Thread: Fly By Lanes unfair?

Quote: Originally Posted by meester69 My experience of these lanes is that when we used them we got stuck behind a passenger in a wheelchair and it would probably have been quicker to go in the regular line. At SFO we were given a bit of paper from BA (flying F) to go in the fast line and the person there just shrugged and said there wasn't a big wait and we should just go with everybody else. At no point did I ever feel that I was...

Ok, I finally got back to this. Everything was getting stuck in my spam filters and the "forgot my password" functionality wasn't working (maybe TrollKiller was right -- it was "the government" trying to silence my complaints about one of their agencies. haha). I guess I can kind of see jkhuggins point about TSA not starting until the actual checkpoint, but that seems like a cop-out on TSA's part...

The airlines create these lines. There are elite lines for people who have status as well. That really has nothing to do with how much they paid for their ticket. Some credit card holders get status as well. Airlines are in a tough business. They need all of the revenue they need. Most of them lose money. Some people are willing to pay more than you to go through security. Others are willing to buy large, fast, well equipped jets to fly them...

Quote: Originally Posted by mtnsp Does anyone else find the "fly by" lanes by Southwest and AA to be unfair? Why is it that the federal government (TSA) gives preferential treatment to those who pay extra money to AA or Southwest?? I don't see any problem with allowing people to board first since that is a process completely controlled by the airline (and being a Gold member on AA, I use that all the time). I never use...

Quote: Originally Posted by gh3319 With ORD my home airport(zoo), the elite lines in all terminals are monitored by airlines paid personnel. At most major hubs, the elite lines are monitored by AirServ employees or the like.

The airlines pay for the elite lanes at security. This seems to me to be a win-win situation for all concerned.

Quote: Originally Posted by mtnsp Does anyone else find the "fly by" lanes by Southwest and AA to be unfair? Why is it that the federal government (TSA) gives preferential treatment to those who pay extra money to AA or Southwest?? I don't see any problem with allowing people to board first since that is a process completely controlled by the airline (and being a Gold member on AA, I use that all the time). I never use...

Quote: Originally Posted by mtnsp Does anyone else find the "fly by" lanes by Southwest and AA to be unfair? Why is it that the federal government (TSA) gives preferential treatment to those who pay extra money to AA or Southwest?? I don't see any problem with allowing people to board first since that is a process completely controlled by the airline (and being a Gold member on AA, I use that all the time). I never use...

As I understand TSA's position on this ... TSA claims that you only enter the checkpoint once you reach the TDC position. TSA claims no jurisdiction over the line that leads to the TDC position, ceding control of that to the airport and its airlines. Thus, it's up the airport to decide how to manage the line ... and if it chooses to allow FFs to cut to the front, it has the ability to do so.

In the last couple of weeks there has been a few incidents that have showed the chink in the TSA armor. We have the shirt controversy, the ice debacle, the whoops sorry not a hijacking, the currency policy change plus others. We have all been in pretty good harmony on those issues. A showing of force if you will. Then along comes this thread pulling an old subject that history has shown divides us. Maybe I am just getting old but my Troll...