British Airways will trial a new ‘Group 0’ boarding process from Tuesday

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• BJ says:

  9 Sep9 September 05:52

  Many very frequent travellers prefer to avoid the gate crowd and board at the end so I doubt a Group 0 will make much fifference to those so inclined. Does Group 0 go ahead of those requiring assistance?

  • meta says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:10

    Or indeed many times they ask for volunteers to gate check hand luggage in exchange for priority boarding.

    I also experienced many times when the agents never checked the group numbers so anyone could just walk through. And this wasn’t just at outstations, but at Heathtrow!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:12

    Assistance will still go first as it’s easier to board people with mobility issues when there’s no people trying to push past

  • BJ says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:24

    I agree with all these sentiments and experiences. It’s pot luck on a flight by flight basis what we find. It’s so frustrating as simply enforcing the current system would make things much better for all concerned.

  • masaccio says:

    9 Sep9 September 07:17

    Not if we fly WTP. I want to be on early so I use the overhead bin next to me. Row 1 of CE has the same problem.

    • Rob says:

      9 Sep9 September 07:53

      It seems a memo has gone out on this because in recent weeks crew bags have seemed to be spread out a bit more.

      • Paul says:

        9 Sep9 September 10:36

        The lack of operation understanding and expertise at BA is now simply staggering. This idea should not have gotten past the interns coffee break. It’s insane to add more complexity to a system that is not working

• PhillC says:

  9 Sep9 September 06:06

  In my experience, the ultra-important people get boarded in advance of all others anyway. With only 5000 GLLs I doubt this will make any difference

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:11

    I just hope they don’t announce it as ‘Gold Guest List’ at the gate as most gold members won’t know what that is and they’ll just hear gold and assume the guest list is just a list of gold members

    • John says:

      9 Sep9 September 07:40

      Who came up with the name GGL anyway? Why not just platinum or diamond or whatever.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        9 Sep9 September 07:52

        Mainly because it’s still considered BA Gold for most purposes and it’s just benefits on top of gold at a few airports (I’ve only seen GGL on my boarding passes on flights from LHR and the GGL appears under your name. In the status section of the BP it still says Gold).

        The main drawback of this is the soft landing doesn’t take GGL into account. If you don’t have enough tier points for gold you’ll soft land to silver.

        • Andrew says:

          9 Sep9 September 09:47

          @SaveEastCoastRewards you sure about that?

  • Paul says:

    9 Sep9 September 10:41

    If the system worked you would be right.
    The problem is it’s not working now. Group 0 is those with excess hand bags. Calling them forward creates the queues that 2 staff cannot then manage as they are too busy tagging bags ( some of which never make the hold as savvy travellers rip them off going down the jetty and board with impunity)

    Hand baggage issues need to be dealt with before security, rigourously!

    Deal with that and you have a fighting chance that group boarding can be managed.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  9 Sep9 September 06:09

  I agree with you, I wish they’d fix the current system first. Even when they board in order you have to deal with those people who crowd the gate area. You can’t be sure if they’re really group 1 and so when they start boarding group 1 you need to look and see if they’re moving towards the gate, by the time you’ve sussed that out they’re already calling group 2. The signs say take a seat until your group number is called but people ignore that. Perhaps they need to insist nobody crowds round the gate area.

  I’d prefer to board last. So if the flight is on time you can be ok turning up a few minutes before gate closing time but if it’s late it’s riskier. It seems many times these days (at LHR) the gate agents don’t switch the sign to boarding at a proper time. At one time you knew you still had plenty of time to get to the gate when the screens switched to boarding.

  • Max says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:48

    Re: changing the gate to boarding, this infuriates me! Was on I think a KL flight BEG-AMS and the gate boarding info was just… Not updated. Sat in the lounge without a care in the world it was only my own suspicion that made me leave and go to gate – I was second or third last to board and the gate info was still not updated. Same thing happened on Easyjet to London from Zurich – but I missed that one, despite being sat literally next to the gate…

    • Phillip says:

      9 Sep9 September 08:38

      I had the same with OS in Vienna! Was in the very crowded lounge with nowhere to sit – didn’t really want to be there, stood in front of the screen waiting to see “boarding” and had I not gone to the gate when I did, the plane would have been off without me! OS took no responsibility. They blamed the lounge.

      • Jenny Reed says:

        9 Sep9 September 09:25

        Had this on Thursday in Dallas. The board in the lounge didn’t even have a gate displayed for my flight to LHR, it was only showing on the app, otherwise I would’ve just stayed in the lounge.

        • cc says:

          10 Sep10 September 13:33

          Not happened to me, but in lounge at Copenhagen, overheard passenger say to lounge reception that no info on gate and reception saying “they sometimes forget to update it”

  • Dubious says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:56

    I experienced the gate crush on my last BA flight. One person who was in Group 3 believed they were boarding ‘Groups 1, 2 and 3’ – not helped by the signage above the gate saying exactly that. In reality it was Group 1 only.

    It is not just a BA issue – I’ve seen the same on LCC flights too…

    • Michael says:

      9 Sep9 September 07:07

      It would be best to board group 1 through the priority lane while allowing group 2 to queue in the tensa maze, and board sequential groups through the tensa maze while leaving the priority line free for groups 1-3 to bypass the main queue (if arriving after their group has been called). This is how most of the US carriers operate it and seems to work well.

      KLM have huge signs at the gate areas in AMS saying “Sky Priority, Groups 1 and 2, go to the top of the queue”.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        9 Sep9 September 07:54

        I don’t like signs encouraging people to go to the top of the queue. How do you know that the people you’re cutting in front of also aren’t business class, gold, whatever?

    • Matt says:

      9 Sep9 September 09:58

      I have found 80% of the time (particularly at non UK airports) they do indeed board groups 1-3 all together.

      US airlines enforce it and for the most part passengers follow it. But I think that has to do with US airlines now selling higher group numbers. If BA enforced it they may find another revenue opportunity…

• Celia says:

  9 Sep9 September 06:11

  Dusseldorf boarding – same as SA…

• Chris says:

  9 Sep9 September 06:14

  This is an admission of failure by BA. The current system is a farce, and nobody, staff or passengers pay any attention to it. We’ve just flown out in F from LHR and despite being at the gate before KO ( literally) we calculated we were about the 100th to board. I tend to agree there’s a lot to be said to waiting until the end or borrow some children which apparently can be any age up to the mid- 20s

  • Andrew says:

    9 Sep9 September 09:52

    If you’re in F (especially in today’s <8 F world) you have to just take it on yourself to walk around whatever barriers are in place to the front of the gate, then either down the First jetbridge or bypass the queue and walk down to the aircraft door.

    Yes it’s problematic, but it’s BA’s problem. Other airlines manage it. It gets worse because BA knows we’re happy to pay top dollar and accept declining results.

    • Rob says:

      9 Sep9 September 10:02

      Last time I did Singapore F, out of Frankfurt, they were actively queue combing and pulling out F passengers.

• James Wyatt says:

  9 Sep9 September 06:16

  Happy for the “few” zero/0 to go first. Just fix the current management of others! I am generally 1/2 and frankly I don’t care because I’m getting board but if you have an arrangement, stick to it.

• TimM says:

  9 Sep9 September 06:30

  I am accustomed to travelling one-class short haul and have experienced a fair number of boarding strategies. The most successful appears to be FILO (first-on, last-off) i.e. boarding in seat row order, most distant first (the back if one door is being used, the middle if two doors are). Passengers are told to remain seated and clear of the gate until their seat row is called forward. This requires a sufficiently large gate area with an effective local PA system plus an iron discipline from the gate staff.

  The free-for-all seating policy has its merits too as there is no time wasted looking for your seat no. and having to wait to reach your allocated seat. I used to race to the middle to get an extra legroom exit row seat while most people choose to sit as near the doors as possible.

  Using more than one door is a no-brainer to reduce boarding and disembarkation times. Clearly rarely possible with an airbridge, short haul. Ryanair don’t shun airbridges just because of the extra airport fee!

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:47

    It’s close to that – the study I read showed you need to board alternate rows so that people can be using the overhead lockers unimpeded also

    • Michael says:

      9 Sep9 September 07:02

      Yes, I think between this and the fact that families like to board in groups and not be split, truly random boarding is very nearly as quick.

  • BJ says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:59

    My memory of flying longhaul in the 80s and 90s was that it was almost universally assistance/extra time, First, Business, Elites, then FILO for the main cabin. It was done by announcements and associated warnings and for the most part it worked reasonably well as most people remained seated until called. The system wasn’t broken but some airlines tried to fix or improve it anyway with various groups and boarding strategies with the result that things have just becone more chaotic over time.

    • Andrew. says:

      9 Sep9 September 07:21

      Back in the 90s/00s when BMI had their own wing at EDI, they opened the Business Lounge door first and boarded them before even announcing the departure in the regular lounge.

      • BJ says:

        9 Sep9 September 07:41

        From memory of flights to/from GLA with them at the time they did the same thing there too I think.

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          9 Sep9 September 07:56

          There’s still the door in the now BA lounge that used to be used for boarding the flights from Glasgow when it was still the bmi lounge. It’s just BA kept using the gates they always used when they took over the bmi lounge so the BA aircraft never use the gate right next to the lounge.

  • mkcol says:

    9 Sep9 September 07:31

    I recall when I was Purser at easyJet several years ago when it was free seating we had an excellent dispatcher at EDI who would always board from the rear door. Pax would rush to the front to bagsie the best seats & we’d be boarded in under 10 minutes easily.

    • BJ says:

      9 Sep9 September 07:45

      Canny 🙂

• BJ says:

  9 Sep9 September 06:38

  My perception from taking flights with Air Asia and EasyJet is that LCC generally seem to get the likes of an a320 boarded a bit quicker than full service carriers like BA. Curious whether this is just my imagination playing tricks on me or if others have got the same impression?

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    9 Sep9 September 06:59

    It’s easier with a single class cabin. Plus traditionally the low cost carriers have been happy to ‘board’ you (scan your boarding pass) and have you standing round waiting until the plane is ready for actual boarding although that’s happening more often now with full service carriers too

    • Michael says:

      9 Sep9 September 07:04

      It’s also quicker with less hand baggage. EasyJet et al limit hand baggage which speeds things up. A lot of the delays on boarding BA are from people trying to stow huge amounts of hand baggage.

  • Michael C says:

    9 Sep9 September 07:38

    100% true of AirAsia this summer, I definitely noticed that too!

  • John says:

    9 Sep9 September 07:45

    To me the main reason why BA and legacy carriers are slow seems to be because people in the seats towards the front stand in the aisle to take off their coats and put their bags up, forcing people seated further down to wait.

    On my last A3 flight, an A321, given that boarding Greeks tends to make western European BA flights look speedy, I was 10th to board and from the time I sat down it was 55 minutes until doors closed, and there was no lull, people were continually coming down the aisle.

    • Phillip says:

      9 Sep9 September 08:43

      If Aegean want to board a plane quickly they can get everyone sat down in 10 minutes. I’ve seen that happen on numerous occasions when they needed to get the aircraft moving. If there’s no rush, and they let people take their time, then it’s all about the island life pace!…

    • cin4 says:

      9 Sep9 September 09:26

      Idiots do that on all carriers.

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