Unfortunately, you're getting the backlash for the people like the lady in my post above: heads to the diamond line with a child in stroller, took WAY too long to get all her exempt liquids together, shoes off both her and her toddler, etc. The "type" of person going through diamond doesn't bother me, it's when they don't know the basics and hold up the line!

I do think if someone has a toddler in a stroller they should go through either the normal or family line; it's just natural that it's going to take longer for them and the "expert" travellers are going to get impatient. But once a child is old enough to be self mobile and knows the rules themselves, I don't see a problem with cutting through to the Diamond line.

My take on it:

To get into the diamond line you should have to show a current or not too long expired FF card. If you flunk the line in any way other than a recent rule change they stamp that card and it no longer qualifies. They take note of the card # and inform the airline so if you get a replacement card it comes pre-stamped and your next card comes pre-stamped anyway. The card after that is unaffected, though.

The card does *NOT* need to match the airline you are currently taking.

:td: security does not need yet another ID check and layer of bureaucracy

They just added the three lanes at my home airport and OH MAN - so frustrating!

First I was herded into the Casual Traveler lane (which I protested robustly against, given that I fly 2x a week) and went over to the Black Diamond lane instead, which took a century and a half to get through. Some lady, obviously a very inexperienced traveler, sat down on the floor, pulled about 450 things out of her carry-on bag, spread them all over the floor, and took five years to put each bag in its select tray and then set off the metal detector and the Xray machine anyway. Other infrequent travelers went through as well taking up many minutes, while the rest of us sat behind them tapping our feet. I nearly missed my flight sitting in a security line for 45 minutes. I didn't realize my airport was adding the new lanes, so I didn't arrive particularly early, expecting that the Elite/FC lines were still in place.... and those always go fast, at least here...

Flew out of ORD earlier tonight on AA and no green/blue/black lanes, AWESOME! Thumbs up... hope they leave it that way...

My favorite little bit of ridiculous - those carts they move the bins around on. I always see people unloading into the bin that is physically attached to the cart (like bolted to it) even though it is labeled as such.

The test for the line needs to be one of those carts. One side has bins, one side has a bolted bin. Try to take the bolted bin, a buzzer goes off and you're immediately swept to the casual line.

Also, i have no status with any FF program, though i do have several flights with the 4 different FF programs i'm a member of.

I wear a polo and jeans, look my age (young), and I can get a birdhouse through security faster then many in their little suits can untie their shoes.

MEMO: Your Tax Dollars At Work
DATE: LAX, T3, 5-19-08
SUBJECT: Black Diamond line issues


1. TSA Entry Guardian appears to speak no English.
2. TSA Entry Guardian refuses to open Black Diamond lane for ten or twelve business pasengers ahead of me who "debate" with her and then open it themselves.
3. Once non-English speaking TSA Entry Guardian opens the Black Diamond lane, she then diverts all passengers into it. Including the couple with the newborn baby, the guy with a lapdog in a hand-carry, and me.
4. Black Diamond queue snake ends in a blank alley - passengers in line terminate at a closed barrier. Aforesaid business passengers open one of the barriers themselves and get a ticking-off from the TSA Entry Guardian in a language other than English or Spanish. Good feelings abound.
5. TSA X-ray operator berates the couple with the baby and the guy with a dog for being in the Black Diamond lane. Secondaries all around.

SUMMARY: Black Diamond Lane does not Meet or Exceed Expectations.

Just another role for petty tyrants?
 

I fear from reading this thread that these lanes are not being used in the manner in which they were announced by the TSA. They were announced as being volunatary - you choose which one you're comfortable. But it sounds like some TSO is, at least some of the time, telling pax where to go. Just another role for someone to presume to be always correct and issue the orders. As the posts here suggest, you can't tell a slowpoke from their looks, their FF affliations, or their tix.

But of course, every person who gives you a directive is one more source for the dreaded retaliatory SSSS when you don't immediately snap to and obey.

I guess it should have been obvious from the start that TSA would not let anything be "voluntary". Ha.

I think from what i've heard thus far - the airports that are incompitent and have no sense of how to manage crowds will continue to be incompitent and not know how to manage crowds.

No one from that airport is being picked up, dragged off to a functional airport, forced to watch how it -should- work, and then returned to the aforementioned airport with a mission to make it work.

The lanes seemed like a solution, and they'll work fine at the airports that already were highly functional. The rest will continue to not function, now with more complications.

Well, if you read the comments in the blog, they're working exactly the way some of the commenters want them to. In other words, not at all.

Unless I was really asleep at the wheel yesterday AM, the green, blue, black lane signs are gone at DEN.

I am on record as saying this is a ridiculous idea doomed to failure, and that the REAL answer is to stop the very things that slow up the line (shoe carnival, liquid circus, and ID(iocy) check. But I am practical, so I know eliminating kabuki security theater is very unlikely. So if we are to have designated lanes, why not base them on an objective criteria? Perhaps one lane could be used by day trippers that have a single carry-on (laptop or briefcase), a second lane could be used for average travelers with two carry-ons (presumably with liquids), and a third lane could be used for families with small children (under 6?), strollers, and those who would present themselves for pre-boarding (ultimately, the honor system has to be invoked). No strollers or toddlers would be allowed in the first two lanes, since they almost always take extra time. I think this would be an improvement over the current system. But back to the REAL solution...

Still wouldn't work. I'm still heading for the shortest lane or the one that looks like it's moving faster than the others.

That's why ANY attempt to segregate the lanes must have hard rules, and not be voluntary. I do the same thing now - I rely on my instincts to size up the lanes with the most potential morons in it. So far, I have been pretty successful. Recently, I have added the skill of pre-determining the most aggressive TSO ID(iocy) checker - you know, the one that uses the blacklight, the loupe, thumbs through your passports, asks questions, and then places 5 checkmarks and a signature on your BP and goes home each day 100% convinced that said activities folied at least two terrorists).

Good idea except for the fact that a lot of FFs can zip thru security with a carry-on rollboard bag, briefcase, and if female, purse, much MUCH more quickly than a Kettle who is on a 'day trip' that doesn't have a clue about what will set off the WTMD, the 3-1-1 rule, or forgets to take off their shoes.

For that matter, most FFs can go more quickly, even with all that stuff, than someone who travels 'casually' (say 4-10 times a year) and who doesn't have their routine down pat but is also not a Kettle.