Qantas doesn't care about priority boarding

[esseeeayeenn]

How is this PB supposed to work after the general boarding has been called? Yesterday morning I came to the queue couple of minutes after boarding had commenced for BNE-SYD (QF509) and they were boarding both lines. I was probably #20 in the PB queue when joining it.

One would selfishly think that if the PB line has an actual queue, they'd process them first and then continue again with the general boarding. Or would that be too simple and logical?

Ideally the PB lane should remain empty so anyone entitled to use it can show up at any time and avoid the general queue.
Obviously it's not practical to have a staff member there idle so you'd expect them to process PAX from the general queue when there were no priority PAX.

 

[Ade]

My only thing with PB is that, I always select Aisle seat on Dom or Int and with my status and if PB works, I board first and have to get up at least 2 times to let middle and window seat to go in ... but hey, I get space to my carry on in the overhead ...

I love PB when it works, but if it doesn't, I'm like "meh, at least I don't have to get up twice from my aisle seat"

 

[esseeeayeenn]

My only thing with PB is that, I always select Aisle seat on Dom or Int and with my status and if PB works, I board first ..."

PB doesn't actually impose any obligation on you to board first.
Officially F, J and status PAX can board at any time.

 

[Ade]

PB doesn't actually impose any obligation on you to board first.
Officially F, J and status PAX can board at any time.

oh yea, I agree. But when boarding starts, I tend to board first ... but later realize that I need to get up to let other people into their seats ... I don't know why I board first, but as soon as boarding is announced I'm at the gate waiting to get into the plane ...

 

[kookaburra75]

QF1515 Syd-Cbr tonight. A bit of a schmoozle, although only one scanner being operated. They started the General queue and didn't start handling the Premium queue for a few minutes. Being QantasLink I think they were a bit short handed. I'll send in an online feedback note.

 

[DC3]

... I don't know why I board first ...

Getting a good spot for your carry-on?

 

[RooFlyer]

After reading about the new system while I was away, I was looking forward to see how it would work in MEL tonight QF1017 MEL-HBA.

Nothing, nada. Same simultaneous bording of priority and non priority. I'll send feedback.

And I see the PDB in business has been enhanced from the offer of a glass, to the offer of a plastic bottle. I suppose the next thing will be to be advised of the tap in the sink in the loo.

 

[DC3]

... And I see the PDB in business has been enhanced from the offer of a glass, to the offer of a plastic bottle. I suppose the next thing will be to be advised of the tap in the sink in the loo.

Isn’t the individual water bottle (excuse) based on how busy the crew are due to ‘time constraints’ (delayed departure or catering truck still loading, so galley not accessible), or somewhat?

Also, I’m waiting for the grey (or blue) water enhancement in that potty room tap.

 

[RooFlyer]

Isn’t the individual water bottle (excuse) based on how busy the crew are due to ‘time constraints’ (delayed departure or catering truck still loading, so galley not accessible), or somewhat?

Not in this case. J in B737 half full, I saw no particular rush etc. Just an enhancement.

 

[Mattg]

While things seemed to have somewhat improved, I can't believe how much trouble Qantas is still having in getting this right. Is it just that the staff don't care, or have they not been trained properly?

 

[serfty]

Is it just that the staff don't care, or have they not been trained properly?

From anecdotes I have come across it would seem some staff do not want it to work.

That is why feedback should be provided whenever PB fails.

 

[docjames]

First fail for MEL this morning on QF400. MEL has been 100% for me until this flight.

Cleaners were still on the plane cleaning the front half of the plane so the manager decided to call rows 15-30 first for boarding via the rear stairs.

QF400 departs at 0600 and the cleaners were cleaning the plane delaying boarding?

Surely the aircraft is overnight in MEL (I cant think of an 0400-0530 arrival)?

Some muck up, surely the aircraft doesn’t sit there uncleared overnight?

 

[Mattg]

QF400 departs at 0600 and the cleaners were cleaning the plane delaying boarding?

Surely the aircraft is overnight in MEL (I cant think of an 0400-0530 arrival)?

Some muck up, surely the aircraft doesn’t sit there uncleared overnight?

FWIW, I just looked this up and the plane had been parked in Melbourne for 11 hours before operating this flight.

 

[dairyfloss]

Perhaps this would help QF to better manage the PB process?

You 'Sweater Believe It!': Alaska Airlines makes the holiday a priority - Dec 10, 2019

Alaska Airlines is spreading holiday cheer by offering guests wearing any kind of holiday sweater priority boarding on Dec. 20, National Ugly Sweater Day. The one-day promotion will be celebrated...

newsroom.alaskaair.com

Alaska Airlines is spreading holiday cheer by offering guests wearing any kind of holiday sweater priority boarding on Dec. 20, National Ugly Sweater Day. The one-day promotion will be celebrated by guests and employees alike and includes all Alaska and Horizon Air flights.

Further, maybe QF elite sweaters or vests should be issued together with the bag tags, to aid with PB eligible identification, all year round? Something like this should do the trick:


Cheers,
Matt

 

[eastwest101]

While things seemed to have somewhat improved, I can't believe how much trouble Qantas is still having in getting this right. Is it just that the staff don't care, or have they not been trained properly?

Probably both. I guess that has something to do with the fact that PB was an advertised benefit (whether mandated by OW rules or by QF's decision to advertise but not provide/enforce PB is another issue) that hasn't been enforced (at least in the domestic setting). There is a thread that is possibly over 10 years old preceding this thread, with peoples experience at QF mixed track record.

I'm not offering any excuses, but the history, lack of ground staff and resultant corporate culture have all conspired to the situation where PB is a 'non-core' non-KPI unmeasured aspirational target but hasn't been backed up with resources, staff, training, KPI's (or KPI's that conflict with PB policies) and most importantly - consequences and enforcement. There is nothing uniquely "Australian" or egalitarian about QF's failure to provide PB,their competitor VAd manage to do this regularly at every Australian airport because its built into their resources, training, systems and their staff, so its become part of their corporate culture, as do all the other airlines in the world that have implemented some variation of priority or group boarding.

If Qantas management are serious about this they will need to overcome a culture where PB hasn't been a part of their standard operating procedure for a long time, this isn't a quick fix, and I would expect that staff will have to go through disciplinary processes (maybe even job losses) for this cultural/perception thing to change, and that before they need to spend years on enforcing their policy on the traveling public (whom have also become "trained" by Qantas not to expect PB or consequences for being in the wrong queue.

So by "ignoring" the problem for so long I think they have made it tougher on themselves to actually implement it, on company policies, industrial relations and a customer service level.

 

[Ade]

From anecdotes I have come across it would seem some staff do not want it to work.

Or, if I may, some staff don't care about PB or even FF elites. And I think the reason why they might have this feeling is because, they think they care about passengers safety, getting security checks and that done and somehow safely and comfortably get the passengers to their destination. Anything apart from this, I think, the staff think as an overhead. Sure, I'm a Platinum FF, but doesn't mean anything to the staff, more than a welcome back or is there anything I can get you.

I think when being asked to enforce PB, the mind voice of the staff goes "yea, yea, we need to board elites first, but hey, elite or no elite, we need to board everyone waiting to board and can't afford to miss anyone. So for us it really doesn't matter - just get everyone on board, safely, show them the safety procedure, serve drinks, food, go back to the galley have a nice chat, then come out during arrival into destination, get ready for the next flight service & the cycle continues". No where in these tasks/activities, would the crew think about enforcing PB. If any elite provides feedback, let's tell him " we will ensure the PB works as we said it would, thank you for your loyalty and thank you choosing Qantas, have a great day"

I may not be putting it well in words, but I'm comparing the staff attitude towards PB as what an IT service desk person has towards someone who has the blue screen problem. I mean, it's an issue, but just restart your machine and get on with it ... IT service desk people are not thrilled by and take all measures needed to look into your problem. They'd be like, "yea yea, I've seen this problem before, it's not biggie, a hard reset and you are as good as new"

hope I'm making some sense and if not, I'd like everyone to know that my heart is in the right place

I work in the IT Service desk and when someone pops by with blue screen, we recommend a hard reset and let us know the next time it happens ... it's not because we don't want to look into it, it's just that this issue happens at random and we try to contact the hardware vendor who points us to the operating system vendor, who in turn points us to the hardware vendor and the blame game goes on and on ...

 

[Daver6]

While things seemed to have somewhat improved, I can't believe how much trouble Qantas is still having in getting this right. Is it just that the staff don't care, or have they not been trained properly?

You would have to think this is a case of they're either not been told about it or are delibrately not doing it. These are the same staff that we rely on in an emergency to follow procedures, which I'm sure are more complicated than priority boarding.

 

[p--and--t]

I know how difficult it was to communicate a desired change of process to 100 staff on my team in 3 disparate locations in three timezones in a normal 8-5 scenario in a previous life.

I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to implement & monitor a change across 29,000+ staff in maybe a 100 locations in many different timezones working odd shifts in a 24/7 environment with any degree of success in a 1-2 week timeframe.

 

[woodborer]

While things seemed to have somewhat improved, I can't believe how much trouble Qantas is still having in getting this right. Is it just that the staff don't care, or have they not been trained properly?

Train? What sort of training do you think they would get for something like this?

I'd expect a memo, and a manual update. That's about it.

 

[RichardMEL]

I've been thinking about ADL and the terminal set up there in terms of PB.

It's not ideal imo. Don't get me wrong.. beautiful terminal and such a massive improvement on the old tin shacks and using the air stairs etc.... but the way the gates are set up, while they DO have priority line signage it's weird the way they snake basically in front of the gate service desk and then the single jetway. I wonder if this has anything to do with the various fails in PB that seem to be more generally reported at ADL vs MEL, SYD, BNE?