eng3

The people waiting in line probably fly less than once a year and don't realize the rest of us fly far more often and the combined waiting time due to IRROPS (or while we had no status and were earning from the bottom) far outweighs their frustration

I remember more than one occasion where I was first in group 1 and overheard a GS in front of me comment to the GA "Next time, you should make an announcement about GS boarding so I don't get dirty looks when I cut in front of everyone."

Other than boarding and checkin, I almost never use a premier line.
I rarely need GA assistance and at the airports I goto, they typically don't have a separate line.
I never goto customer service as I find them extremely unreliable and just call the 1K line.

I do sometimes get a dirty look when I arrive at the gate when they are boarding group 3-4-5, and I go in the premier line. I don't see how going in front of people during group 3-4-5 boarding is any different than during group 1 boarding. It's still going in front.

eng3

I generally do the same if the premier lane is clearly separated.

Sometimes the "lanes" are 2ft long so everything has overlapped. In those cases, I usually say "group 1?" and people will point forward "allowing" me to move along.

BF263533

Over the past 37 years I paid my dues to United. How many hundred thousands of dollars. They would not be here but for our loyalty.

DErg

This saved m{e} at NAP back in June. Avis's computer system was down (at that outstation at least) and they had 2 rather slow agents (Mediterranean speed) trying to manually write the contracts. It's an outstation where you walk up, get a ticket with a number (DMV style) and wait to be called to the counter. People with status are prioritized and effectively skip in front of everyone. There were 50+ people who based on asking around for a minute to try and figure out why there was such a congregation had been waiting for 3+ hours in some cases. Next person called in front of the 50+ waiting was me. I kind of felt bad, but not bad enough to go to the back of the line.

After they call up the next non-premier I will proactively walk up as soon as that person begins walking away after being served. They are supposed to call from the premier line first but I won't give them a chance to ignore me.

+1, I don't run into any problem when I just walk up with the boarding pass out through G1. GA knows the deal and it hasn't been a problem yet.

BBSHOPSINGER

I flew into Portland, Maine this past weekend. My experience at the Hertz counter reminded me of this thread. I have President's Circle, so I usually don't have to stop at all but just go to my car. But at the smaller airports you need to stop and pick up the key. There was a line, but the "Gold" line was empty. As I walked up and waited for the agent to finish with the current customer, the couple at the front of the line took notice. She kept nudging him and telling him not to let me jump in front. I ignored them and picked up my key. I'm sure once they realized that I only took 10 seconds, they weren't quite as upset.

purduephotog

I had the opposite problem. 1K, flight all jacked up, baggage had to be rechecked to continue. Guy at the desk was taking EVERYONE in the standard line before me- even another guy that handed in the baggage. When I finally got short and pointed out I needed help, he had a little attitude and snotty ... tone, including grandstanding gestures to "invite me" to continue with him all the way down at the other end of the counter.

I kept it professional and the look on his face was priceless- it totally went blank- when he pulled up my itinerary. Suddenly it was "Sir".

I didn't roll him under the bus, because everyone can have a bad day. And yes, everyone else was checking in but I couldn't do anything else until those bags got rechecked and cleared.

You 'earned' the benefits by spending money. I'd say so long as you don't flaunt them to piss people off, you'd be ok.

gregoryad

I was 18 and flying my first flight without my dad coming with me to a chess tournament out of MFR was in BG1 on a paid tcon first ticket and was pushed by some probably mid 40s lady who was in group 2 I remember on her ticket. Very suspicious. I didn't do or say anything about it because I am just a little nerd peewee. Oh how typical of anyone in SO.

hawkxp

remembering the old red carpet TED days, at SFO; I was tight/late and the Whole plane was loading. I walked up the red carpet lane and the GA looked at me like I was cutting in and said "we do not have first class on this flight". I just said "do you have 1K on this flight?", and butted in

leonidas

Use the benefit you paid for, not rude at all. And NEVER engage with the shouters in any way. The world is full of weird people. You don't know what some sicko might do. You will be sharing the same general space for a few hours.

warrenw

Yesssss this is totally true! My parents live at an outstation and every time I fly around a holiday or something like that there is a "morning rush" where a ton of people are flying on that day, all scrunched up in the economy line with nobody in Premier. I definitely feel the glares but those people aren't spending $12k+ and 100,000 miles+ per year..... So I stop feeling bad.

It's equally hilarious when you're the only one in group 1 and they know it, so they call group 1 and then start into group 2 right away... LOL

CMK10

Cutting a big line is one of my favorite parts about having status. For the money spent on the airline being able to enjoy less time waiting at the check in counter and at the gate is one of the most important and consistently delivered benefits to me.

narvik

That is one benefit that isn't talked about much, but that I tremendously value .
Hoping MM status with its *A Gold will retain this benefit indefinitely. Here's hoping...

warrenw

Outstations can be weird about premier benefits though. For example, I flew in June and the outstation has 3 flights that all leave at 6am, which for this place is a LOT, one of them being an a320 - anyway I guess someone decided to use the premier line for group ticketing for some baseball group to get tickets. Everyone was so snagged up it was terrible. So I'm standing in the middle of this group ticketing line and the baseball dudes around me told me "you have to go in the other line, this is group ticketing." I argued once that it's Premier, but they wouldn't let it go so instead of going into the economy line I walked up in front straight to the counter and asked where the line for 1K was and I was immediately helped. It was worth seeing their reaction of the guys who wouldn't let up on "I can't stand in their line".

s0ssos

And then there's the way Alaska handles it. At PDX somehow self-tag baggage wasn't working. There was a big line for elites, because they were telling literally everybody to use it. So basically having elite status had no value (unless you are actually going to walk around everybody else in the same line).

mdbe

I still do not get why AS doesn't do priority bag tags. Interestingly when I had UA check my bags to AS with the priority tag, they always came out first in the AS baggage claim much to chagrin of their elites