Qantas doesn't care about priority boarding

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Ade said:
17/09 QF68 BLR-SYD - PB announced for J pax only.

Given this is an international flight started a few days ago, staff at BLR are not clear on the OW rules re check-in, PB etc. So calls was only made for J pax although the display boards shows OW status as well. Another point to note - the aircraft was a A330 on Gate 36 for J aerobridge and Gate 37 for Y aerobridge.This might be the reason why PB was called for J pax only and Y pax had to go via the normal Y queue, regardless of OW status
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They did this on an international flight departing from SYD T1 earlier this year — announced boarding for J pax but didn't mention status in the announcement. I went up anyway and was not an issue. Did you try board via the priority lane and were flat out refused?
 
dylarr said:
They did this on an international flight departing from SYD T1 earlier this year — announced boarding for J pax but didn't mention status in the announcement. I went up anyway and was not an issue. Did you try board via the priority lane and were flat out refused?
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I was in J for this flight, so boarded along with other J pax …
 
I've noticed a few times lately that Qantas is allowing non-priority pax to use the priority lane when boarding domestic.

Flying in J and they call the flight from the lounge and when you get to the gate there are people everywhere in both boarding lanes and no sign of any attempt to direct people to the correct lane.

I would think that using both scanners to make the regular boarding lane move faster would achieve a similar result without eroding the integrity of FF benefits.

Is this pretty common these days?
 
Just to bring balance to this, had SYD-MEL return on VA on the weekend. On both cases, the priority vs general boarding was almost like QF's usual version of it. In MEL, they did process the priority queue first, even when seeing how many people jumped to it from the general queue. 🙈No policing of who goes through first. So the grass can be dry and brown on both sides of the fence.
 
tdimdad said:
Just to bring balance to this, had SYD-MEL return on VA on the weekend. On both cases, the priority vs general boarding was almost like QF's usual version of it. In MEL, they did process the priority queue first, even when seeing how many people jumped to it from the general queue. 🙈No policing of who goes through first. So the grass can be dry and brown on both sides of the fence.
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I would raise that with VA as a complaint, once people start doing that then priority boarding on VA will also cease to work properly, pretty much the only reason to fly VA. If you raise it then hopefully someone in VA will get the airport manager to talk to ground staff and they will then know that people are paying attention to PB. In the past, VA has been reasonably proactive/successful in sending non-PB pax to the back of the regular queue. so that's disappointing to hear.
 
eastwest101 said:
I would raise that with VA as a complaint, once people start doing that then priority boarding on VA will also cease to work properly, pretty much the only reason to fly VA.
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+1. VA has been polite but ruthless in their enforcement of PB on my last several return trips at both ends, whereas QF tends to be about 50/50 even announcing PB, and then another 50/50 odds actually enforcing who's in the queue within that 50%.
 
FWIW - I entered the line as close to the PB sign as possible (ahead of who I hoped were the queue jumpers). I do have the WP tags on my carryon and didn't get any questions from the people behind me.

When I got to the front I respectfully asked the flight attendant what happened to PB. She asked what I meant, so I pointed to the queue of people who didn't appear to be in the right place. She said something about trying load as quickly as possible to make a curfew.
 
oneeightythree said:
FWIW - I entered the line as close to the PB sign as possible (ahead of who I hoped were the queue jumpers). I do have the WP tags on my carryon and didn't get any questions from the people behind me.

When I got to the front I respectfully asked the flight attendant what happened to PB. She asked what I meant, so I pointed to the queue of people who didn't appear to be in the right place. She said something about trying load as quickly as possible to make a curfew.
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I might buy that but for the fact that there's also always a queue in the aerobridge within a few minutes, and (as a generalisation) most of those eligible for PB usually fly more frequently and stow baggage and get seated faster, so I don't see what benefit there is here to disregarding that initial PB process and leaving a mixed queue in the aerobridge.
 
FlyingKangaroo said:
I might buy that but for the fact that there's also always a queue in the aerobridge within a few minutes, and (as a generalisation) most of those eligible for PB usually fly more frequently and stow baggage and get seated faster, so I don't see what benefit there is here to disregarding that initial PB process and leaving a mixed queue in the aerobridge.
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100% - we load fast from experience and being prepared with what we put up top vs. keep down, and clear the aisles quickly.

Domestic and International priority security screening seems somewhat well maintained for this same reason, I just don't understand why PB has fallen so far.
 
FlyingKangaroo said:
I don't see what benefit there is here to disregarding that initial PB process and leaving a mixed queue in the aerobridge.
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It might make a small difference as everyone at the front in J gets PB, clogging the front compared to boarding the back first.

But I am not for a minute advocating that approach. DTKWIA!
 

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