Priority Boarding - not just a global farce

[markis10]

The joy of 30 minutes sitting on the tarmac going nowhere has always eluded me.

It has a number of benefits IMHO:

1. The opportunity to locate carry on in close proximity to you on the aircraft, lounge lurkers are these days often seen trying to cram things in at the last minute only to have the items relocated in space behind you - which results in swimming against the current at deplaning time. The trend to charge for checked baggage has only increased this recently.
2. No need to climb over your neighbours or wait for them to unbuckle so that you can ge to your window seat.
3. The opportunity to settle Mr and or Ms Jnr in and attach the extra restraints (seat belts of course) :shock:
4. To avail yourself to the best choice of onboard mags
5. Lastly and more importantly - to sample the fine onboard drinks early before they get exhausted mid flight.

 

[Keith009]

I like to get on early so I get to down a few glasses of champers prior to take off. And it's nice not having to wait. I've had very good priority boarding experiences internationally. I especially like the clear and distinct priority lines that SQ and CX install. QF out of SYD and MEL is also pretty good, but can be a bit messy.

A hit and miss with BA at LHR. Oddly, BA is much better at outstations like SYD, HKG, SIN and BKK.

Domestically - AA enforces this rather well, apart from that one time at SEA when they couldn't care less that people from Group 6 were boarding when First and Elite AAccess were called. It's always scrum with QF domestic unfortunately.

 

[harvyk]

Yeah, I've usually found that sitting in the lounge means that you miss the priority boarding calls.

That said, when I'm flying in J I'll usually just go board as J would have no doubt been called by that stage, and I'd have needed to come down from the lounge (which can take 5 or more minutes depending on the distance between the lounge and gate)

Early boarding is good. It gives you a chance to get your carry on close to you, get comfortable, get a drink (if in a class which does that) flick through the magazines, or start up a movie or TV show if on a plane which turns on it's AVOD whilst still on the ground such as the QF A380 or any AirNZ flight with AVOD installed.

It also means that you spend less time standing in lines.