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British Airways to start boarding passengers by group from 12th December

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Following numerous trials, British Airways has finally decided to push ahead with boarding in groups.  The new process will go live on 12th December.

Your boarding pass will now carry a group number. 

These are:

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

Long-haul:

Group 1 – BA Gold or oneworld equivalent, First Class passengers

Group 2 – BA Silver or oneworld equivalent, Club World passengers

Group 3 – BA Bronze or oneworld equivalent, World Traveller Plus passengers

Group 4 and Group 5 – World Traveller passengers, split by row

Short-haul:

Group 1 – BA Gold or oneworld equivalent, Club Europe

Group 2 – BA Silver or oneworld equivalent

Group 3 – BA Bronze or oneworld equivalent

Group 4 – Euro Traveller

Group 5 – Euro Traveller on a hand baggage only fare

It is not clear what will happen with mixed groups – historically there has been an informal policy that children or partners could board with higher status passengers in the same group.

The key to this new policy working will be the announcements.  All passengers will be expected to be seated by the departure gate.  They will be strongly encouraged not to congregate by the boarding area.

Only when their boarding group is announced should they stand up and make their way to the gate.  The idea is to replace what can be a scrum with a more laid back process.  It will also be easier to police hand baggage, since it will be clear to boarding staff at each stage in the process how much each group should be allowed to bring on.

Will it work?  We will see …..

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Comments (130)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Karen Robertson says:
    18 Nov18 November 08:50

    I am guessing those needing special assistance will still be able to get on first?

    • Barry cutters says:
      18 Nov18 November 09:10

      No. There’s a new policy, they will now have to wait until every one else has boarded . There will then be a quick test (something like walk along a straight line unassisted, lift your arms above your head 3 times etc)- those that are deemed to be perfectly capable of boarding an aircraft in a line like everybody else will be bagged up and put in the hold. There will also be a £150 admin fee. Genuine cases will be seated for free in first class ..

  • James says:
    18 Nov18 November 08:54

    Can they also please introduce & enforce a policy directed at those people who stand up in the way before their group is called ? Preferably through extensive use of Tazer.

  • Andy says:
    18 Nov18 November 09:01

    This policy seems to overlook two things:

    1) where is the group zero for passengers needing more time to board? E.g families with small children etc

    2) there aren’t enough seats (especially for long haul) at the gates (especially T5) to sit everyone

    • Alan says:
      18 Nov18 November 09:30

      For (1) won’t that be called ‘pre-boarding’ as they already call it, this outwith these new rules?

  • Tracey says:
    18 Nov18 November 09:01

    I think it is United that Board those in window seats first.

  • Alan says:
    18 Nov18 November 09:09

    Moderately hopeful this could work – Southwest do an even more granular system and it works really well. Of course most gates don’t have enough seating for full flights, so can’t see that bit working. The system also relies on BA staff (or the automated gates) refusing people that try to board too early, something they’ve historically never done.

    • RussellH says:
      18 Nov18 November 11:27

      Yes, we flew Southwest twice this past summer and their system seemed to work fine. Maybe, though because they did not charge for checked baggage and so no one desparate for overhead locker space.

  • Jonathan says:
    18 Nov18 November 09:10

    It always surprises me that BA silver and even bronze sometimes get to board with ticketed club passengers. On some routes (Barbados for example) these groups are more than half the plane.

    I agree there should be priority but always thought a fairer allocation was boarding them with premium economy.

    • Alan says:
      18 Nov18 November 09:32

      Haha try the Edinburgh flights then – normally more like a 3:1 split for status to non-status!

      • Nathan says:
        18 Nov18 November 09:59

        I flew out of Edinburgh on Monday evening, when this was being trialled, the departure lounge was empty by the time the ‘we invite BA Bronze and Oneworld (whatever)’ was read out!

  • Tilly says:
    18 Nov18 November 09:23

    Great if it’s enforced. If I’m in economy quite often i just wait until the end after the scrum has all gone through. I always check in luggage and regardless of long or short haul don’t take much hand baggage on anyway so always find somewhere to pop it, usually under the seat in front where i can see it.

    • Andy McIntyre says:
      18 Nov18 November 09:29

      Agree, great if it works and is policed well. Trying to board through the scrum at some gates is a nightmare.

  • Rami says:
    18 Nov18 November 09:27

    The Americans are really good in boarding by groups, AA have 7 groups. Wondering if status passengers who purchase HBO will be in group 5?

    • Alan says:
      18 Nov18 November 09:34

      Interestingly one of the AA groups is their credit card holders – maybe BA might be angling to add to BAPP benefits in a way that added zero cost from their perspective, perhaps to slot them in after Bronze?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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