Originally Posted by
DevilDog438
The government is not providing prioritization to elite flyers. The airlines, who pay rental fees to the airport for the space prior to the TSO performing the TDC, have chosen to provide a priority line in THEIR rental space prior to the TSA checkpoint. That is their privilege, as it is THEIR rental property prior to the actual TDC checkstand. Once you have passed the TDC, you are in TSA-land and are subject to their decisions on which queue you end up in.
I love the rationalization that I've seen here (i.e. FT) that access to and the wait for a service is not part of the provision of that service... especially now that you cannot enter the line w/o passing a TSA ID checker.
Even if airlines rent the floor space where the lines form, how should that give them control over any part of access to the screening process? Does an airline's control over the gate and jetway give it control over the (asinine) TSA gate screening process?
Are there any other examples where private control of the area in front of a place where the government provides a service, especially a law enforcement or public safety-related service, grants the private entity the right to control access to that service?