Originally Posted by
PSU Mudder
Here's what kills me about the gatekeepers at EWR checkpoints:
When the elite line gets small or non-exisitent, they wave regular fliers into it. Now, they probably think they are doing some people a favor and keeping the lines shorter and why should I be so uppity about use of that line when its empty, elitist that I obviously am?
Because when the elite line is empty, all of the TSA checkers are available for the regular line, which makes the regular line move FASTER. When they move regular fliers over to the elite line, they are essentially screwing over all the rest of the regular fliers who happened to arrive at the line before them and who would have enjoyed the benefit of a faster moving line. Even though the checkers stand there all day long, they are unable to comprehend the logic of this -- that if the elite line is empty and the regular line is long, the excess capacity at the front will shorten the regular line faster than moving people over.
What about when our dedicated crew lane is empty and Elites or people who didn't get to the airport on-time are waved over? Do you as a Elite say "oh no that's a crew lane and I can't do that"? Or you jump over and head on through? This happens every single day and to top it off there are usually one ore more crew members or other airport employees shortly behind. The other day 17 Pilots/F/A's showed up after they just released our lane to the Elite access people. They ended up waiting and huffing and puffing while we all struggled to get through.
If your going to ask people not to use "your lane", it's safe to say we should expect that in return on the crew lane and regular passenger lanes. Can't have it both ways. A good solution would be for everyone to stick to the designated lane they are entitled to enter. Security is not that bad, unless it's a holiday are large arrival and bank time and even then it moves pretty fast.