Michael, maybe you missed the part where Satellite Parking mentioned that this happened in El Paso, Texas. Quite likely there is no AA curbside checkin at such a small airport and I'm pretty sure there aren't any airline clubs. ELP ain't LAX

At least I hope he didn't stand in the no-status line for 55 minutes if he could have checked the bag right outside.

With our system currently encouraging Mr. & Mrs. Rarely Fly to arrive hours before their flight ("Well, if two hours is good, then four hours must be better," they have been heard to say), the real answer is to never allow 100 people to beat you to the checkin line for an early morning flight like this one.

Eat or be eaten.

Get up earlier, get to the airport earlier, and make sure that some of those 100 people are behind you, not ahead of you. They don't make their flight, too bad. Not your problem.

Arriving at the airport 67 minutes before boarding was to begin was the error that day.

Checking in latecomers ahead of those who followed the rules wasn't the real problem. Aggrevating as hell, yes. I would have been livid, too. The cause of Satellite Parking not making the gate at the proper time? Not from the info he provided (13 minutes of improper behavior reward/correctly checking in earlier departing flight, depending on one's perspective).

Had Satellite beaten two or three more people to the no-status line that morning, he wouldn't have witnessed the agents' rewarding of latecomers. Instead, he would have been in the ridiculously long security line.

If you're flying on an airline where you don't have status, you might as well be Mr. Rarely Fly, and you should plan accordingly. Remember, even once you have status on AA, this is a problem whenever you're flying Eagle - I've never seen an Eagle First Class checkin position. Long lines abound, all at the wrong times.

Since we are told to be at the airport at LEAST two hours ahead of departure time, maybe check-in for a flight should be closed, let's say, one hour prior to departure. <?>

This would rid us of the people who show up late and cause the agents to open up a line just to get these late people on their flight.

Just a thought.

How about just a little time-stamp thing at the entry to the line proving that you were in line two hours before hand. If you are not in line two houre before hand, you are charged, say, $2 a minute.

As posted elsewhere, check out www.fly.faa.gov to determine where there are delays before leaving for the airport (or determining when to leave).

But you're told to show up 2 hours early so that you have enough time to be on the flight when it closes 10 minutes prior to departure. You're suggesting that we show up 3 hours prior to departure, and close an hour early (when most planes aren't even ready for the next flight, if they're even on the ground yet)?

I don't think so.

d

That will tell you what the ATC situation is, but that's not always an indication of what is going on as far as check-in lines and security.

d

If you belong to an airline club and know and trust the club folks, giving them a call on flight day or the day before can give you an idea of what to expect in the security lines.

From a former ELP resident: There aren't any clubs. Curbside check in is as follows: 1. Give bags to skycap. 2. Follow skycap as he dumps your bags in the monster check-in line, a few yards away. 3. Tip skycap for his service. 4. Wait in the monster check-in line.

One difficulty with smallish airports like ELp is thwey are mainly staffed to handle one flight, since during the bulk of the day they only have one flight to work. As mentioned before, there are only 2 ORD lfights a day-- bad luck in scheduling causes an ORD and DFW to leave around the same time at 7am.... this never happens any other time of the day. Thus, I would peg this experience under Doppy's example of an unforseeable delay if you are not familiar with nuances of scheduling at that airport.

My mistake. Southwest was pulling people forward at OAK this morning, which was a bit surprising given that the X-ray line was only 20 minutes long. People with less than 30 minutes to flight time were allowed to cut in, but fortunately there were only a few of them.

I saw Delta agents working the line for next flight out passengers at both LGA and FLL in the last week.

At Logan, DL pulls people to the front of the security line (NB distinction between security line and security lane) whenever the line is somewhat long. This has been going on since September.

There is no question that passengers who travel with any frequency at all "play" this system. Arrive at least 30 minutes before departure; linger near the newsstand; wait for DL to call forward your flight; go directly to the front of the line. I see people gathered there every morning that I transit Logan.

Is this fair: no. Is it a problem: unknown. Few people will miss their flights if the pulling forward is done equitably and consistently. But some people will spend far longer in line than others.

The seat assignment situation is interesting. I can see how an unusually lengthy security screening could cause a canceled seat, or even reservation. FWIW, at Delta at least, VCI may be a solution to this problem.

>>> Sorry, that is just not fair and is very selfish of these people. I understand learning the system and working it, we have all done that. I feel bad for those who legitimately wait in line and it is gonna cause some bad feelings when these people(the in-frequent travelers) figure out what is happening.

-FWAAA fyi, as I am back on here to make a comment, was referring to Doppy and La Guardia, not El Paso, but is what I do in the general sense, at whichever aiport. Sad to hear El Paso doesn't believe in skycaps, a needed amenity.

As a note to anyone flying out of LAX, at the Bradley (our Int'l) Terminal, the security lines are unreal at night, going through the terminal and out the door. BA was calling for people still in the line to go back to the BA counter and they would be escorted through the security. I have seen this before, but then saw it again driving by the airport Saturday night. OUCH!

Something really needs to be done about this as it is not fair to miss a flight and hence a meeting, a wedding, or whatever, due to this sillyness. My .02c.

Two points regarding Satellite Parking's problems at ELP:

(1) With only two ORD flights, AA probably faces greater problems trying to reaccommodate those passengers than a passenger flying to or making connections in DFW. It's a judgment call, but I can see this as a possible justification.

(2) Smaller airports need slot limitations for morning flights. At CRP, for example, WN has a 737 flight at 6:50, DL a CRJ at 6:55, AA an ERJ at 7:00, and CO a 737 at 7:20. Given that WN allows passengers on board as late as the departure time while the others (try to) close their flights 10 minutes early, all four airlines have flights boarding within 25 minutes of each other. That's a recipe for disaster at any small airport. Those flights need to be spread out over an hour instead of compressed like that.
Allowing the airlines full discretion to pick their departure times at small airports presents the choice of heinously long security lines or having extra security staff stand around the rest of the day.

I don't think slot limitations are necessary at all. The times the airlines publish as departure times are "push-back" times. The time the plane pushes back from the gate. You can have five flights push back from the gate at 7:00am and all five could feasibly arrive at their destination on time or early. SFO often operates with only one runway for both take-offs and landings, and while it is often a problem - look at the size of SFO compared to, say, ELP. If ELP was down to one runway all day,every day it wouldn't ever be a problem. If an airline had four departures leaving within 10 minutes of each other and they don't staff for that you're looking at a whole different story. But that isn't what your talking about I don't believe.

>>> Hey there, just a quick chime in then time to call the fiance. Can't resist this opportunity...

SFO uses 2 runways, always. One is South to North which is for all landings and the 747 take offs. The other is West to East for standard take offs.

I would love to see them do landings on the West to East, would be like a Hong Kong ( Kai Tak ) and I for one would enjoy it. Though others may not ...

Plus the fact, that they have parallel runways on both sides. Came in on a Untied 733 and we had a company sister right to our side, was cool! Would be so freaky if it were your first flight. I have done the East to West landing once, that was fun. A few winds, some rain, a little turbulence, what more can a guy ask for? LOL

Anyway, it is not just landing space, it is also terminal space, area at security, check in, etc... I have not been to El Paso, would be fun. Mexico would be right there.

If it is anything like San Antonio!?, plenty of space, plenty of room. I think the slot issue is being played here too much. Gatwick has one runway, unfortunately(on there being one runway), and does fine. What makes me nervous if a plane blows out a tire or worse, OUCH!!! That airport could be shut down for a long time... but we can't have too much noise from an airport, that wouldn't be ecologically correct... smile...

Ok, you know where I'm going...



[This message has been edited by Worldtraveler36 (edited 03-26-2002).]