I have a non-English speaking friend who I'd like to escort through the airport (plus get her into the Lounge) at LAX. I recall that after the new security scheme went in after 9/11, people who wanted to meet their loved ones just bought refundable tickets, then checked in and got a boarding pass, entered the secure area, then cancelled and got refunded. Does that still work?

Nothing personal Stimpy, but is this the sort of question we should be answering?

You are right. It's pretty obvious that it still works.

Stimpy, shame on you for asking such a simple question!

It works, but you might come up on someone's "security" radar if you cancel a ticket after you've gotten a boarding pass.

I've successfully requested a gate pass at the check-in counter to accompany non-English speaking family and friends here at SMF. Try giving your airline a call and find out if that's possible in your situation.

I've done it numerous times at LAX in the past two years and I have yet to be flagged as a risk. No SSSS for me. YMMV.

I was thinking more along the lines of being thrown in a holding cell by the local PD, especially if your last name isn't Smith. Welcome to the new America.

I didn't really think this topic would be a security risk since it's been discussed quite often in the past.

I have done this for legitimate reasons in the past. Sometimes you are about to board the plane, or even on the plane and you get a phone call telling you to go to a different city. So it should be fine, but I wondered if the airlines or the TSA see this practice being abused often enough to do something about it.

I used to have an unconfirmed ticket (destination in there, but no confirmed flight, and fully refundable) which I'd use several times to get me airside in LHR, to help an elderly relative. They're also very handy for getting round 'ticket-out' border control restrictions.

Yes, I'm sure the TSA has a team of monkeys working around the clock analyzing ticket refunding practices looking for a pattern . . . trying to crack the case . . . long into the night!

The intention of requiring a boarding pass in your name to get through security is not to prevent what is being attempted here, but just to reduce the number of people going through security. This allows fewer screeners and equipment to spend more time analyzing the reduced number of people passing through security lines.

Security isn't defeated, you're just defeating the reasonable rule. It's comparable to using the biz or first class lavs when you're in coach.

The funny thing is that they spend more time staring at the boarding pass and ID than they do with anything else at the security checkpoint.

At some airports, it's even worse than that -- one person stares at the boarding pass and ID and then says "OK", and then later down the line, an official TSA person stares at the boarding pass and ID again!

That plus the innumerable banned items list, ridiculously sensitive metal detectors (wouldn't want any guns one inch long getting on board), no re-tries for the metal detector, and insistence on same-sex screening (where's the GBLT outcry?), and it's no wonder the TSA needs tens of thousands of employees and billions and billions of dollars.

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"Yippie-kay-yay, Mr. Falcon!" -- John McClane, Die Hard II As Seen on TV

I recently took a friend who had just had leg surgery through ANC. I asked the AS agent for a security pass and she hesitated. I responded by offering to go buy a Y fare and refund it later that day. She laughed and gave me the security pass I requested...

Almost none of the "security" personnel know this. [comments about security personnel's intelligence level, personality type, and method of breathing deleted by pynchonesque ]

[This message has been edited by pynchonesque (edited 10-21-2003).]

My favorite is the time the envelope in which I had my boarding pass happened to have another itinerary printout in it. The "security" guy started questioning me about my other itinerary! I feel so safe.

An LAX terminal and TPA come to mind. But the reason that both of these do it that way is because there are escelators and a shuttle, respectively, inbetween the initial entrance to the 'secure' area and the actual checkpoint. So they don't want you to go up the stairs/ride the shuttle and realize you haven't checked in.