What is a Boarding Group?

When you travel on British Airways, American Airlines, United, Iberia, and Vueling, you’ll notice your ticket has a boarding group number printed on it. This number, 1-5 is the priority by which you’ll be asked to board the plane. Typically, boarding group 1 goes first and 5 goes last. Let’s have a look at how British Airways manage the boarding process.

Pre-boarding

The boarding group is entirely separate to pre-boarding, though. Passengers who require extra time or assistance with boarding will always be offered the option to board before everyone else.

Boarding Group 1

Boarding Group 2

Boarding Group 3

Boarding Group 4 & 5

For some reason, these are blended together, and are sometimes called at the same time as Group 3.

Passengers are asked to wait in the terminal until their boarding group is called. Once it has been called, they can board at any time until the gate is closed for departure.

Further details about boarding groups can be found on the British Airways website.

If you’re flying on a hand baggage-only fare boarding first can mean whether you get a space for your luggage in the overhead compartment. With BA Executive Gold status, you move straight from Boarding Group 5 to 1. Is it worth getting Gold or Silver status? Read our blog about it to find out. This might seem a worthless benefit, but with finite overhead space on short-haul flights, getting your bag on first means less chance of your carry-on bag going in the hold and less delays on arrival.