Group boarding is sorely needed on international - especially A380s.
QF1 just boarded at SYD gate 8 with "Premium Boarding" instead of separate First & Business lanes. The following categories all converged simultaneously once they called this.
First
Business
Premium Economy
Qantas Platinum One
Qantas Platinum
Qantas Gold
Oneworld Emerald
Oneworld Sapphire
Emirates Platinum
Emirates Gold
It is a full flight. F+J+W combined is 144 people. With status pax, I would estimate somewhere between 250 and 300 people in total, filtered down a single boarding lane. Total coughshow as you'd imagine.
Imagine you'd paid QF1 First prices...