Back of the line, buddy
 

Meant to post this ages ago. Here is an editorial Jim Stanford posted in the G&M back in September, 2012. Interesting what he thinks of FF's ability to access the front of the security line in a "omnipresent trend in our class-divided society." His recommendation is for the public to confront Es and SEs (and I guess Nexus cardholders) at the CATSA priority lines. His argument is that it is a public good that all Canadians pay for and deserve equal access to.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/comme...rticle4527906/

Stanford must do quite a bit of travel as one of the CAW's chief economists. Wonder if he has AC status and whether he is first to butt in line? :p

Heh, heh.

He'd certainly get priority access to an airport holding room.

I take no issue with priority access lines.

I do take issue with a $25 (per international itinerary) fee for security service that sucks.

Clearly he's never been through a priority line. Everyone has laptops, everyone has 100 kg of carry on, trainee CATSA agents. .... the regular lines are faster.

Agreed. These days I'm batting about 1000 at YYZ (domestic level 2) for random additional screenings.

I would have paid to have gotten out of the NEXUS line at YUL the other day. It was 8 deep and the other lines were 2 deep, and there was a slow-moving family in front of us.

One guy tried to go to the non-NEXUS line and was told by the CATSA person handling the other line that he had to go back to the NEXUS line. Crazy.

Will only get worse as US slashes their budget for security borders.

Even in the Globe's site, no commenters think this guy has any sort of reasonable argument. He's an economist, he should be able to pull some kind of semi-logical argument out of his rectum. He's just being whiny.

I think every person on flyertalk looked at priority lines with envy at some point and figured out how to get access at a cost that made it worthwhile to us.

His rage enrages me.

'Nuff said.

Well when your already paying $20 for the privilege of leaving many Canadian airports (more for YYZ), plus $7.50 for the privilege of clearing security at said Canadian airport you would sure think everyone should be in the priority line. The fact your forced to pay all this in direct fees and have people queue jump in front of you seems a bit much in a way. Of course I say that as both an Amex Plat & Nexus member....

He'd be just fine with it if they were manned by CAW union workers. No issues then...

I actually agree with Stanford--there should be no priority for class(even though I will take advantage of it) etc. The only exception should be for trusted traveler status, e.g. NEXUS, which everyone can afford if they can afford to travel by air. Even there, I am not sure other than for speeding up returning through immigration/customs. There should just be more efficient and better service for the fees everyone is paying so that everyone's wait time in line is relatively short and painless.@:-)

I will go to the back of the line when airline crews, airport employees, CATSA employees, airport police, diplomats, politicians, and all manner of other "special" people also go the the back of the line.

Sure am glad that most places I go are so small that they don't have a priority screening line, or so big that it doesn't make a difference. I agree that there shouldn't be a priority line, and when they start to figure out how to do these things without a total gong show I will be happy to join the masses - that includes no more discussion about who's break is next while I wait, no more customs officers at ORD heading for lunch with a jammed lineup and no replacements, no more power happy psychos running a scanning machine and feeling like they can now be a d!ck.

I believe that I will be in the priority line for the foreseeable future...

it really does not matter to me but just my 2 cents, but I suspect that there is no legal authority for permitting boarding priorties....if a person was to push and say it should not be permitted, i think they might actually win.