The elite line was quite open and visible when we flew to Europe last week (with extra tensabarriers and gold coats to help with the thanksgiving rush), though the TSA area was its usual mess. I now usually request to use the new machine (line 1?) to avoid the painful mess of the other lines, which are slow and inefficient at best. Unfortunately, CO can work with the TSA but ulitimately the TSA runs their own shop however they see fit.....