Qantas doesn't care about priority boarding

[RichardMEL]

PB was working fine on Wednesday SYD-OOL (until this individual blocked a bunch of pax in the queue with all their stuff and seemed to be reorganising themselves as boarding started and people couldn't get around them for a bit... today OOL-MEL again PB called and executed/

I even saw some pax pull themselves OUT of the PB line as they realised they weren't entitled.

I have to say the changes at OOL over recent months can make it confusing at some gates.

 

[Berlin]

Consider me surprised. Curious to see next week whether I’ll be lucky too. I bet it’ll be a total mess, maybe I’m just bad luck when it comes to this…

 

[noddy]

Starting to do some business travel again with some interesting observations.

One of the things that annoyed me, and many others I'm sure, is that there never seemed to be much point to Qantas's black priority boarding queue. You just got in with a herd that was the same size as the red queue, sometimes it was longer and slower. Airlines in other countries managed this by boarding priority passengers first which works well and seems to make sense.

Qantas seems to have adopted a new strategy that I've seen now for international and domestic boarding. They have the black sign for Platinum etc but nobody is actually next to it boarding passengers. So you head for it and realise when you get there that it's vacant. So you can turn around and go back to the back of the red queue or try squeezing into the front of the red queue and incur the potential wrath of people that had been lined up there. Well done Q, you've managed to P off both sets of passengers.

Letters and articles from travelers, journo's, business people and so on expressing their utter frustration and contempt for the way Qantas has treated them recently and a determination to avoid them permanently are now a regular occurrence. I flew from Melb to Syd last night and the whole thing, from the plane to the service just felt very budget and unwelcoming. At a premium price of course.

I couldn't help imagining what a great business study for Harvard, Qantas might be 10 years from now analysing Alan Joyce's leadership. He'll go back to Ireland an extremely wealthy man and leave behind an airline that's a shadow of it's old self. Is the damage to brand equity incalculable or will they be able to put a number on it? Is it the most extreme example of a CEO operating exactly in-line with his metrics to maximise short term shareholder returns and his personal compensation with absolutely no regard to customers or employees and what he'd leave behind. He'll have a nice house and a yacht but was it worth it?

 

[TheInsider]

Besides the irrelevant rant. A lot of the golden triangle flights, you can easily have more people eligible for PB then the rest of the aircraft.

 

[kpro]

See Qantas doesn't care about priority boarding.

I don't think this issue has changed post-COVID. Overall it's a hit and miss, but better for international then it is for domestic.

In the situation where there's two lines open but only one person scanning, I suggest you stand in the priority line and walk forward when the attendant (hopefully) notices you.

 

[Quickstatus]

At a premium price of course.

QF is a HCC (high cost carrier).

Regardless, there are not many places where QF is the only carrier.

 

[justinbrett]

QF is a HCC (high cost carrier).

Regardless, there are not many places where QF is the only carrier.

Foolish to think a LCC is necessarily cheaper - especially if flying with more than 20Kg of bags. Always check.

Didn’t they have a promo about not costing more to fly Qantas?

Wait, no that was David Jones. Well, same principle.

 

[noddy]

Ok. I guess this is Joyce's genius. He's lowered expectations of our #1 airline to the point that they don't even bother assigning any staff to the priority boarding lane and it's accepted as normal and people give each other advice on the best way to get back over to the economy queue.

 

[kpro]

I don't think having no staff assigned to priority boarding is 'normal'. It does happen sometimes, and it can often be for an obvious reason - EG the second staff member is gate checking bags at the counter due to a full flight.

 

[stm1sydney]

Well, AJ must be doing something right because, despite the awful service and product, customers are flocking back to Qantas in droves. The OP included!

 

[garybatz]

I flew QF MEL-OOL last week and they did board the priority queue first, including having the (long) regular queue wait until the priority one was cleared using the two scanning points. First time I had seen it done that way i.e. properly. Hopefully it'll become a regular thing.

 

[Cognac]

I know we all know this, but this is still accurate. No priority today on QF71. They called it, and then immediately started pulling from both queues. It wouldn't be such an issue if there was enough overhead locker space.

 

[Silvia]

We were called into one queue on Sunday for flight QF410. Funny enough, the front loo for Biz was enforced

 

[Daver6]

I know we all know this, but this is still accurate. No priority today on QF71. They called it, and then immediately started pulling from both queues. It wouldn't be such an issue if there was enough overhead locker space.

At least for the return sector it's enforced well. Priority pax have their own little waiting section at the front of the holding pen in SIN and entry to that section is enforced.

 

[Cognac]

At least for the return sector it's enforced well. Priority pax have their own little waiting section at the front of the holding pen in SIN and entry to that section is enforced.

Yeah, I've never really encountered issues with PB when coming back in to Australia. But there's a very "every person for themselves" mentality in Australia. I even heard someone behind me say "you snooze you lose" to the guy he jumped in the queue.

 

[Lynda2475]

First experience departing LST as an adult, so primitive. No machines to self print bag tags and drop bags. The manned bag drop only opens 90mins before departure and no priority check-in lane.

Qpub pre security (and 1/3 the size of HBA) so poorly signed i walked past it, cleared security couldnt find it had to exit and then ask (guy was standing in front of the only sign). No lounge dragon, staff uninterested let anyone walk in. No barista coffee, no sandwich machine (nothing savoury at all, not even potato chips.

Those saying HBA is worst lounge have clearly never been to LST.

No priority boarding either, just a mad scramble when it was announced boarding could commence.

 

[Quickstatus]

departing LST as an adult, so primitive

Better than my departure from Brewarrina to Dubbo. Pilot did the refueling, baggage loading, ticket clipping, lolly basket.

 

[Daver6]

Better than my departure from Brewarrina to Dubbo. Pilot did the refueling, baggage loading, ticket clipping, lolly basket.

Only an issue when there's one pilot and he/she is also doing the drinks service

 

[Quickstatus]

doing the drinks service.

BYO PDB/BOB

DIY priority boarding

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

First experience departing LST as an adult, so primitive. No machines to self print bag tags and drop bags. The manned bag drop only opens 90mins before departure and no priority check-in lane.

Qpub pre security (and 1/3 the size of HBA) so poorly signed i walked past it, cleared security couldnt find it had to exit and then ask (guy was standing in front of the only sign). No lounge dragon, staff uninterested let anyone walk in. No barista coffee, no sandwich machine (nothing savoury at all, not even potato chips.

Those saying HBA is worst lounge have clearly never been to LST.

No priority boarding either, just a mad scramble when it was announced boarding could commence.

LST is a bit of a joke but it also doesn't get anywhere near as busy as Hobart or handle the same number of flights. My last flight was home from LST and to keep it on topic there was absolutely no priority boarding mentioned or enforced which led to the most chaotic 717 boarding I've seen...