Qantas to Introduce Group Boarding and Bag Tracking

[Ansett]

im suprised they dont board economy first then tell people in the lounge please start walking down at time they board economy.

And that would help priority boarding how? Imagine the complaints when Status Passengers can't get their bag in the overheads due to all those nonpriority people taking it all up.

 

[elanshin]

glad everyone getting there status worth.

I flew jal in jan omg the amount of people crowding the bag belt. like they need to understand first class/oneworld emerald bags will come out first lol.

i blame airports for not having enough seating at bag claim anywhere in the world.

If you mean that in a port that isn't in Asia, that's because the baggage handlers took their sweet time. Good chance in TYO that your bags have been spinning for a while by the time you clear immigration. Even the fastest immigration clearance at NRT I had (no line straight to immigration officer), I was barely at the carousel for 5 mins when my bags showed up as the 3rd bag. That was a speedrun from getting out of the gate to out of the airport setting my record for NRT at 21 minutes from gate to train platform.

im suprised they dont board economy first then tell people in the lounge please start walking down at time they board economy.

The main problem (and complaint) before was that you could lose your overhead storage bin space if you took too long. Even in J

Also you run the risk of delaying depatures since who knows how long someone will take to finish sipping their drink and slowly meander their way to the plane if you make the call after general boarding.

 

[sap1l]

Just had my first experience with group boarding in SYD.

The gate was a bit of a zoo, but the premium boarding lane was kept empty so I could walk straight up even when group 3+ were already boarding.

However, the gate agents weren’t proactive with processing people from the priority boarding lane first - you basically had to cut in front of someone from the regular lane to have your BP scanned.

Overall I’m happier than expected, but admittedly expectations were pretty low.

 

[Rayesfeg]

Similar experience for me departing Auckland. Though it was not 'group boarding' per se, they boarded the plane 5 rows at a time and actually enforced it.
Worked just as well and efficient as group boarding. The disgruntled look from pushy boomers being turned away on account of their rows not having been called provided extra entertainment.

 

[drron]

If you mean that in a port that isn't in Asia, that's because the baggage handlers took their sweet time. Good chance in TYO that your bags have been spinning for a while by the time you clear immigration. Even the fastest immigration clearance at NRT I had (no line straight to immigration officer), I was barely at the carousel for 5 mins when my bags showed up as the 3rd bag. That was a speedrun from getting out of the gate to out of the airport setting my record for NRT at 21 minutes from gate to train platform.


The main problem (and complaint) before was that you could lose your overhead storage bin space if you took too long. Even in J

Also you run the risk of delaying depatures since who knows how long someone will take to finish sipping their drink and slowly meander their way to the plane if you make the call after general boarding.

On our last flight in to NRT we were on the platform in 18 minutes. Second and third at Immigration. Gate closest to Immigration. Bags coming out as we came down the escalator. Carousel was the closest. Our bag was also third out.

 

[A321]

I think the only downside to group boarding is the mass amount of noise pollution the excess announcements cause.
Listening to two departing flights out of PER right now fighting each other for announcement one after another.
Keep it simple? The general public are going to give up listening if it's all too hard.

 

[elanshin]

I think the only downside to group boarding is the mass amount of noise pollution the excess announcements cause.
Listening to two departing flights out of PER right now fighting each other for announcement one after another.
Keep it simple? The general public are going to give up listening if it's all too hard.

You should see one time at 1:30am departing HKG, in gates next to each other were a CX and a JL flight who code shared with each other both to NRT.

The JL flight made things even more tedious by announcing the flight in 4 languages and for every codeshare on the flight.

The CX guys stuck behind the JL decided to just go "CX ###" boarding now because JL legitimately took 5 minutes and CX had already started boarding.

 

[Harrison_133]

I think the only downside to group boarding is the mass amount of noise pollution the excess announcements cause.
Listening to two departing flights out of PER right now fighting each other for announcement one after another.
Keep it simple? The general public are going to give up listening if it's all too hard.

I was in the PER terminal last week and thought the same thing. Two A330s, a 737 and a bunch of FIFO flights boarding at the same time. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say the announcements were almost constant.

At least in some other ports, they can limit announcements to within the gate lounge only. PER doesn't seem to have that function.

 

[elanshin]

I don't think I'll complain about priority boarding for a while. Just got on a AA flight to DCA. There's probably half the plane on priority group 1.

 

[RichardMEL]

I don't think I'll complain about priority boarding for a while. Just got on a AA flight to DCA. There's probably half the plane on priority group 1.

Don't forget the preboards!

 

[drron]

I don't think I'll complain about priority boarding for a while. Just got on a AA flight to DCA. There's probably half the plane on priority group 1.

We flew MCO- DFW on an AA MD80 in F. Only F pax were in Group 1. There was a legal conference that had finished at lunchtime that day. The FA told us there were 140 Exps on the flight and none of them were happy.

 

[Kangol]

We flew MCO- DFW on an AA MD80 in F. Only F pax were in Group 1. There was a legal conference that had finished at lunchtime that day. The FA told us there were 140 Exps on the flight and none of them were happy.

"When everybody has status, nobody has status" - or words to that effect.

 

[RichardMEL]

Been awhile since AA flew the mAAd Dog! They were fun!

 

[austgap]

Even as a lowly gold, I'm actually a big fan of it particularly on the SYD-MEL routes (more so after flying VA and having to push past a few ppl to find the non-enforced priority lane) - ironically group 1 always seems 10x busier then group 2.

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

I've had my first two experiences on MEL-BNE-MEL.

A slightly weird experience in Brisbane, the sequence was 1-2-4-5-3-6, which seemed illogical to me and led to confusion at the gate with multiple people sent away until it was their turn.

 

[p--and--t]

I've had my first two experiences on MEL-BNE-MEL.

A slightly weird experience in Brisbane, the sequence was 1-2-4-5-3-6, which seemed illogical to me and led to confusion at the gate with multiple people sent away until it was their turn.

Not atypical for my experiences with groups on Aeromexico, Fiji Airlines etc when in Nth America. They weren't called in sequence

 

[dairyfloss]

I've had my first two experiences on MEL-BNE-MEL.

A slightly weird experience in Brisbane, the sequence was 1-2-4-5-3-6, which seemed illogical to me and led to confusion at the gate with multiple people sent away until it was their turn.

It's the process where the rear stairs are being used, so they can then fill from both ends more effectively. Hopefully that was the case?
Image should help to process the thinking:

Cheers,
Matt

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

It's the process where the rear stairs are being used, so they can then fill from both ends more effectively. Hopefully that was the case?
Image should help to process the thinking:
View attachment 400943
Cheers,
Matt

Thanks Matt, that makes perfect sense! Good to know whether or not I will be boarding via the rear stairs or not on future flights.

 

[mx838383]

First experience with group boarding today. Mel to Syd. They said over announcements your boarding pass won't scan if you are trying to board and you are not in the right group. 1/3 of the plane was group 1.

 

[RichardMEL]

First experience with group boarding today. Mel to Syd. They said over announcements your boarding pass won't scan if you are trying to board and you are not in the right group. 1/3 of the plane was group 1.

Yeah the common problem for many airlines on trunk.or hub to hub routes high in Premium and elite flyers.

Last momth I flew SFO-ORD on UA on an A321, and the Elite boards (and upgrade WL) were probably half or more of the aircraft...