<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gmmandrade:
Most biz flyers are elite at their respective airlines, and if they are at a reasonably major airport (major as far as their airline is concerned), they'll probably go through some sort of elite security line. This cuts down the time significantly, at least in my limited experience (a few times at ORD and BOS). So, what exactly is all this massive inconvenience that is causing biz travellers to forego visting their clients? I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous! I know this argument was made, correctly, in the months right after 9/11, but I don't think it applies anymore.
Has anybody here who has elite status on an airline stood more than 30 minutes in a security line in the last 3 months, when flying on that airline???
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Yes. I fly out of DFW and LAX. I have Platinum status on AA, and they do not have elite lines at LAX anymore (at least the dates and times I fly), and I have never ever seen one at DFW.
Do I wait 30 minutes all the time? No. I never wait long at LAX at all, even without elite lines. DFW is a different story. I have waited for decent amounts of time.
Remember, not all biz. travelrs are elite. there are lots of them that fly from time to time. Maybe 20% or less travel. The whole state of air travel has pushed some business travelers out of the airports. they drive, they tele-conference or video conference, or do things via email or whatever. If there is only marginal gains by actually being "on-site", then I too would forgo ait travel, even if there were no money issues for paying for the travel. Now, is the security to blame for all of it? Of course not, but it is a contributing factor. A minor one, but it still conributes to the overall hassel and pain in the butt nature of commercial air travel that exisits today.
[This message has been edited by jsmeeker (edited 10-28-2002).]