Major airline reveals new downside to flying Economy

Major airline reveals new downside to flying Economy
By Hannah Edensor


British Airways has gone and made flying on the cheap even worse than it already is. Yep, they’re forcing those who buy cheaper seats to board last, and people are pretty peeved.

According to News Corp, the British airline has developed a new “group boarding” system that will come into effect from December 12.

Passengers will be assigned a number between one and five upon checking in, and this will indicate the order they can board the plane in. What’s wrong with that, we can hear you asking?

Well, the cheaper the seat, the higher the number, and that means more time sitting around at the boarding gate, waiting for the rich people to board and get comfy.

To be fair, I love boarding last, but it seems to be an issue with the ranking of people according to how deep their pockets are that has the public outraged.

So the top priority for boarding, naturally, goes to those flying first or business class, as well as British Airways’ gold class Executive Club members.

Silver and Club World members board next, then premium economy, lower-tier exec class, and then, finally, those in the cheap seats up the back.

If you scrimped and only bought carry-on luggage airfares, you’ll be the very last of this lot to board.

But apparently it’s not really that revolutionary, or new, for that matter. Per News Corp, American Airlines and Qatar Airways already board passengers in this fashion. Unsurprisingly, the likes of EasyJet and Ryanair also follow this practice.

“Group boarding simplifies the process, making it easier for customers to understand the boarding sequence at the gate,” British Airways said in an internal newsletter, quoted by the Times of London.
British Airways did, however, confirm that any passengers in need of special assistance, or those with little kids will still score priority boarding too. No matter how cheap their seats were.
Thankfully, not everyone is raging, with some even celebrating the segregation.

“I shall enter triumphantly at the very end wearing a shirt that says ‘Yay! I paid less than all you suckers’,” one person wrote on social media, per News Corp.

Another said, “If some idiot pays more to sit in a stationary plane waiting for those he considers socially inferior, so what?”

A spokesman for British Airways told the Times, “We are always looking at ways to improve the airport experience for our customers.

“Next month we are looking at introducing new boarding procedures to further improve the customer journey by creating a number of groups to speed up the process.

“This method has been used by airlines around the world for a number of years, including by our partners American Airlines, Iberia and Qatar.”

Oh well, thank god for a sense of humour, right?

 

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

    Latest comments

    1. This is bizarre. I’d pay extra to be sure I’m the last to board not the first. Why would anyone want to get on first?? You then spend even more time in the plane that is necessary AND everyone else pushes past you so you can’t properly organise what you want to get out of your carry on bag vs what will go in the overhead locker.

british airways cheap seats economy first class priority boarding

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