Dear Forum-members,

I am a final year student at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, currently working on my dissertation (the final year thesis).

My thesis is based around the effects of introducing self-select-airport security screening lanes on passenger satisfaction and airport operations. The idea stems back from reading about trials at Phoenix in the mid-2000s. Self-select, basically means that Frequent Fliers, Casual Fliers and Families or people with special needs pass through separate security lanes. The security check is identical at all checkpoints, the difference is that personnel is trained for the particular lanes and that less experienced fliers have more time, while experienced fliers can pass through faster.

As part of my research I have created a survey for primary data collection from passengers to essentially establish what passengers think of self-select security screening lanes. The survey will take around five minutes and is available in English only.

I would be very thankful if you could spare five minutes and complete the survey, as a large proportion of frequent fliers is necessary for the results to be statistically significant. Depending on the outcomes of the research, this work could provide an academic basis and justification for the introduction of alternative processes at airports outside of the US.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Self-...rity-Screening

Thank you very much and best regards from Scotland

Chris

American's are more sheepish than the rest of the world, thus the use of the self select lanes in the US is unlikely to mirror what might happen in the rest of the world. There is an overwhelming marjority of Americans that blindly respect the screening process at airports, I personally don't understand why but they do. Once through the security checkpoint, they are back to normal. They ignore Zone numbers on boarding passes and try to board early. Once onboard they ignore FA instructions to stand clear of the aisle so other passengers may board. They stick all their carryons overhead.

Without this bizarre respect for the screening process that is present in the US, self-select lanes would most certainly be a failure elsewhere.

In my experience, passengers ignored the signs and simply went for the shrtest lines, thus nullifying the whole concept.

Likewise

Thank you to everyone who has filled in the survey already.

Also thanks for the additional input, always good to get a discussion going. I am aware that the biggest problem with the system is the actual selection itself. The points have also come up in interviews with industry professionals and my focus group. However there seems to be the opinion that they can be overcome and the overall benefits would outweigh the potential problems. Of course this will have to be tried out in a pilot experiment, which unfortunately was not allowed as part of my undergraduate research.

Do you think people go for the shortest lines, because that is what they are used to, or are they aware of the fact that the shortest may not be the fastest lane?

Thanks again!

In my limited experience with these self-select lanes, I saw people ignoring the signs. Had they read the signs and understood what they meant, they might have selected the appropriate lane. But those whom I saw getting into an inappropriate lane seemed to do so because they had no idea that there were differences in the lanes. I saw people speaking on cell phones or talking with their traveling companions walk right past the signs without sparing them a glance and picking lanes seemingly at random.

I also saw TSOs at MCO deliberately directing families with children and lots of carry-ons into the experienced traverler lanes, in an effort to reduce the line in the family lanes. Since I was just experienced enough, IMHO, to confidently select the experienced lane, I was... not happy at that turn of events.

As an elite frequent flyer, I am against the self-selection lanes for one reason: I already have an elite line available to me for the large majority of my flights. These elite lanes are black diamond lanes --- but with a gatekeeper. I fear that the black diamond lanes will lead to the reduction or removal of dedicated airline elite lanes, which, in essence, results in a frequent flyer lane, but without someone to police it.

My biggest problem with the self-select line (and note that my only experience with these is in the US after customs going through security to get to domestic connections where there are no elite lines) is that the TSA does not use these as intended. Everytime I go to use one of these lines,the TSA is controlling entrance and mainly uses it for people in wheelchairs, families, etc. and not for "black diamond" travellers.

I only self-select lines that don't have the Nude-O-Scopes at the end of them. I'd rather wait in a longer/slower line if I knew I wasn't going to get groped or irradiated.

+1 on that!

In my experience, the NOS has generally only been available since the demise f the 'self-select' lanes.

How about adding another line called the "al-Qaeda and enemies of America line". Maybe the shoe bomber, with his hatred toward America, might accidentally choose that line?

I've consistently been able to self-select at BWI - they almost always have at least one WTMD lane and I always select that. Same with DEN and occasionally SLC T1.

I was referring t 'self-select' in regard to the 'family / casual / expert' traveler lanes the TSA used to maintain. These are the subject of the survey.

Exactly.

Plus, the expert traveler (Black Diamond) line means nothing when you get to the scanner and have to opt out. Power-tripping TSA screeners don't discriminate.

The expert/casual traveler lanes make little difference to my experience in comparison to being able to use the walk thru metal detector versus having to opt out of the scanners.