Virgin priority boarding fail

[MEL_Traveller]

Priority boarding in Melbourne was a total failure this morning. Again the lounge called the flight too early, and then they started boarding general and priority at the same time despite the priority lane being rather long.

Maybe this is the new Melbourne speciality. The other ports I’ve flown to over the past few weeks don’t seem to stuff it up this much…

One positive though, the priority security screening lane in T4 was being enforced, with boarding passes checked and ineligible pax turned away.

From what I could gather from my chat with the lounge it really does come down to the gate agents, the lounge calls the flight when they get a call from the gate.

 

[Harrison_133]

From what I could gather from my chat with the lounge it really does come down to the gate agents, the lounge calls the flight when they get a call from the gate.

I got the feeling whoever was announcing them in the lounge this morning was taking the liberty to call them 30 minutes before departure regardless. I deliberately waited for a bit after the boarding call, then dawdled to the gate and still reached it only to witness the ground crew actually call the lounge.

 

[jakeseven7]

I got the feeling whoever was announcing them in the lounge this morning was taking the liberty to call them 30 minutes before departure regardless. I deliberately waited for a bit after the boarding call, then dawdled to the gate and still reached it only to witness the ground crew actually call the lounge.

There was a post upthread by someone who spoke to a VA2 ground dragon who said it was their (individual) call on how to board now.....

…probably why we are seeing such variation in how they board. Maybe we will be asked to cartwheel backwards next if they think it will be faster

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I got the feeling whoever was announcing them in the lounge this morning was taking the liberty to call them 30 minutes before departure regardless. I deliberately waited for a bit after the boarding call, then dawdled to the gate and still reached it only to witness the ground crew actually call the lounge.

disappointing!

 

[Harrison_133]

disappointing!

I should add that this staff member even announced that a cancelled flight to the Gold Coast had commenced boarding! And that was right on the 30min prior mark…The flight was indeed cancelled and not boarding.

 

[RooFlyer]

When will this airport ever see a reasonable upgrade?

Don’t get me started. There is a master plan and the master plan calls for doubling in the terminal size. Now the unknown factor is when this master plan will be implemented or even started let alone finished.

i’ll just say that the previous master plan got about a third of the way through and then stopped.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

When will this airport ever see a reasonable upgrade?

Its similar to WLG airport.
That one is totally constrained by land, for HBA, its the building.
For HBA, have to gut and rebuild, which would cost millions.
Its constrained by size of the airport building.
Even if QF wanted to do something, its up to HBA Airport to agree or not.
With not too many int flights, I guess HBA Airport is happy to keep things as they are.
HBA has the land, but its the dollars that have to be spent that is the issue.

 

[MooTime]

Its similar to WLG airport.
That one is totally constrained by land, for HBA, its the building.
For HBA, have to gut and rebuild, which would cost millions.
Its constrained by size of the airport building.
Even if QF wanted to do something, its up to HBA Airport to agree or not.
With not too many int flights, I guess HBA Airport is happy to keep things as they are.
HBA has the land, but its the dollars that have to be spent that is the issue.

should've placed a sporting oval with few grandstands as part of master plan & funds would've flowed in!!

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

If you take a look at google maps, where there are 3 red spots on the map, on the left hand side of the HBA terminal, those 3 spots could be where the Airport Fire Service is located, if they move that more towards the left, to where those trees are, the terminal can be expanded that way, without changing the runway.
Adelaide Airport did it, they combined the int and dom terminals into one, and the former dom terminal is now that major carpark.
Granted that VA does not fly to WLG anymore, but for that airport, its hard unless the airport starts buying the golf course, and expand it that way.
On the point of the gist of the thread that is: but with Aust airports only having one way aerobridge down to the plane for dom flights, it will be time consuming to have priority boarding, I mean, the real deal.
We have "our Aussie way of priority boarding", because once our BP is scanned, we all have to merge into one line to get onto the plane, and only split where the airport/airline lets people board and deplane via the rear doors, ie, have to use the stairs.
Until we have a way of getting onto an Aust dom flight plane via the middle doors, (grin, wry one), priority boarding will for both airlines be a fail.
Ok, so you get your BP as an SG/WP/P1 scanned first, but once past that point, its the fastest ones that get on first. no matter what tier you are.
Not to mention that some readers of BP at the gate take a few go(es) for the green light to pling.
Some people still like the paper BP, and this can also affect PS (priority lane scanning of BP and also PB (priority boarding).

 

[AFF Editor]

Following the recent discussion on here, I've clarified with Virgin that the only change they've made to their official boarding procedure is to call general boarding sooner after priority boarding is called. But the gate agents should still board the full priority queue before commencing general boarding.

Details here:

Virgin Clarifies Priority Boarding Policy

Virgin Australia made a minor change to its flight boarding procedure last year, but the priority boarding queue retains its priority.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[jakeseven7]

Following the recent discussion on here, I've clarified with Virgin that the only change they've made to their official boarding procedure is to call general boarding sooner after priority boarding is called. But the gate agents should still board the full priority queue before commencing general boarding.

Details here:

Virgin Clarifies Priority Boarding Policy

Virgin Australia made a minor change to its flight boarding procedure last year, but the priority boarding queue retains its priority.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Interesting and confirms the procedure change as mentioned upthread - again AFF members knew something had gone wrong first!

Clearly many gate dragons have very different interpretations of the new policy given the ongoing experiences from AFF members of both queues being called at exactly the same time and not waiting to board the ‘full priority queue’ at all.

I suspect as already many have discussed, VA2 are trying to improve on time performance and tweaked the policy relaxing it and net outcome is staff are doing whatever they see fit.

 

[QF WP]

In all of my flying recently, I’ve not had a problem with PB. I’m always coming from the Lounge, where they get a page from the gate once boarding has started, so I’m at the BP scanners when general boarding has already commenced. Never had an issue with general boarding being paused. I have more issue with trying to work out which side the Priority Boarding is being handled. Seems to be no consistency (BNE is always on the RHS). But heh, first world problems.

 

[Dan_]

I’ve found it’s still working fine, the main issue I’ve had lately is late calls from the lounge, especially for gates that are a decent way back in Syd like 42. By the time the lounge calls it and you get there general boarding has almost finished.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In all of my flying recently, I’ve not had a problem with PB. I’m always coming from the Lounge, where they get a page from the gate once boarding has started, so I’m at the BP scanners when general boarding has already commenced. Never had an issue with general boarding being paused. I have more issue with trying to work out which side the Priority Boarding is being handled. Seems to be no consistency (BNE is always on the RHS). But heh, first world problems.

Been a problem recently at MEL where either gate agents or lounge staff have been calling flights that have not started boarding .

Seems a real issue for MEL to get it right.

 

[pauly7]

Another ‘fail’ (but is it a fail now because of the change in boarding procedures?!?) in Brisbane tonight.

PB called and then literally perhaps 3 seconds later when only 2 PB folk had boarded (with about 30 people in PB lane behind them still), general boarding called and the gate staff started scanning both lanes same time.

So technically according to Matt, this complies with their new policy right….? But scanning 2 PB passengers before open slather in the ‘spirit’ of their new policy? Don’t know.

It’s a pity they’ve devalued this benefit.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Probably nowadays, its all on as fast as possible.
Also, where they can use rear stairs to deplane, also, off as fast as possible.
Meaning shorter turnaround.
If you take a look at the flightaware website, and take a look at incoming flights, the turn around time is very short, and also they (both VA and QF), make their planes work very hard, ie, some days they do trans Aust twice on the same aircraft, and then do a short one from maybe MEL - ADL - SYD and then call it a night.
QF will also do a as quick on and as quick off as possible.
Due to todays wind in SYD, and a lot of flight cancellations, PB would be out the window.
And only one runway in ops.

 

[lovestotravel]

Been a problem recently at MEL where either gate agents or lounge staff have been calling flights that have not started boarding .

Seems a real issue for MEL to get it right.

Yep again at MEL for me last week

Calling boarding in the lounge - get to gate and standing around for 5-15 minutes

No excuse but a FAIL

 

[AFF Editor]

So technically according to Matt, this complies with their new policy right….? But scanning 2 PB passengers before open slather in the ‘spirit’ of their new policy? Don’t know.

Nope - although general boarding is now called sooner after priority boarding starts, the official policy is still to clear the entire priority queue before general boarding commences.

 

[justinbrett]

Nope - although general boarding is now called sooner after priority boarding starts, the official policy is still to clear the entire priority queue before general boarding commences.

So now we know the official policy, and there are many reports of it not being followed, perhaps rename this thread "Virgin doesn't care about priority boarding"

 

[pauly7]

Nope - although general boarding is now called sooner after priority boarding starts, the official policy is still to clear the entire priority queue before general boarding commences.

Got it, clearly not being followed though.

Wonder if there is an “unofficial” just get those bodies on the plane as fast as you can in anyway you can policy which because of the pressure to meet turnaround KPIs staff are feeling the pressure and just doing what they see fit.

Again back flying from Sydney tonight both lanes scanned exactly the same time. PB still ‘offered from the dedicated lane’ but general boarding started exactly the same time tonight, not even a rudimentary token headstart for PB today!