Speedy Boarding

[VNAVSPD]

Easyjet are going to trial a new policy; "Speedy Boarding". Pay a fiver and you get to board in group A, irrespective of the time you check-in.

Your thoughts?

[Final 3 Greens]

What if everyone pays the fiver?

[BRUpax]

Do me a favour! It's high time these crappy cheapo airlines introduce seat allocation and stop all this nonsense. :mad:

[WHBM]

What if everyone pays the fiver?
Easy makes 156 x £5 = £780.

[VNAVSPD]

If this was already in the pipeline, might explain why they dump all of the passengers who check-in online in group D

[Final 3 Greens]

Easy makes 156 x £5 = £780

Yes, very good, but do they all get to go in group A and if so, do all 149 board at the same time?

VNAVSPD - having checked in online for a flight, without being warned about being dumped in group D, I was not best pleased - as the pax is saving the airline money, to be penalised does seem perverse.

[PAXboy]

Will it make any difference? Using EZY out of LGW last month: We were in Group D, so waited patiently for the first three Groups to be called.

Except ... that they didn't! They called Group A and then folks just merged into the queue! You could see people working out, "They are not calling in sequence and not turning anyone away, therefore, I might as well get in the queue and not bother with the Groups." After the Group A call, there were no more calls.

In the early days, EZY used to police the boarding number sequence very well and turn back people not in the particular 30-number group. I have not seen them do that for several years. My guess is that gate agents have had so much bullying by pax that they do not protest at people presenting for boarding that are out of sequence. They must reckon, correctly, that there are enough old fashioned people who will wait their turn that a single call will be sufficent and - guess what? It is. :ugh:

If EZY are going to charge, they are going to have to police the queue and that may lead to ructions.

I have only had to use RYR once in the last six years and I saw that they, also, do not police the queue.

[WHBM]

Easy have installed "cattle pens" at Glasgow (maybe other stations too) to manage the queue into 4 separate lines.

Never seen them work well yet. The classic was one agent starting on group A, then another came along and started on Group B, got through them all quickly and was well on with C before A were all through.

[VNAVSPD]

having checked in online for a flight, without being warned about being dumped in group D, I was not best pleased - as the pax is saving the airline money, to be penalised does seem perverse.

I have to agree, a pretty poor show!

The crazy thing is, they could make twice as much money by charging a tenner to choose a specific seat (or more). Much more attractive to the customer!

[Leezyjet]

Easy have installed "cattle pens" at Glasgow (maybe other stations too) to manage the queue into 4 separate lines.


They had them in Chambrey too when I flew from there back in Jan. They sent us into the tiny departure gate an hour before departure, so thought they would at least use the pens when they started boarding - wrong !!

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[OpsSix]

The agent boarding the flight should be more aware of those coming forward.
When I worked for FR at STN, there were 2 lines.....boarding cards 1-65 and 66-189. Anyone in the 1-65 group with a higher boarding card was sent to the back or made to stand and wait until the end. It's not fair on those with lower cards if you let everyone through regardless.


Surely EZY will have a limit on the amount of pax that can transfer into group A?

[derekvader]

I have not seen the boarding card numbers adhered to on Ryanair or Easyjet for some years either, other than a token attempt by announcing the groups in order, but no actually sending early people back.

Did see a woman at Graz in Austria proudly and loudly announcing to her partner how she was going to be first on the aircraft and get the pick of the seats, due to her having boarding cards in the first group and her being stood first in the queue. How everyone laughed when it turned out to be a bus to the aircraft, and because she'd boarded the bus first, ended up being last off it, with virtually the entire plane loaded ahead of her. She went into one hell of a strop! :ouch:

[derekvader]

The crazy thing is, they could make twice as much money by charging a tenner to choose a specific seat (or more). Much more attractive to the customer!

lol, that's true - I would probably happily pay an extra fiver per leg to know I was going to get a window seat on flights where i wanted to look out and a front of cabin seat on flights where I was more interested in getting off and away quickly.

[masalaairlines]

I am generally always one of the last to board, generally because I hate waiting in lines. However think of this very real situation which has often happened to me at some airports (mostly not UK):

I am last to board, I go down the steps and realise there is a shuttle bus to the plane, with everyone waiting inside! Since I am last onto the bus... I am closest to the door and hence first off the bus and first on to the a/c! :O Now you are paying a fiver to be last! :ugh:

[brian_dromey]

What an utter load of rubbish, pay £5(€7.50ish so they'll prob charge€10) to get into groupA....save yourself the money and leave home 20 mins earlier. Anyway if a good seat is so important why fly lo-co at all???

U2 at LGW are very strict about the groups, from what I saw. I also notice that FR have a barrier beside all their gates at STN, 1-65 to the inside, 66-189 to the outside, same story at Cork.

To be honest the lo-cos arent all that great anymore, I have no problem not getting a meal, but things are getting out of hand. An assigned seat costs the princely sum of 0.00 as the lo-cos now use 'normal' non-recycleable boarding cards, but you have to pay a fiver for it. same story with the luggage as well. So therefore a lo-co flight aint all that lo-co when you add up all these charges and compare it to tradtional carriers fares.

Next time I fly I think ill take advantage of tradtional airlines, the fares are prob bout 10-20% more, but I have my own seat, no stres, more flexability and free luggage. When you add on teh cost and inconvenience of arriving abut an hour down the road from your intended destination it makes less and less sense.

[VNAVSPD]

An assigned seat costs the princely sum of 0.00

Except for Ryanair, who would have to start paying for the use of a Departure Controly System. I think that the check-in process would grind to a halt if they had to assign seats with their "pen and paper system" :}

[Shiftcontrol]

Been lurking for some time.
Booked on BMI Baby have paid extra for booked seats.
Whats the experience on this forum? Is it a mad dash or what?