US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Security line at PIT

Does anyone know what was going on with security in PIT today? I arrived in PIT from the west coast about 4pm and had to walk past the incoming security line. It was almost half-way out to the Hyatt hotel. I would estimate about 90 min to get through security!! Glad I was arriving and not departing. I am flying out Monday morning at around 10 and wonder if I should camp out at the airport.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pitt-flyer:
Does anyone know what was going on with security in PIT today? I arrived in PIT from the west coast about 4pm and had to walk past the incoming security line. It was almost half-way out to the Hyatt hotel. I would estimate about 90 min to get through security!! Glad I was arriving and not departing. I am flying out Monday morning at around 10 and wonder if I should camp out at the airport.</font>


That's very surprising. I saw it that way once, the Monday after the Thansgiving holiday 2 years ago. I've been flying out Mondays for years and haven't seen more than 5 minutes in a long, long, time. Of course, a cluster of fligths could cause a spike and I might just be lucky.

Good question. I sure haven't heard about it being that long since, yeah, something like Thanksgiving-ish, but the one in 2001, that sounds right, as it was not long after Sept 11.

I don't see anything in the news, though. Weird. I think at this point a line that big at security would be the exception rather than the rule. PIT is more hub airport than O/D, so most of the pax going through there don't go through the security checkpoint.

Then again, perhaps it's just 4pm on a Friday? A lot of outgoing biz and/or convention traffic?

My wife flew out of PIT last week on Friday morning and the line was almost to the moving walkway.

We were in the preferred line (still very long) and when we got to the front, I asked the guard whether this was normal, and he said that its been this way on Fridays (and Monday mornings) for a while. Generally empty the rest of the time.

Seems like a Friday thing.

I heard somebody complaining about it on a Wednesday flight.....I don't think it's just Monday or Friday.

I haven't experienced this, yet, but wonder too what is causing it. Are flights bunched up so that there're a large influx of passengers at certain times?

With the passenger load so low, there's no excuse for this.

I can confirm that last Friday was like that as well. Took me about 35 minutes to clear the priority security line.

The airport authority is supposedly working on a single additional magnometer/x-ray "lane" at the current time.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by hscottm:
We were in the preferred line (still very long) and when we got to the front...
Seems like a Friday thing.</font>

I have found that when the line gets over 40-50 feet long the preferred line loses its "preferred" character because the only sign is at the front of the line. Then the preferred line just another line. Am I missing a trick?

[This message has been edited by pitt-flyer (edited 02-28-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pitt-flyer:
I have found that when the line gets over 40-50 feet long the preferred line loses its "preferred" character because the only sign is at the front of the line. Then the preferred line just another line. Am I missing a trick? </font>

Sorry - I hit the reply instead of edit - please ignore

[This message has been edited by pitt-flyer (edited 02-28-2003).]

Monday morning there is always a line. I've noticed that between 3 and 5pm the line is pretty long. I usually get there by 6:30pm and there is never a line. This is on Thursdays and Fridays.

The preferred line is usually just as long as the rest of them...and sometimes shorter.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pitt-flyer:
I have found that when the line gets over 40-50 feet long the preferred line loses its "preferred" character because the only sign is at the front of the line. Then the preferred line just another line. Am I missing a trick?

[This message has been edited by pitt-flyer (edited 02-28-2003).]</font>

Not only that, but once you clear the guard who checks your ticket, people slide over from the other x-ray machines to the "preferred" x-ray machine....this is what backs up the "preferred" line.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by HPTunco:
Not only that, but once you clear the guard who checks your ticket, people slide over from the other x-ray machines to the "preferred" x-ray machine....this is what backs up the "preferred" line.</font>

Responding to two points.

1) Yes, the preferred line 'loses its character' once it gets long, since you cant see the sign at the end of the line. However when we were there last Friday, an employee would walk down the line every few minutes telling people effectively 'elites only'. People would hear that, fume, and go to another (equally long) line.

2) I understand the 'mental model' of proceeding straight from the preferred screening line to the x-ray machines straight ahead - but I dont think theres any real scheme (or rationale) to have that be the 'preferred scanner'. It doesnt make sense - they control traffic flow into the carry-on screening area so all the x-ray lines are roughly the same length. I have found myself hopping to a scanner three lanes over because they were shorter.

This still begs the question - why are the lines getting so long? Hopefully just traffic picking up, would be a good sign.

They have very little space for expanding that area, that I know. Plus, they walled off that space a bit more backing up the head of the line a bit from the old days. And now they've dumped the gate rapes so certain people have to get extra screening at that one single security station for the whole airport. I haven't flown out of PIT since about last July, though, so I have no idea what it looks like at a given time. At that time, though, the line was out to the flight display monitors. I can't remember what day, but it was in the morning. It only took about 10 minutes to get through (although I was pulled aside for an explosive swab including shoes off). It did at least move pretty quickly.

Perhaps part of it is just that in pre-Sept 11 mode each x-ray/magno station would have its own line, and the space between the heads of those lines and the scan area was smaller. So it would have *looked* shorter even if the time spent was not shorter. Although 35 minutes to get through is way too long and would reflect a lot more problems than that. So I dunno. I can't figure out why it should take that long, because the traffic should be still less, and the screenings don't take that much longer than before, at least not that I've ever experienced.

I flew: 02/27/03
IND-PIT 200p - 313p US 1018
PIT-SAN 550p - 801p US 93

So I went out to Hyatt and as I was walking thru PIT security noticed the line almost stopped by it was around 330p. I went online at the Business Center Hyatt PIT and then when I got in line at ?410p?) - it must have been AT LEAST 1 hour for the 'regular' line.

I happened to see the preferred line (I've never flown out of PIT before except via transfers and I've never left the terminal) - and it was about a 20 minute wait.

US staff (?) were checking preferred/first class status to insure that people were in the right lane.

Had to be a ton of people who missed their flights - I'm sure!

Is that the only entrance into PIT through one security line?

Yes, it's the only entrance. All the gates are beyond that point, either commuter gates for US which are forward and up a level from there or at the airside terminal which is an underground train ride from there. It's designed to be a hub much more than it's designed to be a O/D airport. As I said above, there's hardly any room there to expand the security area. They definitely need more space, though, or so it would seem given the lines everyone has mentioned here. The only way to expand (that I can see) with existing building space would be to encroach upon the few stores that are actually outside security.