Virgin priority boarding fail

[Must...Fly!]

In a related topic to PB failing, VA2 currently doing market research on passengers being able to buy priority boarding (as well as getting it via status).

How do people feel about this?

What difference does it make? You can buy it now along with priority check in and extra leg room in economy X

 

[jakeseven7]

What difference does it make? You can buy it now along with priority check in and extra leg room in economy X

They might unbundle it completely to be a much cheaper add on which would mean lots more people could use it which would be a difference.

I said it would be a great idea in the research, imagine if you could get PB for $5 for example.

 

[Must...Fly!]

They might unbundle it completely to be a much cheaper add on which would mean lots more people could use it which would be a difference.

I said it would be a great idea in the research, imagine if you could get PB for $5 for example.

Considering the competition can't sort out Priority boarding and hasn't been able to over decades, then whatever VA can do to increase revenue might not be a bad idea at all.

I agree that what we might see is an unbundling of economy X - that is, the possibility of buying individual items such as the seat, PB and PCI. Or maybe some extra points or SC (it becomes a class of its own, perhaps?). In the case of the former, more people might buy the individual items, leading to an increase in revenue. And those who want all of the benefits that currently come with economy X end up paying more as a whole.

What that means for Platinum status is another question though.

What if platinum as a status was removed, and we went back to the original Velocity status of Red, Silver and Gold? The benefits for Platinum are very thin - if you took out economy X, it's basically the same product.

 

[BNEFlyer]

They might unbundle it completely to be a much cheaper add on which would mean lots more people could use it which would be a difference.

I said it would be a great idea in the research, imagine if you could get PB for $5 for example.

Don't have an issue with it if they were to call for Economy X and Priority (insert brand name here) boarding after Business, Plat and Gold.

 

[jakeseven7]

Don't have an issue with it if they were to call for Economy X and Priority (insert brand name here) boarding after Business, Plat and Gold.

Hmmm yes..... I wonder if they would delineate between every single layer of PB offered....

 

[Must...Fly!]

Hmmm yes..... I wonder if they would delineate between every single layer of PB offered....

A switch to boarding groups would sort this out. Becomes a problem when you have more zones than rows in the plane (at least that's how it feels sometimes)...

 

[dk4]

IMO Virgin had/has one of the best priority boarding set ups (at its owned gates) that I have seen. It is/was so sophisticated and yet so simple, because it was well though out.

At its most basic level, I think it delineates well between "purple lane" and "red carpet", to ensure both groups have a good embarkation experience. Red carpet passengers generally don't have lounge access, so they do their waiting at the gate area. Purple lane passengers generally have lounge access, so they do their waiting away from the gate. The whole flow of humans through the gate area then acknowledges that basic dichotomy.

It functions well to allow allow purple priority passengers to decide if they want to board first, at their leisure or last. It also allows for last minute laptop work at the benches for business travellers, regardless of their colour code. And comfort and easy access for those travelling in the cheap seats with mobility issues.

The problem Virgin faces in monetising priority boarding, is that their owned gates are not designed for red and purple to mix until they enter the aerobridge. If you are seated in the the red carpet gate area, you would have to backtrack through the gate lounge and make a trek around to the purple lane. Conversely, calling a subset of red carpet passengers before others, is hindered by the one way, bottleneck layout of the seat and queuing paths, designed with a more egalitarian "first at the gate, first to board" mentality - so it will be interesting to see what they may come up with.

 

[jakeseven7]

IMO Virgin had/has one of the best priority boarding set ups (at its owned gates) that I have seen. It is/was so sophisticated and yet so simple, because it was well though out.

At its most basic level, I think it delineates well between "purple lane" and "red carpet", to ensure both groups have a good embarkation experience. Red carpet passengers generally don't have lounge access, so they do their waiting at the gate area. Purple lane passengers generally have lounge access, so they do their waiting away from the gate. The whole flow of humans through the gate area then acknowledges that basic dichotomy.

It functions well to allow allow purple priority passengers to decide if they want to board first, at their leisure or last. It also allows for last minute laptop work at the benches for business travellers, regardless of their colour code. And comfort and easy access for those travelling in the cheap seats with mobility issues.

The problem Virgin faces in monetising priority boarding, is that their owned gates are not designed for red and purple to mix until they enter the aerobridge. If you are seated in the the red carpet gate area, you would have to backtrack through the gate lounge and make a trek around to the purple lane. Conversely, calling a subset of red carpet passengers before others, is hindered by the one way, bottleneck layout of the seat and queuing paths, designed with a more egalitarian "first at the gate, first to board" mentality - so it will be interesting to see what they may come up with.

Never ever noticed the VA carpet colours in my life lol thanks for the education! Will look next time!

 

[dk4]

Never ever noticed the VA carpet colours in my life lol thanks for the education! Will look next time!

Harder to see the carpets with people crowded on them - but, PER, SYD & MEL are best for it IMO, BNE is a bit of a compromise (as pictured below)...

 

[eastwest101]

IMO Virgin had/has one of the best priority boarding set ups (at its owned gates) that I have seen. It is/was so sophisticated and yet so simple, because it was well though out.

At its most basic level, I think it delineates well between "purple lane" and "red carpet", to ensure both groups have a good embarkation experience. Red carpet passengers generally don't have lounge access, so they do their waiting at the gate area. Purple lane passengers generally have lounge access, so they do their waiting away from the gate. The whole flow of humans through the gate area then acknowledges that basic dichotomy.

It functions well to allow allow purple priority passengers to decide if they want to board first, at their leisure or last. It also allows for last minute laptop work at the benches for business travellers, regardless of their colour code. And comfort and easy access for those travelling in the cheap seats with mobility issues.

The problem Virgin faces in monetising priority boarding, is that their owned gates are not designed for red and purple to mix until they enter the aerobridge. If you are seated in the the red carpet gate area, you would have to backtrack through the gate lounge and make a trek around to the purple lane. Conversely, calling a subset of red carpet passengers before others, is hindered by the one way, bottleneck layout of the seat and queuing paths, designed with a more egalitarian "first at the gate, first to board" mentality - so it will be interesting to see what they may come up with.

Yep - the red carpet in conjunction with the tensa-barriers zig-zagging off to the side and clear signage of "General Boarding" encouraged people who love to queue into those areas, and discouraged the 'Qantas scrum effect'. Keeping the purple prority boarding lane clear was another visual reminder to people that this was a priority boarding lane and not a second entry point, and I suspect this is why VA use this to board pax with special assistance needs as this also displaces people inclined to linger in the purple priority boarding lane (whether entitled to or not) before any boarding has commenced, also helped by Virgin committing to ground staff assisting with boarding, seeing people ejected from the priority boarding queue was another excellent way to educate other nearby passengers. You can tell that all Qantas cares about/measures is on-time performance, and it shows - thats all they measure, they don't resource it and thats why they could never successfully implement their own premium boarding.

 

[Matt_01]

They did go through a bag weighing stage, not that long before the collapse... interesting it has been resurrected.

I thought the VA bag weighing thing was in late 2018 a few months after QF started doing the same. The QF spin doctors announced that it was some part of a trial but in the end did increase the domestic bag limit to 10 Kg with an overall weight limit of 14 kg. VA followed but IIRC it was only for J.

It seems to comes and go and happened prior to 2018, my take is that airlines are testing what they could potentially charge for and weigh that up against consumer backlash.

 

[Mattg]

Well VA priority boarding was a bit of a fail again in CBR on Thursday. The gate agent called priority boarding for Business, Platinum & Gold, then without even pausing, continued his announcement to call forward rows 15-30 to board via the rear stairs and rows 3-14 via the forward stairs. Then, he started scanning boarding passes.

No issues in BNE yesterday, however. Worked fine but there were two gate agents this time.

 

[Albert Hoffman]

Total fail on Priority Boarding in BnE today but that might have been to people escaping the lockdown. As soon as it was announced people just surged forward. Purple line was not in use. Staff had to refuse one or two people and yell out business class boarding only. It was intersting that they don't invite Economy X passengers to priority board anymore, even though that is one of the benefits. Seems it might be stripped from Economy X soon.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Total fail on Priority Boarding in BnE today but that might have been to people escaping the lockdown. As soon as it was announced people just surged forward. Purple line was not in use. Staff had to refuse one or two people and yell out business class boarding only. It was intersting that they don't invite Economy X passengers to priority board anymore, even though that is one of the benefits. Seems it might be stripped from Economy X soon.

It would make sense to remove economy X from priority boarding. I'm not sure it ever made sense to begin with.

 

[Albert Hoffman]

It would make sense to remove economy X from priority boarding. I'm not sure it ever made sense to begin with.

I disagree. Would make Economy X quite unattractive if they remove priority boarding and security. My mom is QF Plat and the only reason i convinced her to buy the seat was because of the priority stuff. JetBlue Even More Space seats include priority boarding/security so its puzzling that Bain is moving in a different direction, there is a reason why they have removed it from the priority boarding announcement but not from the stated benefits? It seems to be a mess.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I disagree. Would make Economy X quite unattractive if they remove priority boarding and security. My mom is QF Plat and the only reason i convinced her to buy the seat was because of the priority stuff. JetBlue Even More Space seats include priority boarding/security so its puzzling that Bain is moving in a different direction, there is a reason why they have removed it from the priority boarding announcement but not from the stated benefits? It seems to be a mess.

It could've just been an error from the gate staff, an old script, anything.

Economy X is basically extra legroom. The rest is really nothing to do with the key benefit of the product - it isn't premium economy (IMO)

 

[Mattg]

FWIW, Virgin still advertises "Priority Boarding" as a benefit of buying Economy X. As long as this is advertised, it should be provided.

Economy X - onboard experience | Virgin Australia

Available on all domestic and international flights, Economy X is an upgrade to your standard Economy seat that gives you added benefits – and only costs a little bit extra.

www.virginaustralia.com

 

[henrus]

FWIW, Virgin still advertises "Priority Boarding" as a benefit of buying Economy X. As long as this is advertised, it should be provided.

I don't think anything is changing but after watching the Brisbane 7news last night they had cameras at the airport and it was a bit of a zoo. I'd say them not calling Economy X for boarding was just because of the drama going on yesterday.

 

[PaulllM]

Flight out of Adelaide today, came out of the lounge late and it was down the back end of the line for general boarding but there was no dedicated lane fenced for priority boarding that im used to seeing. Didn't matter too much to me being there was 15 or so people left (plus it's such a first world problem). But it was the gate is shared with rex and they were the last to leave out the gate so could be that no one set up the lines during the switch?

 

[jonboixxx]

CNS-BNE; there would have been 35 priority today with 4 in J. Is status match having an impact? At least VA called it properly, unlike some recent QF shambles.