Qantas to Introduce Group Boarding and Bag Tracking

[Lynda2475]

If no group number then your flight is not part of the trial, so won't be an issue.

 

[Quickstatus]

If they are doing the trial boarding tell the gate agent you are travelling together

Once they start introducing exemptions and exceptions it will be a dogs breakfast.

 

[Lynda2475]

Once they start introducing exemptions and exceptions it will be a dogs breakfast.

Agree dont think they should be over riding. If family members want to ensure boarding together, book together.

Hopefully the system will also stop the nonsense of priority boarding for kids where you see a bunch of teenagers move up to the front. Ought to be an age cut-off of 3 or 4 years. Any child old enough to walk on and seat themselves doesn't need extra time, and will help with bin space being abused.

 

[Cognac]

Then the trial failed.
The whole point it to get the group in order before scanning the phone.

Not what I would take away from that at all. The trial is testing the process for Qantas, it sounds like the process worked as expected. People who were not allowed to board yet were rejected by the system. This does two things:

1) It takes the issue of having to be the bad guy out of the hands of the gate agent. "Computer says no" is a lot easier to run with than having the image of being a boarding dragon inspecting everyone's BP in the line.
2) The customer learns they will be rejected automatically. The learning process for the customers is always going to be much longer than for the staff or FFs. And now they are much more likely to be turned back.

This is a win for priority boarding, as now there will be fewer line-lingerers who get waved through because the gate agent can't be bothered denying them once they get there. The trial would have failed if people who were not supposed to be boarding yet simply waltzed through as they have done in the past. There will always be people who don't know the system (people who don't fly Qantas often), or try to cheat the system (aforementioned line-lingerers), and making the system more robust in dealing with those who don't follow the rules makes it easier for everyone who is supposed to benefit from those rules.

It is not a more efficient boarding system, but it is a win for those who are entitled to board early.

 

[Bindibuys]

Agree dont think they should be over riding. If family members want to ensure boarding together, book together.

Not always possible.
1 x amex $450 travel credit
1 x qf points
Was able to have the bookings linked.

 

[Daver6]

However, once the new system is fully rolled out unless you are on a PNR booked by MrsDrRon then you wont be able to board together if you do not qualify for the same boarding group on your own.

I hope that figure out a way to allow you to link bookings online.

 

[Quickstatus]

rejected automatically

That just slows the process, there should be a system in place where everyone at the boarding gate is aware of of their boarding group - whether by repeated announcement, displays or something else.

 

[Lynda2475]

I hope that figure out a way to allow you to link bookings online.

No need, if you are family book together on a single pnr. If just friends or colleagues zero reason for you to need to board together, board when eligible. Want that to be earlier then buy a higher class of ticket.

 

[dylarr]

No need, if you are family book together on a single pnr. If just friends or colleagues zero reason for you to need to board together, board when eligible. Want that to be earlier then buy a higher class of ticket.

This is all well and good but there are plenty of situations where it's not possible to just be on the same PNR. For example, my parents and I travel together frequently but we live in different states so we always have different origin points.

Thankfully I recall some anecdotal information being posted somewhere that suggests linked bookings will be in the same boarding group as the highest tiered member but it would be interesting to see if this works in practice. Linking bookings is easily done via the call centre. They add a 'LKRL' (Link Record Locator) keyword into both bookings. Or it can be done by a check-in agent at the airport.

 

[Daver6]

No need, if you are family book together on a single pnr. If just friends or colleagues zero reason for you to need to board together, board when eligible. Want that to be earlier then buy a higher class of ticket.

Not always practical for a family to book on a single PNR. So QF need a way to handle this scenario. So, yes, there is an obvious need. What you mean was, for you, there is no need. Don't generalise for the rest of the population.

 

[Lynda2475]

No I do not think status benefit should be eroded by allowing people to board early who aren't eligible. An adult can wait a few minutes until they are eligible.

If your parents are flying from a different airport they arent even boarding with you so why should they have your status benefit?

Me thinks those protesting are people who probably already breaking the boarding rules.

If my family are travelling with me I put them on same pnr, but if travelling on a different pnr neither I nor they would be so selfish to expect them to get my status benefit.

 

[dylarr]

If your parents are flying from a different airport they arent even boarding with you so why should they have your status benefit?

I'm not talking about when I'm not travelling with them at all. Like I mentioned in my post, we travel together frequently. This means one of us will to go the other's home port first then fly onwards from there. And in this situation, it's not possible to be on the same PNR.

Thankfully it seems QF have recognised these kinds of scenarios with mentions of linking bookings being a way around this.

If my family are travelling with me I put them on same pnr, but if travelling on a different pnr neither I nor they would be so selfish to expect them to get my status benefit.

So do you make your family wait outside the lounge whilst you enjoy it when they are on a seperate booking? Because it would be selfish of them to use your lounge benefit in this instance right?

 

[Lynda2475]

Why not one pnr for the segments flying together, positioning flight on separate pnr?

IME linking allows seat selection next to status pax on the flight the status pax is on. Never designed to give boarding privileges to people on separate positioning flights.

Still think this expectation is unrealistic.

 

[dylarr]

Why not one pnr for the segments flying together, positioning flight on separate pnr?

Because you lose connection protection in case of IRROPS and it is often more expensive to book positioning sectors separately as opposed to benefiting from married segment pricing.

 

[Cognac]

That just slows the process, there should be a system in place where everyone at the boarding gate is aware of of their boarding group - whether by repeated announcement, displays or something else.

It's not slowing the process, it is the process. Having announcements and displays is all part of that, but if someone tries to break the rules the system automatically rejecting them is far easier than requiring a (not always available) spare gate agent go down the line and manually check everyone.

This is the whole point. People have been getting annoyed at non-priority pax just jumping the queue and boarding anyway. The system rejecting those people at the gate is doing exactly what it was designed to do. Priority pax get down the bridge first, can stow their bags right over their heads, and start reading their book X minutes before the last passenger takes their seat.

Now, do you really think these two people being rejected at the gate is going to slow the boarding process? The only times that might be true is if they are either the first people trying to get through the gate, or, if somehow, miraculously, the queue at the aircraft door has diminished to zero in the time it takes for those pax to be rejected and the next two to make it down the bridge.

 

[Captain Halliday]

there should be a system in place where everyone at the boarding gate is aware of of their boarding group

Like printing it on the boarding pass?

 

[anat0l]

Like printing it on the boarding pass?

That just slows the process, there should be a system in place where everyone at the boarding gate is aware of of their boarding group - whether by repeated announcement, displays or something else.

This is not a failure of awareness.

The system fails because people do not follow instructions whether by accident, wilful ignorance or malice (including the classic line, "no one tells me what to do").

All modelling of whether a boarding process is good all comes down to the assumption that all passengers will do the right thing.

You can have a fair (proper) boarding system or a fast one... difficult to have both.

Mind, if all passengers did the right thing, having to rejig the boarding procedure wouldn't have been necessary at all.

 

[Quickstatus]

Like printing it on the boarding pass?

Won't be enough.

 

[anat0l]

Won't be enough.

I haven't seen the new system in action, but I presume it's printed on the BP. Then when called for boarding, they announce to look at your BP then listen for group number to come forward.

In a lot of places around the world, that's usually sufficient, and it works fine. Maybe we Australians are less than capable of following instructions, but so there.

I know it's common in the US to have the current boarding group indicated on the gate FID. Some airlines create tensabarrier lines with labelled signs which people line up in. No domestic airport around Australia is well set up for either of these (some have gate FIDs, but the display programs need to be updated to allow extra info to be displayed).

 

[dylarr]

Won't be enough.

The group boarding FAQ https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-info/travel-advice/boarding-trial/group-boarding-faq.html states that you'll be notified about group boarding by email or SMS the day before the flight, that there'll be announcements, signage and updates to your boarding pass.

You could tattoo "YOU'RE IN BOARDING GROUP 4" on people's left arm and "DON'T BOARD UNTIL YOUR GROUP IS CALLED" on their right, and these people will still try to board with group 1 because... people.