Originally Posted by
NewbieRunner
My impression was the opposite but I was there late morning when security wasn't particularly busy (at least priority lanes). I was under the impression that regular flyers who use fast-track due to their status no longer had to share the same lane with people who had paid for access but are not used to airport security and tend to have tons of stuff they must take out of the bags. Now I come to think of it I had to wait behind a lady in wheelchair and her travelling companion who were practically emptying a carry-on bag onto a tray, but after waiting for a minute or two I was ushered to the next check point.
LH must be paying to let status pax go through fast-track whether with pax requiring assistance or pax paying for the privilege. If there are only two lanes I prefer to be separated from those who have paid for fast-track as there are usually more of them and in groups but ideally there should be 3 separate lanes.
I'll observe more carefully next time and report back.
Thinking about it, it seems to be - as you say - a switch from the paid-for lane to the priority lane. Perhaps they didn't want the fast-trackers delayed by frequent travellers
But as the conditions for priority access always predicate time-consuming inspection, it's not going to be a happy scenario. My departure was early early morning, and coincided with a lot of adventurous seniors jetting off to the Canaries. But my favourites were the young couple who insisted on chugging their colas before ditching the empty bottles: the security agents looked on with indulgent smiles.