Qantas to Introduce Group Boarding and Bag Tracking

[kpro]

and an airtag may have just said it was in ATL bag claim - if at all that detailed

Exactly, that's what I was meaning when I mentioned AirTag's are not that accurate. Likely it would have shown a map with the bag somewhere in ATL airport and perhaps bouncing around even if stationary.
Given the nature of GPS indoors, it's unlikely you'd be able to pinpoint a location very well at all unless your phone is within range of it to get the arrow and distance indicator.

 

[kpro]

Sorry to hear about your poor experience.

I didn't say it was a poor experience? The AirTag's worked exactly as they were supposed to, they gave me a location showing where the bags were (EG at an airport), and they tell me when they are nearby at the baggage carousel.

The AirTag's don't tell me that the bag has been offloaded from the plane at a transit stop, and then loaded onto another plane. The history is not persisted in logical detail in the Find My app.
Do yours do that?

 

[RichardMEL]

Group boarding - waste of time that is designed around monetising overhead bin space and people’s angst about it. Unless you are going to operate it like a Japanese airline then it’s going to increase turnaround time to generate ancillary revenues.

One of the bloggers out there recently posted a piece making another point about group boarding and how it's good for airlines and it made some sense.

Basically the idea was that if you're hanging around the gate and you're in say Group 5 and you have them call "Business Class and Platinum/P1/CL Group 1 board, Golds Group 2 Silver Group 3..." and you get on board and find you're stuck for space (as you say) then there's potentially incentive to go for status to go for a higher group priority (or potentially the airline could offer a pay up option a la Southwest).

It may only potentially influence a very small number of people, but that's going to be potentially incremental revenue on TOP of making the elites feel more loved by getting that higher group priority - specially for a lower tier like Silver.

 

[DC3]

I didn't say it was a poor experience? The AirTag's worked exactly as they were supposed to, they gave me a location showing where the bags were (EG at an airport), and they tell me when they are nearby at the baggage carousel.

The AirTag's don't tell me that the bag has been offloaded from the plane at a transit stop, and then loaded onto another plane. The history is not persisted in logical detail in the Find My app.
Do yours do that?

Maybe air tags are not suitable for everyone’s expectations.

 

[RichardMEL]

I just wanted to say I've travelled with air tags on a trip last year (I was with a friend and we shared tags) and they were helpful absolutely but as it happened we were also flying on AA< and the app did just as good a job tbh.

now we also caught Amtrak, and they did help there to be sure our bags had not been thrown of at some podunk notown mid trip which was a bonus. They're definitely useful but don't diminish good bag tracking systems such as AA provide either.

 

[Quickstatus]

Maybe air tags are not suitable for everyone’s expectations.

I think people expect Airtags to be more than what they really are

Edited: Bad grammar

 

[DC3]

I think people expect Airtags to be more than what it really is

Great Expectations.

 

[kpro]

Maybe air tags are not suitable for everyone’s expectations.

I think people expect Airtags to be more than what they really are

I expect from AirTags exactly what I get from them, which is what is advertised. What we are discussing here, is the difference between AirTags and the American Airlines implementation of bag tracking.

In Post 132, Berlin states that such bag tracking is not required because AirTags are all you need. I responded in Post 133 that AirTags do not provide all the information that this airline tracking could potentially provide. I do not know where this turned into people thinking that I am expecting more from AirTags.

AirTags are useful. I've found them useful when my bags do not come out at the carousel. But they do not provide exactly the same function as the AA tracking does. This information can supplement the use of AirTags.

 

[JessicaTam]

[mod hat]
And now it is time to return to the topic at hand, that is priority boarding using groups by QF.
[/mod hat]

 

[kpro]

In my defense, the thread title was updated to state 'Group Boarding and Bag Tracking'. But I'm happy to leave the AirTag discussion, I believe the point has been made anyway.

 

[DC3]

For those who have not found the ‘Apple Airtags’ thread:

Apple Airtags

Hi All, Apologies if this is being discussed elsewhere, I've scanned widely and very surprisingly can't find a thread ... As an apple-phile I'm pondering buying some airtags and there seem to be some OK reviews on the effectiveness of these showing the location of luggage - with the one...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[pauly7]

Update on the trial.

There was also an Exec Traveller blog post about it but I don’t post their links

Qantas set to trial new boarding process as data reveals Virgin Australia the worst airline for cancellations​

Australia’s biggest airline will trial a new boarding process in an attempt to speed up getting passengers onto planes as new data reveals cancellations and delays continue to impact domestic flights.

The latest performance data by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed Virgin Australia replaced Jetstar as the worst airline for cancellations.

Qantas to change the way we fly with new boarding process

Australia’s biggest airline will trial a new boarding process in an attempt to speed up getting passengers onto planes as new data reveals cancellations and delays continue to impact domestic flights.

thewest.com.au

 

[RooFlyer]

The West paywalled ( no.loss ).

Qantas begins boarding by groups on domestic flights

Commonly seen overseas, boarding by groups or zones will be trialled in Australia from next week.

www.executivetraveller.com

 

[henrus]

I know this is discussed up thread but I struggle to see what this is going to solve. On Golden triangle routes up to half the plane or more can be "priority". Likewise there's been studies heck even a mythbusters episode about boarding a plane which proved zones are slower but increase satisfaction.

Using American Airlines and the 8-9 zone system they have in place, they divide the entire economy cabin including on wide bodies into 2 zones (towards the end) and the majority of the zones are status (1-6) which is nothing to do with boarding speed but more customer satisfaction.

Qantas is dividing the economy cabin into 4 zones but will lumping everyone with status change much?

At the end of the day if they want less delays then don't schedule 55 min turns in cities like Sydney or Melbourne which seem to change runway or operations every 20 seconds. The published arrival/departure times are meant to be the wheels up/down time, this means in the 55 minutes from when the plane hits the runway it's got to taxi (can easily be 10 mins in SYD), connect bridge/stairs, boot self loading cargo off, sometime re-cater, pretend to clean, load new self loading freight and then taxi back out for takeoff.

 

[RichardMEL]

I do think the US system has gone a bit too far the other way. I snapped this pic the other week at SFO about the PRE board - these groups of both disabled, military, families and two high status groups BEFORE group 1 (where group 1 is basically your premium cabin) and on a number of flights, as a 1K member, I could bord before any group (but then seeing groups 1 and 2 full of elites specially at hub airports) meant that was actually quite valuable.




Now, I doubt QF will go to this kind of extreme level of say allowing CL and maybe P1 ahead of group 1 (and remembering those folks may even still be in lounge or en route to the gate) but it's interesting that the PRE board has a number of groups already!!! It becomes a bit of a mess of announcements, not to mention people trying to prove a disability or people claiming their kid is under two or whatever, but that's a whole other issue. I'm shocked they didn't have a pre board for customers with fake ESA's

 

[justinbrett]

I know this is discussed up thread but I struggle to see what this is going to solve. On Golden triangle routes up to half the plane or more can be "priority". Likewise there's been studies heck even a mythbusters episode about boarding a plane which proved zones are slower but increase satisfaction.

Using American Airlines and the 8-9 zone system they have in place, they divide the entire economy cabin including on wide bodies into 2 zones (towards the end) and the majority of the zones are status (1-6) which is nothing to do with boarding speed but more customer satisfaction.

Qantas is dividing the economy cabin into 4 zones but will lumping everyone with status change much?

At the end of the day if they want less delays then don't schedule 55 min turns in cities like Sydney or Melbourne which seem to change runway or operations every 20 seconds. The published arrival/departure times are meant to be the wheels up/down time, this means in the 55 minutes from when the plane hits the runway it's got to taxi (can easily be 10 mins in SYD), connect bridge/stairs, boot self loading cargo off, sometime re-cater, pretend to clean, load new self loading freight and then taxi back out for takeoff.

Yeah I'm really disappointed with this implementation, I would have expected something like:

Group 1:J/WP/P1 (give P1s pre-board if we must, but might be going too far)
Group 2 :SG
Group 3 PS / QP
Group 4: Z3/4
Group 5 :Z2/5

Having J + WP + SG board at the same time is a bit of a fail

It's fine if you have groups with few or even no passengers - not uncommon in the US for boarding groups to be announced just seconds after the previous if there's no pax.

I guess the issue is SGs who wouldn't take kindly to being sent to the back of the queue.

 

[PERLHR]

Just wait in the lounge until final call....

 

[henrus]

I do think the US system has gone a bit too far the other way. I snapped this pic the other week at SFO about the PRE board - these groups of both disabled, military, families and two high status groups BEFORE group 1 (where group 1 is basically your premium cabin) and on a number of flights, as a 1K member, I could bord before any group (but then seeing groups 1 and 2 full of elites specially at hub airports) meant that was actually quite valuable.

Aside from 1K which is a bit too far, I don't think their pre boarding system is that far fetched. UA Zone 1 is the premium cabin plus *G holders (so will QFs proposed system).

99% of airlines around the world board those with disabilities first (QF/VA no exception) and a separate boarding call for young children is also common. The Global services could be seen at the CL alternative (and that's technically an unofficial perk of CL, either board very first or very last), finally the military thing is very US unique (who can forget when VA suggested it...)

I would have expected something like:

Group 1:J/WP/P1 (give P1s pre-board if we must, but might be going too far)
Group 2 :SG
Group 3 PS / QP
Group 4: Z3/4
Group 5 :Z2/5

Silver/Club boarding is a bit of a stretch?

Just wait in the lounge until final call....

and then have to fight with Seat 30A for luggage space who's brought the kitchen sink onboard and left it above Row 6 on their way back?

 

[ayebee]

Not quite on topic, but ...
years back we had a Southwest flight from LAX where the online check-in opened while we were somewhere over the Pacific.
They had free seating and there may have been early groups for premium customers, but most economy passengers boarded in groups by their check-in sequence number, and having cleared immigration, customs etc and then done the SW counter check-in, we were the last to check-in and therefore last to board.
Naturally enough, as we wandered down towards the rear, only middle seats were available.
I looked for a male and female of similar age (as a possible couple) in aisle and window seats, smiled and advised I would like to sit between them. She smiled and volunteered to move to the middle seat. As I sat down she said ... "at least you're not fat".

 

[Lynda2475]

Interesting that US guidelines say kids under 2, because when they announce early boarding for people with kids here in Australia I frequently see people with older kids 9 & 10 and even teens rush forward. It is a joke.