British Airways is modifying its boarding process in a way that’s sure to delight some, and cause confusion among others…
British Airways adds pre-boarding for best customers
While all airlines claim to try to have as efficient of a boarding process as possible, airlines take very different approaches for accomplishing that. In particular, many airlines differ on the ways in which they break up their premium cabin and elite customers into groups.
Along those lines, British Airways is introducing a new, most exclusive boarding group. This has been trialed for several months, and has been progressively rolled out on many routes already, but will finally be coming to all routes.
As of March 26, 2024, British Airways will be rolling out Group 0 boarding on all flights, in addition to the existing Group 1-9 concept. Group 0 is intended specifically for British Airways Gold Guest List and Premier customers. Gold Guest List is for those who rack up lots of Tier Points (by flying British Airways a regrettable amount), while Premier is given to those who control big corporate travel budgets, and to other people who are very important to the airline.
The idea is that these Group 1 customers will be able to board before Group 1, which includes British Airways first class passengers, as well as oneworld Emerald members.
Now, personally I find the branding here a bit strange. Generally if you have a numbered list, you don’t start that with zero. I feel like that’s going to cause quite a bit of confusion — sure, those who have Group 0 boarding will know that it’s their turn, but I suspect other people may not understand that they’re not part of Group 0.
The funny world of airline boarding
Airline boarding fascinates me to no end, and in particular, how it differs around the world. In many parts of Asia, boarding feels rather relaxed, and it’s an orderly process. Meanwhile in the United States and many other countries in the west, you’d think there’s a competition to see who can get on the plane first, and that you’re going to miss your flight if you’re not lined up before boarding even starts.
There are of course multiple factors at play, including general cultural differences, carry-on policies and the need to gate check bags, and more. But I also can’t help but feel like breaking up boarding groups into so many small chunks draws out the process as well.
Take United Airlines, for example, where people generally have one of two takes — Global Services and Premier 1K members think United’s boarding process is great, while everyone else finds it to be kind of absurd. If you’re in first class on United, you might as well be in Group 11, based on how many sets of passengers are called before you.
To me, the whole process is inefficient and causes confusion. But here’s the thing — to the credit of United and other airlines, people really seem to love getting on the plane before everyone else. Those who get that privilege want to maintain it, while those who don’t have that privilege aspire to have it. Why? Well, I don’t really get it, to be honest. If you board with first class, you’re not going to be out of overhead bin space.
But this gets at the whole competitive and comparative aspect of frequent flyer programs. People do love to show off their bag tags, how much they fly with an airline, etc. This is part of what makes airline loyalty programs so genius, and the pre-boarding for special customers very much plays into that. It’s totally normal to hear people sitting next to one another on a plane comparing their flying “stats,” while you (hopefully) wouldn’t hear them doing the same about other aspects of their existence.
Bottom line
British Airways is joining the ranks of airlines offering pre-boarding for its most important customers ahead of premium cabins. British Airways is rolling out Group 0, whereby Gold Guest List and Premier customers will be able to board early on all flights.
This is ultimately a low cost way that the airline can better recognize its most elite flyers, and British Airways is following the industry trend here. At the same time, if you step back and look at the big picture, it can be kind of hard to rationalize just how unnecessarily complicated airline boarding has become.
What do you make of British Airways’ new Group 0 boarding?
