Should Flight Crew and Airport Employees be Allowed to Do This?
Airports are getting busier and the security lines are getting longer. It’s no secret that travel has become a stressful endeavor, and many of us just want to get to the airplane with as little delay as possible. This also includes the airport staff and flight crew that take you to your destination safely.
Many airports have Known Crew checkpoints where crew and employee can undergo an expedited screening. If that line isn’t working or is too busy, often airline employees will cut to the front of whichever line they feel like, flash their airport badge, and cut the line.
The question is, should an employee of a Hudson Books, Qdoba, or a Flight Attendant running late be granted any other special pass to cut the line in front of a passenger?
Don’t expect security lines to be short like this anymore
What Usually Happens?
If you’ve traveled with any frequency you’ve seen it. The airline employee that cuts the premium (or even TSA Precheck Line) straight to the front. They nudge their way right up to the front of the security line and put their small backpack on the scanner in front of everyone else.
Most passengers I don’t think care, because they’re just looking to get to the gate quickly, and “air rage” is a thing.
Today, however, a fellow passenger wasn’t having it.
TSA pre Check, from google
The non-precheck line was out the door and the TSA Precheck line was only about 15-20 people short. I was next in line and was passed through. We were waiting in the bag security line while an airport employee wearing a Hudson News uniform passed right through the TSA Precheck Line, went right past me and the person in front of me, didn’t;’t bother to say excuse me, and threw her bag on the line in front of all of us.
The passenger in front of me wasn’t having it.
Passenger – “Hey, there’s a line here. You don’t get to skip it! We’re all waiting here.”
He took her bag and moved it to the very back of the line.
Employee – “Don’t touch my bag, those are my things!”
Passenger – “Then you shouldn’t have jumped in front. No line cutting – get to the back”
Employee – “I’m an airport employee, I have to get to work”
Passenger – “And I’m also an employee for my job. I don’t get to cut the line but my work is also important just like yours”
TSA – “Is there a problem here?”
Passenger – “This person just cut the line, they can’t do that, they need to move to the back and wait just like all of us. Besides, this is the TSA Precheck line. We pay to use this line, and if she didn’t pay, she can’t go through here”
TSA – “Ma’am, did you cut the line?”
Employee – “I’m an airport employee. I have to get to work”
TSA – “Did you cut in front of these men? If so, go to the back of the line.”
So, who’s Right?
I want to try and see all three sides of this here. The Security Staff, the Employee, and the Passenger
TSA just wanted to diffuse this as quickly as possible, so moving the employee to the back of the line made sense. At the same time, should the TSA have allowed an airport employee to go through the paid TSA Precheck line? My gut says no.
I get that the employee has to do the same tedious day after day security check and, more than likely, has nothing dangerous or suspect in their bag. If he/she is going to cut the line, the least that they could do is say “excuse me” while placing their things in front. Plenty of people work in places with security checks (think courthouses, jail, etc) but just by them working there doesn’t give them the right to cut in front of everyone.
At first I wondered if the passenger was new to traveling, but then I realized that this was the TSA Precheck line, so chances are this wasn’t their first flight. Could he have been a little less brash? Sure, but at the same time, I understand where he’s coming from. He’s waited in a line for a few minutes only to have someone just come and throw their things in front and bypass them all.
Clear and Pre Check
My high school teacher gave me a quote that I try to live by in my day to day:
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part
The moral of the story? If you work in a place with security checkpoints, perhaps you should allow yourself another 6-10 minutes to go through security checks. You should also know which times of the day and days of the week are the most busy and plan accordingly.
If I am running late for work, I don’t get to pass through stop signs and run red lights just because…
Your Thoughts?
Should airline employees and flight crews get to bypass everyone else in the security lines, or should they have to wait like everyone else?
November 18, 2019
The combination of your massive popups, click-bait headlines (Should Flight Crew and Airport Employees be Allowed to Do This?) and numerous non-English articles in the RSS feed (with no way to filter them out) is pushing BoardingArea rapidly to the ‘Delete Feed’ solution.
Get back to what you once were. You have too much competition to play games.
November 18, 2019
No way!!!
November 18, 2019
@billybob – your name goes well with your racist comment…
To give a taste of your own pill, perhaps you should follow your own advice and go back to hillbilly country and keep voting for trump.
November 18, 2019
Are you proud of your comment to me?
First, was my post directed toward you?
Your childish reply doesn’t deserve this retort, but I feel I have a duty and an opportunity to educate you, if it can be done.
Do you read the Japanese and German posts all the way through? No? Well why not, you racist!? Is your phone in Chinese? No? You racist!!
The shallowness of your thinking reminds me of when Jay Leno was interviewing a young woman and the conversation somehow came around to Mexican food, which Leno stated that he didn’t like. Immediately, the reply out of the young woman was, “You don’t? That’s racist!” at which point Leno wisely bit his tongue but later expressed what he really thought: “That’s not racist, you idiot. You IDIOT!”
Such fuzzy thinking is rare but it does rear its head now and again.
I hope you’re young, because if you are they you are allowed some latitude in uneducated thought and behavior. I also hope you remember this post, so that you can compare yourself now with who (I hope) you become in ten years and remind and congratulate yourself that you’ve matured since then.
But if not then you’ll remain part of the problem, launching ranged ad hominem one-liners and ranting about . I really hope you don’t continue like this to the point that the grey starts to appear around your temples because if so, you’ll more than likely be an embarrassment to yourself and to your family — more so than you may be now.
So THINK! And try doing it for yourself.
November 18, 2019
and ranting about …
insert hackneyed manufactured outrage de jour here
It didn’t come through in my post, but I didn’t want to you miss that point.
November 18, 2019
How is this a useful posting for anyone?
Total clickbait
November 18, 2019
Not sure. How is your comment useful to anyone? I’ll still approve it though.
November 18, 2019
This used to be an issue at JFK Terminal 7, where the dedicated line for employees is not open at certain hours (super early or super late), so airport and airline employees, including flight crews, would cut the line. And this was the accepted practice.
I think the situation is a bit better now with Known Crewmember program in place. But yes, it’s annoying.
November 18, 2019
Do you have to go through security, to go to work? Airport Employee’s do not have to wait in line at security.
November 18, 2019
If clearing security is a part of your workplace then yes. You should.
November 18, 2019
Only some airport employees have to use standard checkpoints. Orange badges (at least at SeaTac) are the ones required to do so. They don’t have a choice, there whole badge requires they use it. They have to be screened by TSA.
The majority of airport employees have Red or Blue badges and have a seperate, required checkpoint.
As to if the employee should have cut to the front of the line, probably not. BUT they don’t have a choice but to use those lanes and considering if they had let everyone go in front of them they would never get to work.
November 18, 2019
I wouldn’t say “never” get to work but… there is a counter argument. If traffic is horrendous for me to drive to work I have to leave work early. Isn’t that the same concept if you know security lines will be bad?
March 5, 2020
But do you sit on the on-ramp with your blinker on waiting for everyone who is already on the highway to pass? Or do you merge into traffic? Airport employees pass through TSA several times a day not just when going to work. Go in break? TSA. Take out the trash? TSA, bring up supplies ? TSA.
If the employee worked for TSA and they said “we would open another line but the screener is waiting behind 129 people to get through TSA would everyone still want them to wait in line?
If you work in a restaurant you probably eat for free. If you work at Walmart you get a discount. If you are a cop you don’t worry about speeding tickets. If you work at the airport you skip the line.
March 7, 2020
If I work in aa restaurant, I do eat for free, but I don’t push my way past everyone rudely and make them wait for me. Paying customers always get priority.
November 18, 2019
I don’t care much either way, as long as there’s a rule in place with clear signage stating what the rule is, and the rule is uniformly enforced.
November 19, 2019
+1
November 19, 2019
I have been passed up by flight crew on several occasions. Both the TSA and the flight crew politely asked to go ahead. I have no problem with this. As for airport vendor employees, I don’t think they should have this privilege.
November 19, 2019
There is a vast difference between an airport employee and someone that was randomly assigned TSA Precheck. Ive been in many lines where employees jumped but they did NOT slow down the line. They did NOT have metal in their pockets, they did NOT have liquids larger than 3 oz, their shoes did NOT alarm, etc. In other words I was not actually delayed by them going in front of me. On the other hand, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been behind the clueless TSA Precheck passenger that has delayed the line. The worst was at PAE, only one couple in front of me, the man went through first with only having to come back and repeat twice. (car keys in left pocket, then coins in right pocket). The woman was next and it took her 4 times (bracelets, watch, necklace, and shoes) before she asked the TSA person: “Does the titanium plate in my head make it go off?”. Sigh…..
November 19, 2019
Can’t fix stupid! Maybe that’s why the plate was there…
November 19, 2019
The employee needs get stand in line like the rest. Especially in the Pre-Check or CLEAR lines where people pay for this service. Only exception would be emergency services, and I don’t think they would go to the checkpoint.