‘Chaos’: Key issue with Qantas boarding rule change

Qantas’s new system to speed up boarding could prove painful for passengers if the US is anything to go by. Here’s why.

Qantas passengers finally had what seemed like good news from the beleaguered airline last week: an Australian-first boarding process “to reduce the time customers spend lining up at the gate and make it faster for them to be seated onboard”.

Even if this wasn’t a media release from the airline that sold tickets on ghost flights and dudded customers over flight credits, I would be suspicious. That’s because this new system is used by most airlines here in the US – and it’s painful.

Here’s how it should work. Passengers are assigned a group on their ticket, allocated in a manner that ensures the most orderly movement of people onto the aircraft, and they wait patiently before boarding once their group is called.

Here’s how it actually works, at least from my experience.

Passengers crowd the gate before boarding begins, no matter what group they are in. Some sneak through immediately even if their ticket puts them in a later group. If you do the right thing and wait for your group, you have to push through the scrum of people, only to find a lengthy queue on the airbridge.

(US airlines always use airbridges – no walking on the tarmac and climbing the stairs here.)

Once you’re on the plane, you can see why you have been lining up for so long. Passengers crowd the aisles with their bags at random points, with no order or flow to their movement.

Travellers waiting to board a flight.

This happens because the group allocations are apparently influenced more by profits than analytics about boarding processes. Customers are prioritised in earlier groups based on their frequent flyer status, if they paid a premium for an economy fare with more frills, or if they forked out a fee to choose their preferred seat.

And it is a vicious circle, because the chaos of the process persuades more people to pay more to board earlier. No one wants to be in the last group, knowing you will probably be forced to check your bag because the overhead bins are full. It’s happened to me.

Maybe Qantas will make this work more efficiently. It is encouraging that their ticket scanners will block people who board before their group is called. But the airline only vaguely explained that groups would be “determined by cabin, Frequent Flyer status, and seat position”.

Strap yourselves in – metaphorically, because you might be waiting a while to do it literally.

Originally published as ‘Chaos’: Key issue with Qantas boarding rule change