This is really interesting. It would have never occurred to me that I was supposed to stand in the general line at a small station where they have an elite line to the side of the general line.

I have always gotten in the F line and waited for the agent to call me over. I don't jump ahead without being called, and only once did it appear I was going to stand there forever--it was at DCA and I was extremely miffed.

The idea that they merged into one line on purpose is a totally different perspective with which I don't think I agree, but I had never thought about it before.

I guess it's the idea that elite pax are supposed to be served by a dedicated person. I never assumed that to be the case. After all, if you have 1/3 the pax being served by 1/3 the dedicated agents then the queue throughput will bethe same and there will be no benefit to the elite line at all! The elite line only confers a benefit if there is either a greater ratio of dedicated agents->pax or if all agents pull from the same queue and elites go to the head of the line.

That's why I don't buy that I'm supposed to wait just because there's no dedicated agent.

Instead, what I expect to happen is that they may call a few additional pax out of the Y line and then call an F, then call a few more Y, then an F, etc.