OC]

The competition do enforce boarding by controlling the process. This is an advantage of the LCC process, customers know if they try to board contrary to the announcements they well be sent away. Qantas customers don't know that and it would be difficult to instill such "training" on the customer.

IME, most airlines overseas enforce it rigidly too. God help you if you try to board out of turn in the US!

 

[SQ421]

With all due respect to the competition, to the best of my knowledge they don't have the same volume of Platinum frequent flyers on their flights as QF have purely because QF have been around a lot longer.

VA have only been seriously chasing the corporate market in the last few years when they moved away from their LCC image & introduced a J cabin.

Is that meant to be an excuse?

As a customer do I really care how many elites are onboard the plane or do I care more that an advertised boarding does in fact work as advertised? Canberra is probably one of the few ports where the number of elites with priority boarding per flight on VA compare to QF. Guess which airline gets it right every single time.

 

[GalaxyNexus]

I remember in Japan, the boarding gate machine beeps differently when you scan your BP as a WP. Maybe something subtle like that will actually "train" the passenger e.g. you get a funny beep when you try to board before your turn or using the wrong (priority) lane.

 

[Mr_Orange]

I remember in Japan, the boarding gate machine beeps differently when you scan your BP as a WP. Maybe something subtle like that will actually "train" the passenger (e.g. you get a funny beep when you try to board before your turn or using the wrong (priority) lane.

Then the scanners would need to know their own status so they could beep inappropriately at lowly SGs and below!

 

[Brettmcg]

Last time I flew ex-SYD they had a new black sign which listed Business, Platinum and OWE with an arrow pointing to the PB lane, and the normal General Boarding sign in red.

Interestingly, the barrier ropes had been setup in an unusual triangular formation at the top of the queue. Not sure if this was to prevent plebs from joining the PB line or just poorly setup by a geometrically-challenged ground crew member :S

I'll take a picture on Friday which should illustrate it better than my post.

Okay so they weird barrier triangle wasn't there, but this is what the new signage looks like.




Best part? ERMAGHERD...pax were actually self policing!

 

[JohnM]

Okay so they weird barrier triangle wasn't there, but this is what the new signage looks like.

View attachment 31268
View attachment 31269View attachment 31270

Best part? ERMAGHERD...pax were actually self policing!

The problem was always the wimpy signage that the work experience student designed. Crystal-clear signage (eg. AA, LAN) leads naturally to self-policing. Why does it always seem to take QF a second go to get things right :evil:.