Find The Boots

USA Today ran an article on what people think about elite security lines.

"It's ludicrous," a visibly irritated Charles Gresham said as he and his family prepared to enter the regular security line at Dallas/Fort Worth airport's new international terminal.

The Greshams' line wasn't particularly long. But watching elite members of American Airlines' AAdvantage program move briskly through their own line to effectively jump ahead was a bitter pill to swallow.

"I can see the people who pay for first-class tickets getting better seats," said Gresham, who was headed to Germany on an unexpected and temporary military deployment. "But this is security. We should all be even here."

Proving once again how clueless some people can be but aren't afraid to tell the world. Perhaps the guy going through the regular security line with his brood of kids should notice how fast the elite line moves. That's because they're not trying to bring a tuba as carry on. They know to remove their laptops and take off their shoes. They aren't sending bags with play-dough through the x-ray machine, and they're not placing a sippy-cup of soda on the x-ray machine belt (yep, saw that in person). Putting the frequent travelers in a separate line is just common sense optimization.

And by the way, it's the airlnes that pay the fee for those elite lines. You get to use those lines when you do a huge amount of business with the airlines. And if you've qualified for Executive Platinum in mid-July like I have the last two years, you realize that it's not all that fun to rack up a few hundred thousand miles a year. Frankly, the airlines aren't doing nearly enough for their best customers.