British Airways trialling ‘personalised boarding times’ at Heathrow Terminal 5

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• LostAntipod says:

  18 Nov18 November 09:37

  Glad BA have finally woken up that the boarding experience at their home base is poor, particularly for their premium pax.
  I flew to EDI last week and a flustered gate agent kept shouting “we are only boarding groups 1 and 2 at this time, please wait until its your turn”. When i reached her i pointed out “do you realise the information screen above your head says “now boarding all passengers”? The look on her face. She didnt know, and she’s managing the boarding. Not blaming her specifically – BA just dont have a grip on the process. Go back to separate lanes for groups, and put the signs where people can see them.

  • Blair says:

    18 Nov18 November 10:28

    Yes, signs and separate lines. It’s not revolutionary how to resolve. Absolutely no policing of boarding at LHR; the group 1 call goes out and anyone just wanders into the queue.

  • Andrew says:

    18 Nov18 November 10:42

    Often at EDI the queue can be so long that it merges with EZY boarding queue alongside.

    • Jonathan says:

      18 Nov18 November 12:03

      Pre Covid (& possibly again now), well over half the plane would be Group 1 or 2 on an EDI, GVA, JER etc so even when they police it there’s not much benefit. I’d rather stay in Lounge & wander over as last few are boarding. There’s always space in a nearby overhead bin if you’re prepared to rearrange stuff so it’s positioned appropriately.

      • Catalan says:

        18 Nov18 November 12:23

        @Jonathon. You’re exactly the type of passenger that this trial is targeted at. The ones who’d rather stroll down to the gate ten minutes before departure time and then delay the aircraft whilst looking for somewhere to stow their carry-on. I’ve witnessed it so many times.

        • Jonathan says:

          18 Nov18 November 15:14

          If you ever flew BA then you’d know they close the gate 20minutes before departure.

          Turning up 5 mins before gate closing just means I avoid the scrum of people desperately trying to be the first on board with their 2 oversized carry-ons, “duty free” purchases & winter coat which they stuff in the bins with no thought for others (normally then closing the bin as some sort of statement of ownership).

          I have a 100% hit rate of walking on with no queuing, scanning the bins en route to my seat, finding space for my 1 regulation bag & being seated in my aisle seat before the gate closed time. Apologies if I offend anyone by asking them to hang their coat on the seat hook provided (as I do when the flight is full) so a bag can fit in the locker.

• Alan Robertson says:

  18 Nov18 November 09:38

  Are you also guaranteed a specific overhead space for your carry-on bags?

  • John says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:41

    No

  • gordon says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:48

    That is a issue that needs to be addressed…. I don’t always use a carry on but I get fed up with late boarders that try and find a overhead slot for their carry on down the isle somewhere and once the plane has landed your waiting to disembark but are delayed because of the confusion caused by people trying to retrieve them….

    • Jonathan says:

      18 Nov18 November 15:19

      You’re not late if you board >20mins before scheduled departure. BA’s failure to police hand baggage limits & appropriate use of bins is the issue. There’s always space in front of your row if you know what you’re doing & if it does go behind you then common courtesy says you wait to retrieve it rather than try & be a salmon battling upstream.

• Doc says:

  18 Nov18 November 10:06

  I have my doubts this will work. My parents who were due to fly yesterday had all sorts of issues with the BA website when trying to upload their travel docs including the COVID stuff and it would not allow them and we had lost of issues at check in yesterday. If something like that doesn’t work, I cant see how this is going to work and is going to create all sort of issues.

• r* says:

  18 Nov18 November 10:25

  Its not gonna be great for ppl in low groups as presumably they will board in somesort of seat order so anyone boarding last will find theres no overhead bag space near them.

• Mike says:

  18 Nov18 November 10:26

  “empty priority boarding line”, when I flew out of T5A in October there was no priority boarding line at all (no sign, no banded off line) and I was there before boarding started (just one large queue). BA not only have to call by group, but have a priority line AND enforce it, so that if they’ve called 1-3 they turn back group 7.

  • Blair says:

    18 Nov18 November 10:30

    Yes! Some naysayers will say we’re being snobby but when I buy a CE ticket I do so in part because I don’t want to compete for overhead space. I regularly see some grabbers that board early, shove their case up above say row 4 then head down to row 10!

  • Blair says:

    18 Nov18 November 10:32

    In MAN, BA use separate queue for Group 1-3 and then Anyone Else. Those boarding from the Group 1-3 line who are in a higher group number get turned away. Not so at LHR.

• Paul says:

  18 Nov18 November 10:49

  “if you turn up when Group 1 had already been called, you can walk straight to the front via the (by then) empty priority boarding line.”
  Have these returned to T5 yet? Been missing since social distancing thing.

  • Blair says:

    18 Nov18 November 13:23

    Not returned on short haul IME

    • Toppcat says:

      19 Nov19 November 00:02

      Agreed

• Andrew says:

  18 Nov18 November 11:02

  The system won’t work. You’ll arrive from the lounge at your allotted time and it’ll be a free-for-all and then join a long queue down the airbridge.

• Andrew says:

  18 Nov18 November 11:03

  To note – if the aircraft has a First cabin, CW and silver customers are in Group 2 and only First and Gold are Group 1

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