Can someone explain to me why there is a special security line for business and first class passengers? I am willing to endure the deliberate creation of a caste system on the airplane, since enjoying the sensation that they occupy a finer station than the proletariat helps to induce them to subsidize my flight. But I don't see why the government, which runs security, should draw such distinctions.
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Incidentally
06 Mar 2008 06:38 pm
Comments (15)
Megan,
I am not one of the lumpenproletariat, nor even the proletariat who travel in the back. I generally fly biz class (especially to Europe from Houston) and have asked the question myself, though I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. The answer I get from Continental is that they pay for the extra security to take their biz class and elite members faster.
SO it probably is subsidizing your TSA screen.
By the way, it doesn't make it any nicer. Just marginally faster.
It is just an example of the libertarian argument for congestion pricing in action. The ones who are willing and able to pay for preferred treatment can get it. If you like congestion pricing you should love this.
Actually, it is also for members of frequent flyer clubs. And--at least at Dulles--it's sponsored (and probably paid for somehow) by United, of whose FF club I have the privilege (!) of being a member (at the lowest rank, but still).
FWIW this doesn't seem to be a universally available good: I certainly don't get any special privileges on the way back from Heathrow.
May I ask why you think it's OK for United to offer accelerated check-in at their own counters for frequent flyers, but not OK to expedite other aspects of the process?
If you pay more - much more - for a ticket, then more amenities including shorter lines ought to be provided. Also, I as a business traveler may not have the time to wait to stand on line.
Considering how small the service differential can be in biz/first class and coach on some airline - such as basically offering you a bag of peanuts twice plus all the beer you can drink - I'd say a faster line is one of the few ways airlines can distinguish themselves.
"But I don't see why the government,..., should draw such distinctions."
What, exactly, do you think 'Government' does?
Clue: It is All they do.
Past that, we should wonder why the TSA is 'Federalized', when the customers are the Airlines'...
Methinks Megan is flying somewhere--on business class, no less. Where oh where could she be going? Let's see, last month she flew to Florida for a weekend. Last year she went on a press junket to VietNam. Where's she going now? Could it possibly be London, which I hear (on very good authority) has the worst airport evah? And who's paying for it? I don't think the Atlantic pays for business class for its econobloggers. It's a mmmystery. But knowing Megan I'm sure she'll post the answer soon enough. I'll have to wait.
Can someone explain to me why there is a special security line for business and first class passengers?
The airlines pay for it. This can be seen even more clearly by looking at the airports that also let the elite frequent fliers of some airlines in the faster security lines. At Dulles, a United hub, United Premiers (25k miles a year) can use the faster security line. At Seatac near Seattle, not a United hub but with a fairly large number of long haul United flights, United Premiers cannot but United Premier Executives (50k per yer) can. At Raleigh-Durham, with only a few United flights, all to United hubs, United elites cannot use the faster security lines-- but American Airlines elites can, as American has many flights out of RDU.
The airlines subsidize security at the airports, and based on how much they're willing to subsidize (related to how important that airport is to that airline), they can have a certain number of passengers use the faster line.
I often cross the border into Mexico, and I wish there was a special line that I could pay $5 to cross at. That would be more than enough to support extra staff during busy boarder crossing times and make for a much more pleasant trip. And since I wouldn't be in the free line, even those you can't or won't pay would benefit.
Unless they kept the total amount of staff the same.
Which I guess that they could do. But since there are fees for so many things, why not charge a fee for border crossing that is enough to properly staff them to keep wait times reasonable.
Ha ha ha -- I love this. I read it over and over again because Megan is SOOOO FUNNY!!!!
THis has now been the "object of the week" for NEARLY 40 WEEKS!!!!!
Now, That's FUnny!!!!
Object of the week
I'm generally kind of skeptical of those all-in-one "It's a Dalmation, and it's also a delicious breakfast drink!" kind of gadgets. My general feeling is that I'd rather have a good phone than a mediocre camera. But I am completely in love with my new multi-function printer, which has already saved me several dollars in faxing and copy fees. It's a laser, not an inkjet, so it's decently fast and sharp, and best of all, it hooks straight into my wireless network. I chuckle with glee every time I use it
Ha ha ha -- I love this. I read it over and over again because Megan is SOOOO FUNNY!!!!
THis has now been the "object of the week" for NEARLY 40 WEEKS!!!!!
Now, That's FUnny!!!!
Object of the week
I'm generally kind of skeptical of those all-in-one "It's a Dalmation, and it's also a delicious breakfast drink!" kind of gadgets. My general feeling is that I'd rather have a good phone than a mediocre camera. But I am completely in love with my new multi-function printer, which has already saved me several dollars in faxing and copy fees. It's a laser, not an inkjet, so it's decently fast and sharp, and best of all, it hooks straight into my wireless network. I chuckle with glee every time I use it
Maybe Mortimer the Cyberstalker should chill a bit. Go out, take a walk, listen to the birds.
As someone who travels every week for business, the TSA thing annoys the living crap out of me. If you ever travel to a place like Singapore or Dubai, one of the grim realizations is how fucking far behind our US airports are compared to their's. I did a project in Dubai for about a year and a half, and my visa was a biometric (retinal) scanner. I got out of the airport in minutes, never having to spend more than 30 seconds waiting for the machine. When I arrived at JFK, I feel like I'm flying into the Congo. The airport is dirty. I have to wait for 30 minutes to 3 hours in line just to have some overweight TSA official stamp my passport. And as far as I can tell, that system is WAY worse than the biometric scanner (it certainly would be easier to fool).
And then, getting into the airport, is an excercise clearly designed to humiliate travelers. Take off you shows. Pull out your lap tops. Undergo pat downs by TSA officers in rubber gloves. Get yelled at because you're trying to put on your shoes and belt, rather than walk out into the gate area barefoot and with your pants falling down. And then being told the whole thing is for my own good? Pff.
You want to know what? In the Middle East, where presumably they have way more experience dealing with this sort of thing, security is much better, much friendlier, and MUCH faster. Oh, and you don't want to take you shoes off. You also don't have to do that in Israel.
Further, the time it takes the TSA inspectors to grace me with freedom into the gate area is almost completely dependent on the number of passangers waiting in line. which makes sense, until you realize you're being given the 20 minute search version on the flight from Greensboro to Charlotte.
Airline security seems to exist for one reason, and one reason only - in case another attack on an airplane happens, the current President (Whoever that might be starting in 2009, and certainly including the current one) can say "well, we tried to stop it". It is the worst kind of CYA and it results in probably billions of direct cost and lost productivity - often my producitivity. This is also the reason we will be on Orange Alert until the sun goes nova and turns the earth into a superheated lifeless rock.
As has been pointed out, this is an airline policy, not a government one. It is not universal, and often not helpful. I fly ever week out of Philly International, a major US Airways hub. On an average Monday morning unless the business line is 2-3x longer than the first class/preferred member line, it's actually faster to stand in line with the normal joes since the special line only has one x-ray machine.
This is a total scam, and probably unenforceable. The airline claim is that the rents they pay to airports for gate/check-in space entitles them to block your access to TSA screening, a mandated security function. All passengers (coach or first class) pay a flat "9/11" fee on top of ticket prices to pay the cost of enhanced post 9/11 security. Neither airlines or first class/platinum frequent flyers are paying for the "express access". The airline scam is the equivalent of claiming that since your taxes "paid" for the sidewalk in front of a police station or public park, you now have the right to block access for some people so that other people always get priority. Honest "market" efforts where people pay special fees covering the true cost of priority access have been dismal failures. The TSA is not responsible for this scam (although they've done nothing to stop it) and every TSA supervisor I've spoken to hates it. The people "enforcing" the priority lanes are low-wage "guards" employed by the airlines/airport, not TSA. Anyone who feels strongly about liberty and equality under the law should feel free to use the express line and insist on their access to security screening.
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Why do you assume the government "runs security" in a way that would allow it to decide on a boarding order for who gets to go through the security line first? As far as I know, they don't.
Airlines want that short line there because if anything it's probably *more* valuable to many of its business class customers than is the extra seat space / free drink itself. First class customers are frequently pressed for time, and willing to pay extra to avoid hassles (particularly stupid hassles that serve no good purpose). This is why Clear, which charges people $100 or $200/year to get their own, shorter, security line, has been such a success. File under "obvious markets in everything".
Posted by anon | March 6, 2008 6:49 PM