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

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

• Paul says:

  10 Sep10 September 11:22

  Airlines must just make economy seats bigger and with enough legroom for a person of a height of 2.3m. Boarding protocol should be the least of our worries. Them economy class seats are inhumane.

  • Bernard says:

    10 Sep10 September 15:43

    Erhem! They have.
    It’s called premium economy and available on long haul aircraft.
    But many choose not to pay for it.
    And before you go further, remember AA tried MRTC? Didn’t work as again people weren’t prepared to pay for it.
    So before anyone claims to speak for ‘people’, perhaps it’s best to accept the many see things differently?

    • paul-somerset says:

      10 Sep10 September 22:06

      I would love for easyJet etc to swap their 3 std front row seats for 2 X extra wide ones.

      I’d happily pay 50% more for a seat.

      AND they would solve the “fat person descrimination” lobby as such seats would be suitable for all sizes.

      In the same way a well off traveller can pay for first class, a larger person can pay for a larger seat if they wish to fly.

• AJames says:

  10 Sep10 September 11:23

  From my experience, boarding in row order, with Group 1 being able to board as they wish works well. For those of us who follow the rules there are continual annoyances: unorderly queuing and those pushing in causing a crush; oversize hand luggage being allowed onto the plane; multiple bags being allowed for one person; under seat bags put into the overheads bins; economy passengers using the club area overhead bins (and OK’d by crew); club passengers who put their bags in the earlier bins when they are seated further down the club cabin; crew bags blocking the first overhead bins both sides. And once you land there is the stampede for disembarking; the crush against the luggage carousel edge, blocking access to others, instead of the requirement to stand behind the line being properly marshalled. Years ago, traveling with BA was orderly and a joy. It still could be, but passengers need to be properly informed and marshalled, with the requirements enforced without exception.

• Rantallion says:

  10 Sep10 September 11:53

  I’ll be flying back to LHR from JFK this Wed – it’ll be interesting to see how this works in practice.

• Andrew says:

  10 Sep10 September 12:09

  Another stupid idea from British Don’t Care ways

• Anon says:

  10 Sep10 September 15:22

  The key question for the airlines is jot what’s the best way to board an airliner, the question is how can we make the most possible money out of this?

  Ryanair are the pioneers on this. BA will pretend they’re different for a while but will eventually copy.

• paul-somerset says:

  10 Sep10 September 17:03

  How hard can it really be?

  If entering at front of plane, board back 6 rows, middle 6, and then front 6, then back 12, mid 12, front 12 and then the rest.

  • Adam says:

    10 Sep10 September 17:36

    To true
    Unfortunately the airlines feel they need to keep the precious people happy.

• Adan says:

  10 Sep10 September 17:35

  The best boarding system ever used was during Covid, Back of the plane first working to the front, only 4 rows at a time. I’ve never seen planes board so efficiently and quickly.

• PMcC says:

  10 Sep10 September 19:34

  This is ridiculous and confirms my suspicious that BA is rudderless and will not make it back to any sort of acceptable standard. I fly BA J, a lot, and I have great affection for BA, but it is chaotic boarding at LHR. No point blaming the gate staff, it is always the same, long unstructured process where they beg for people to check carry on bags. They use up every second of the padding on the flight time and inevitably I spend 40 minutes at the gate. The absurdity of this new policy is mind boggling, groups 1 to 3 are comingled in one queue anyway so that’s a joke to start with. Are BA basically saying anyone with GGL will be a massive A Hole and be pricing through the group 1-3 queue saying DYKWIA. Operationally BA, including lounges, are a mess. I freely admit, I Still love BA, but I would not ever take my children or recommend my friends or family fly BA J or F. I love flying and airports so for me it is all interesting and enjoying, I suspect it may be some sort of Stockholm syndrome.

  • JF says:

    11 Sep11 September 09:42

    I am so with you on this. I use BA Club Europe constantly given where my business operates, and I have now given up. My next five return trips this Autumn have all been moved to LH/LX (despite a relatively mediocre business class experience) as I am just sick to the back teeth of the complete degradation of BA’s service. Cramped and untidy aircraft, no real personality any more, constant delays, poor lounges at LHR (and overcrowded too). I flew BA Club World to and from the USA over the past few weeks a couple of times and it was barely any better – boarding in Chicago was a shambles. In case anyone wonders why this annoys those of us buying Business or First, it isn’t because of any sort of superiority complex it is actually because we PAY for a service (and a lot of money too) and we’d actually just like to receive the service we PAY for. That surely isn’t a lot to ask, clearly with Group 0 BA’s most loyal and highest yielding pax are finally being given some additional lip-service. How it works in practise will be another matter entirely given my own recent and numerous experiences.

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