Originally Posted by
HomerJay
WRONG! The AIRLINE schedules hotel to airport transportation, and does so to ensure compliance with FAA regulations regarding sufficient crew rest time. When you "worked on shift," you might have been able to nod off, or you could come into work sleepy on occasion. That's not a good idea for pilots. A pilot BY LAW must have a certain amount of rest time between shifts. He goes to the hotel, goes to sleep, gets up in time to catch the pre-scheduled van to the airport, reports to work, and prepares for his flight. HE does NOT set the times. THE AIRLINE does, according to federal standards that are rigidly enforced. And I sure as hell don't want my pilot skipping sleep to get to the airport early to stand in line to get through security. For you to say that "it is up to him to plan his time to get to his job in a timely manner" shows you simply don't know what you are talking about.
If this is in fact a problem, then the pilots should go through their various unions to get it changed. Domestic US airlines are more than profitable enough to be able to schedule more time for their crews to not need to be in a rush when getting to the airport. In addition, this whole problem could be solved if the TSA did its job and just added a crew access lane.
Again, as stated above, I really don't care whether the pilots cut the line or not. The more concerning thing to me was this particular pilot's alleged attitude and potential threat to a passenger.