Has VA given up on priority boarding?

[Mattg]

I’ve usually found that priority boarding works well on Virgin Australia. Unfortunately, not so on my last couple of flights.

I was flying out of BNE last Friday night. The gate agent announced that boarding would be in two stages, with priority boarding called first. She then simply invited everyone in the vicinity of the gate area to board through the priority lane, regardless of whether they were entitled to priority boarding. About a minute later, they also started boarding through the general lane, even though there were still lots of people waiting in the “priority” line.

This morning, flying out of CNS, they did at least board the priority lane first. But once again, many of the people in the priority lane were not entitled to priority boarding and the gate agent made no effort to turn anyone away.

I never thought I’d see the day when Qantas consistently did priority boarding better than Virgin, but I think we may be there?

What are other people’s recent experiences with priority boarding on Virgin Australia?

 

[RooFlyer]

No problem in my recent flights ex HBA and MEL.

HBA can be a bit fraught because of crowding at the gate but surprisingly the crowd tends to hold back rather than push forward for priority.

At MEL the physical separation of the priority queue area and the general boarding area seems to take care of the issue there, too.

 

[Saab34]

I’ve always found those airports with third party staff, ie CNS, care factor is somewhat reduced at times.

 

[kerfuffle]

Worked fine yesterday afternoon at BNE but did feel like half the plane had priority boarding. I've also seen it enforced when general boarding is already well underway and I rock up in the priority lane

 

[Harrison_133]

Apart from some occasional blips, they've been pretty consistent with priority on most of my many VA flights over the last 12 months. Or at least, I've had no memorable priority boarding "fails" of late.

In my experience, the worst offender for sub-par priority is Brisbane starting general boarding a bit too soon.

More recently though, I've been at the back of some pretty long priority lines on flights out of Melbourne and Sydney and it's still been enforced well. On each occasion, they've held back the general lane until priority was clear.

In saying that, I do agree with @Mattg, they don't really make much of an effort anymore to turn ineligible guests away from the priority lane. That could do with some improvement.

 

[Stealthflyer]

All my flights out of HBA and MEL have had priority boarding enforced as always. As @RooFlyer noted, the HBA queues are more like crowds, but it still seems to work somehow. I’ve observed that the VA staff aren’t afraid to yell out instructions to waiting passengers at HBA. That usually sorts us out.

 

[markis10]

I’ve always found those airports with third party staff, ie CNS, care factor is somewhat reduced at times.

Agree, don’t get me started on MCY!

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

Mrs Hawk and I did BNE-SYD-MEL and vv last week. Priority boarding was enforced fairly well, although Mrs Hawk did comment on the number of people on our SYD-BNE leg who had access to priority. As we were in 3D/3E it didn't bother us too much as there was still plenty of overhead space for our bags.
With the inclement weather in BNE at the moment there seems to be more flights boarding through forward door only, which slows life down....perhaps VA has been deprioritising priority to get pax onboard quicker with only one entrance??

 

[PERLHR]

Worked fine yesterday afternoon at BNE but did feel like half the plane had priority boarding. I've also seen it enforced when general boarding is already well underway and I rock up in the priority lane

Maybe this is why they are trying to reduce status numbers or.making it harder to achieve among other reasons?;...I agree...like most airlines ....half the load seem to have some sort of priority. Turn up after boarding commencement with priority or biz seat...might as well sit down and let them all on first!

 

[Mattg]

Maybe this is why they are trying to reduce status numbers or.making it harder to achieve among other reasons?;...I agree...like most airlines ....half the load seem to have some sort of priority. Turn up after boarding commencement with priority or biz seat...might as well sit down and let them all on first!

This is why the gate staff need to actively turn away people who aren't supposed to be in the priority line. When the line is that long, either the staff aren't doing this or you're flying out of MEL/SYD/CBR on a Monday morning.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

This is why the gate staff need to actively turn away people who aren't supposed to be in the priority line. When the line is that long, either the staff aren't doing this or you're flying out of MEL/SYD/CBR on a Monday morning.

It's also satisfying to watch people being turned back

 

[SeaWolf]

I flew SYD-LST yesterday and priority boarding occurred effectively, from what I could see. I was second in the Priority line and they were definitely holding the general queue and using both scanners for Priority customers.

It does seem to depend which port you're passing through, but SYD is usually pretty good with it.

 

[MH_fan]

I've found VA to be reasonably consistent when it comes to priority boarding. It's always occurred on every flight (even on my recent CNS-SYD flight) I've been on and I have seen ineligible people turned away (much to their displeasure).
I have noticed that when they are only using the front door, they separate the general boarding with calls for the last 10 rows first (which makes sense).

 

[ramboflyer]

Did a Virgin HBA - MEL return last week and there was priority boarding in Hobart but I was sure there were many there not entitled (I always book Economy X). I was surprised coming home from Melbourne that there was no announcement about anything - let alone priority boarding. The departures board never changed either. The flight was late and all of sudden the long lines just started moving. I put it down to the late flight and wanting to get everyone on asap.

 

[Mattg]

Flying out of NTL today, the staff did call priority boarding first. This was an early call and I was in the bathroom at the time. When I got to the gate, they had started general boarding and were just boarding everyone through both lanes, with the queues merging at the single scanner. Again, nobody was turned away from the priority queue (and there was no priority being given to it anyway).