The disclosure relates to determining priority access with dual access barring classes. An aspect receives, at a client device, at least one high priority access barring class and at least one low priority access barring class, switches to the low priority access barring class, receives an access barring message, and switches to the high priority access barring class in response to receiving the access barring message. An aspect receives a call request for a high priority call among a group of client devices, transmits a notification to a network instructing it to transmit an access barring message in response to receiving the call request, wherein one or more members of the group of client devices switch to a high priority access class in response to receiving the access barring message, and suppresses call announcements for non-priority call requests after transmitting the notification.