Travel News - "The Secret to Airport Security Lines"

http://www.openforum.com/articles/business-travel-2012-the-secret-to-airport-security-lines?extlink=em-openf-SBdaily

.... One major cause of security delays is the high volume of passengers that overwhelms checkpoints at certain hours. “There’s never an optimum time,” says Luis Casanova, a spokesperson with the Transportation Security Administration. “But it seems like, especially because of business travelers, early mornings are the most congested at most airports, especially large and regional airports.” .....

So the lines are longer when there are more people trying to get through at busy times.

Who knew?

So the lines are longer when there are more people trying to get through at busy times.

Who knew?

Not only that .... the "large and regional" airports have the most congestion. Who would have thought.

I usually don't like to contrast such pieces to something I wrote but I wrote an article called No More Lines: How to Save (Significant) Time At the Airport (http://www.frequentbusinesstraveler.com/2012/04/no-more-lines-how-to-save-significant-time-at-the-airport/3/) back in April and at my article made sense (more or less).

I find it hard to believe that airlines direct their frequent fliers to black diamond lines versus their own priority lines and I didn't waste valuable paragraphs Clear since it has limited applicability.

I primarily covered Global Entry, PreCheck, and special VIP services, which I think are the three best ways of not waiting in line if tha's what you want.

And God forbid, the TSA should staff appropriately ... :rolleyes:

jspire, your blog is awesome, thanks! I liked http://www.frequentbusinesstraveler.com/2012/02/gateway-special-services-airport-meet-and-greet-service-review/ I actually posted here in the forum looking for something like this.

So the lines are longer when there are more people trying to get through at busy times.

Who knew?

So disappointed with you. Busy drinking the upscale hooch when you should have previously correlated crowds with longer lines. ;)

I think the author in the OP needs to do a better job of verifying information supplied by his sources. From the article:

"CLEAR members also can’t avoid pat-downs and random screenings, but Seidman-Becker says belonging to CLEAR means you only need to arrive at the airport a half-hour before your flight, instead of the customary hour. “We’ve had over 650,000 travelers come through the lane since we kicked off,” she says. “One person missed their flight because things didn’t go perfectly.” A typical CLEAR member gets through security in five minutes or less, she says."

??? Really??

So the lines are longer when there are more people trying to get through at busy times.

Who knew?

It is just too bad that there is no way to know how many passengers will be departing at a given time so they could staff accordingly.
:D

I'll never understand how the government decides to schedule staffing. Almost invariably when I go to the airport there are at least a few TSA workers standing around chatting or on their phones while there's a long line of people waiting to get checked. Once I opted out and stood around talking to 2 TSA employees for 5 minutes while I waited for a third employee to come pat me down.

When someone left a phone behind in the bathroom on a plane, it took 5 police officers 30 minutes to decide that standard procedure is to make everyone get off the plane so they could check the plane. When we finally got off the plane 1 hr after they discovered the phone, I saw 2-3 more cops standing around chatting up a couple of women. This was at SAN where recently a prisoner escaped or was let free and was able to sneak his way onto a commercial plane.

Then there was the rotating shift of two police officers watching a prisoner in our ICU who was already chained to his bed, sedated, and on a ventilator for respiratory failure. 24 hrs a day for 3 months until the guy died. But it's ok to have less cops on the streets just outside the hospital where people got shot/stabbed all the time.

Our tax dollars at work.

Hehehe... another "SECRET", like the secret to scoring free UGs (dress nicely and ask:rolleyes: ).

I think the secret to more efficient security lines is corporal punishment for those who don't take off their belt, laptop, shoes and hold up the lines for EVER. Also apply it to those who have giant baby strollers with a household's worth of stuff packed in and around them.