Indeed I did. Indeed.

I think CAN-PASS and NEXUS would sort of qualify wouldn't they? Someone else asked about letting airline personell take the 'express lane' as well. They do this several times a day and FAA regulations require a 10yr criminal background check as a condition of employment. Granted it's not overly detailed but it's more than the average traveler has to submit to.

A very good point. It is not the TSA that is segregating the customers, it is the airline.

Maybe not in the US, but in London there is a Fast Track immigration channel for first and business class non-EU passengers at times when the normal immigration queues are likely to be very long. And it's pretty uncontroversial.

I am not talking about rewarding customers with discounts, special sales, etc. That is covered in many other threads.

I am talking about treating customers who show up to spend the same amount of money for the same products differently. You go to a store to buy $100 of something (anything) and you have to wait 20 minutes to checkout. I pay $100 for the EXACT SAME PRODUCTS and I get checked out in 3 minutes because I have spent $x in the last year.


I know I may be "silly," but I often have to wait for someone who stands there daydreaming about who knows what until the cashier is done scanning his/her items. After all of this, the customer then starts looking for their ID, check-cashing card, checkbook, credit card, money, etc. Perhaps you don't think this is comparable to somoene in the TSA line who waits until they are next in line to looking for bins, taking off his/her shoes, etc., but I think it is.

Your points about different lines for different kinds of payments is off-subject. I am talking about other factors being equal. That is the point of this thread. You pay $300 for a EWR-MIA ticket, have a printed boarding pass, etc. and I have the same priced ticket in the seat next to you, have my BP, etc. Yet one of us gets to go through a line with 3 people in it and the other has to go through a line with 300, based solely on how much each of us have flown in the last year.


Please, compare apples to apples. It can be done. Say you go to a restaurant and there is a line where you have to wait for, say, 20 minutes for a table. There is another line where "frequent diners" can just go right past you and get the next available table. That is what the airlines are doing with the TSA lines.


My personal status has nothing to do with this thread. You make an incorrect assumption when you say that I object to elite lines for TSA screening. Read what I wrote (at least once). I NEVER said I thought the lines should be eliminated or even that I was not in favor of them. I merely questioned the idea behind it.

Actually at any restaurant anywhere in the world where I am a regular, the maitre'd will recognize me and seat me before others that are waiting. This is quite common, so I do not know what you are on about.

If you buy and EZ Pass - you know, one of those gizmos you put in your windshield so that an electronic reader will know when you zoom through a toll station on a highway - then you get better access to crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and hundreds of other toll roads.

You are not paying more. You are merely a frequent customer. This is an example of a government agency itself setting up tiered service.

At my bank, there is a line for "Business Customers." People can enter that line and jump ahead of 20 or so people. Is this OK? I say it is because the banks wants the business of businesses and they know that they have to extend extra service to them to get it.

When I fly AA, I get special treatment. So far that has helped me decide to keep as much of my business with AA as possible. Since they serve the routes I travel, why not build a relationship. When I fly others, I am just another intermittent customer. So it goes.

At the airports since a private business controls the access to the screening lines, they have every right to reward their best customers with quicker service. They know that many business travelers fly multiple segments daily and weekly. They know that loyalty from frequent business flyers is the bread and butter of their business and that the leisure traveler is an intermittent customer at best.

By the way, here's a counter example:

Why do grocery stores offer quicker service to people with less than 10 or 12 or x items? So somebody with a total check of $15.00 is served more quickly than the $100+ shopper?

Is it fair? Is it because the store thinks people with short shopping lists are busier or more worthy than the "cart full" folk?

OR ......

Is it because they know that that if they do not provide this service they will lose these people to the conveneince store?

How about you "read what I wrote (at least once)"? The TSA has no elite line for screening. Period. The lines have nothing to do with the govenment organization. They screen as people get in their lines - what the airlines/airport does in front of those lines has nothing to do with the TSA.

"The physical rope and stanchions and the real estate they occupy is the responsibility of the airlines or, in some cases, the airports," said TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield. "The TSA area begins just past the ticket checkers. From that point forward, we treat them all the same."

I suspect the howling about "special TSA security lines" and "appalling misuse of my tax dollars" and "as if I can't read a badge on a uniform!" (no, apparently you can't) will continue. This fact has been pointed out at least four times now. No need to let facts get in the way of a good whine.

All analogies break down at some point. The common factor of the examples that I listed is preferential treatment for better customers. Lots of companies do this.

You want another example?

See how many lines you wait on at hotels in Las Vegas if you're a preferred customer.

I didn't say you were silly. I said the analogy to a grocery store was silly, because, unlike airport screening lines, no knowledge of procedures is required to expedite the process.

There is, however, a difference between stupid people and uninformed people. The checkbook searcher is stupid. Casual flyers are naive. And, as I said, supermarkets have lines that don't take checks precisely so you can avoid such people.

I don't think it is at all.

That's right. Same philosophy as Las Vegas.

And, as a matter of fact, that's exactly what happens in Las Vegas. Comped guests have a special line -- they don't have to wait for buffets, the cafe, check-in, etc. And the hotels do it for exactly the same reason as the airlines: they want to keep their best customers happy and returning.

It might explain your objection to the lines. I haven't read anything you've written that otherwise explains it.

Okay, if you prefer, it might explain why you question the idea behind them.

Actually the reason for the "business customers" bank line is that business transactions are often lengthy, thus they try to keep them in a line where people don't expect express service. It's a restriction, not a benny.

I got stuck in an "elite" line at LAX terminal 2 last month. It was one of those "business customer" lines in the bank sense. I lost my elite status after that ... perhaps I shouldn't mourn it.

Edward

Except that the TSA is allowing private companies to control access to a government mandated "service". Saying that the TSA has no elite lines and that the elite lines have nothing to do with the government organization is disingenuous. The TSA allows them to be created to control access to its "service" just as if the post office allowed airlines or trucking companies (the ones that ship mail/packages) control access to the post office.

The TSA could (and has after 9//11, IIRC) mandate equal access for equal fees (equal protection? stretch...). It has allowed the creation of elite lines by no longer mandating equal access. The TSA could reinstate the previous requirement.

Even if the TSA did segregate and have elite lines (which they don't), are you saying that it's wrong for the government to treat people differentially? Because, I could think of a million ways the government has "elite lines" (disregarding the P.O. examples):

progressive income taxation (different rates for different incomes)
social security (limited to those who have paid in and over a certain age)
medicare (see SS)
medicaid (for people below a certain income)
distribution of highway dollars (some states get more than what they paid in gas taxes, others less)
pork-barrel spending (obvious)
and etc....

My guess is that people who think elite lines are unfair are only upset because it tends to be the upper income folks who benefit, as opposed to how government programs normally work. In fact, you could make the argument that the wealthy get the real shaft, since they pay for most of the government and get little of its services. Airlines, while they're still bleeding money in most cases, at least know how to reward loyal customers. The government doesn't need to; it has a monopoly.

NO THEY ARE NOT!!! The service is the security screening! The government doesn't offer long lines as a service (though it may seem that way at any government office).

Here is a thought exercise:

Let's say that UA decided that elite members had to recite the alphabet before they could enter the terminal (and therefore before screening). And they made non-elites recite it 100 times. It would take non-elites 100 times longer to get through security. TSA has nothing to do with it. UA is giving a bonus to its elites and offering an incentive to non-elites to fly UA more often.

In the crazy example above or in the real world, the service UA offers is getting on an airplane that takes you somewhere. And if you want to fly UA, then you have to live by their rules, which may be, "if there ever is a line for something, elites are in the front."

Please, people, get it through your head that the government isn't trying to screw over less frequent flyers just because there are elite lines next to security. Those elite lines are for the airline to screen their passengers before they go through security.

Um, pardon me for bringing this up, but aren't airline ticket taxes computed as a percentage of the ticket price? I know there are certain taxes and fees that are a flat amount per ticket, but isn't there also a percentage-based tax?

If so, then isn't it also the case that first class flyers and full Y passengers are paying far more in ticket taxes than discount Y flyers? I would also hazard a guess that the average ticket price paid by an elite level flyer is higher than the average paid by a non-elite, as many frequent business travelers (such as myself) need to fly on flexible tickets that cost more. Furthermore, many airlines are now making it harder for low-revenue flyers to get status (see CO with 50% EQMs on low revenue tickets, and NW with 150% EQMs on revenue F and C tickets). So elites will typically be paying higher airfares AND higher ticket taxes.

What, then, is the problem? Since they are paying more in taxes, why is it wrong to give them preferential treatment in the security screening process?

Many of the complainers here have said quite loudly and insistently that everyone at the airport pays the "EXACT SAME PRICE." As all of us here at FT should know, that is absoutely untrue. We all know that airfares vary wildly from ticket to ticket, even for the same flight.