To think people jumping the airport security queue should pay for fast track or wait like everyone else?

[TiredTraveller]

Last week I had to get 2 coaches to the airport during the train strike and as a result, was worried about making my flight in time due to the coach being delayed by almost 2 hours.

Joined the security queue and it was moving slower than I thought. Regretted not paying for fast track. But during the time I was waiting, people jumped the queue on three separate occasions by saying things like ‘Sorry, I need to go to the front because my plane leaves in 10 minutes (or some other weak excuse). Everyone let them through (they didn’t ask me because they were cutting through the people further ahead.)

I was quietly annoyed about this because I was so tight on time and didn’t want people (one of which was a family of 5) delaying me. AIBU to think they should have paid for fast track rather than ask to jump in front of everyone else who was waiting patiently for 25 minutes? I find it so entitled because realistically they knew that people would be too polite to refuse.

Has anyone ever seen anyone actually say no when this happens?

I always leave plenty of time. But the lack of staff at most of the scanning stations is really irritating. Or at passport control on the other side. The constant claims of being understaffed grows weak.

At my local airport, if someone is legitimately at risk of missing their flight, the staff will bring them to the front of the queue. You can’t just barge ahead yourself.

If everyone bought a fast pass then there would be no fast pass 😁.

OP I think the key here is that actually you should have been one of those people asking to jump in. No one likes to queue etc and anyone can be genuinely late. If I'm very much on time then I'll let people in who might miss their flight. I don't know why you were being such a martyr about it. People jumping in just to get into the lounge for a drink however is not ok.

I get special assistance so get through quickly I allow 3 to 4 hrs extra tho

I’ve never seen this happen in an airport to be honest, and I’ve travelled quite a lot. I have seen people speak to staff and be escorted through, but never anyone asking if they could. I’d probably say no if they did.

This.

I don't get why you didn't ask to be moved up the queue?

@WarshipRocinante we had a connection through Atlanta a few years ago. Our flight got in on time but we didn't get to clear through security to get our 2nd flight. I asked a security officer and was very firmly told 'ma'am return to the line' and I did because airport security there are a bit scary!!😳

I had the same but explained my luggage was checked through to Dallas, she led us to the front of the queue because they didn’t want to offload the luggage.

It is annoying, but then I’ve been in that same situation through no fault of my own, I tend to let people through.

Flew from Luton with Ryan Air a couple of years ago, and they opened the check in desk so late so by the time we’d queued for an hour to drop bags off, we were seriously close to missing our flight. Security queue was massive so staff took pity on us and escorted us though.

We’d arrived in plenty of time and had the check in desk been opened on time, we’d have been fine.

I'm a frequent traveller and have never had this happen to me. So I very much doubt that there's any endemic CFery going on.

If you had three incidents in one queue, I imagine that they were genuine. Presumably there was a very delayed train that they'd each come in on?

People who are genuinely late enough to be at risk of missing their flight should be allowed to skip the queue. There's no world in which it's better for them to miss boarding out of some kind of regard for the rules of queuing. Their luggage would have to be removed, delaying the flight and also why would we want people to miss a flight?

If you were that stuck for time OP you probably should have skipped ahead yourself.

YABU. I've had to jump through queue in Stansted before. It's a shit show - they put on the absolute bare minimum of staff and it was absolute bedlam. I waited patiently for 1 hour until I realised it was now or never to push and I bet most people do the same.

This is how it was working when we flew out of Leeds a couple of weeks ago.

The new security scanners are a shambles, with frequent rescans and faults so the queues were epic - we waited about 45 mins.

They were shouting for people who's take off time was an hour or less away to come forward and go through the fast track lane, which had been suspended for anyone who'd actually paid for fast track.

So the people who'd paid for fast track were raging, but at least hopefully no-one missed their flight.

If everyone plans to turn up the recommended 2 hours or so in advance, there should be enough time to get through and there shouldn't be problems caused by people turning up too early (when there were well publicised security queues last year, people were arriving 4/5/6 hours before their flight was due to leave which led to too many people waiting at the airport).

Of course you'll get people affected by traffic delays like the OP, but that shouldn't be enough to affect the overall queuing time for most people.

YANBU. I don't mind when Security call out flight numbers that are being prioritised due to urgency but passengers should approach security if they have an emergency, not ask other passengers if they can jump ahead.

Security should have stepped in on these queue jumpers. Which airport is this? Heathrow security are quite tough on enforcing queue discipline ime.

Having said that, I have pushed in on some queues. We went to Tijuana, Mexico for a day trip from San Diego and for the return journey, the border queue was insanely long. My DH insisted on joining the FastLane queue, which we weren't entitled to and for which the queue was much shorter.

I was mortified but the guard let us through, after asking some questions about our origins (non Americans and non-Brits).

I think we only got away with it because of his curiosity.

Pay for fast track. Sorted.🙂

If I was late to the airport I'd rather the queue thought I was rude and entitled than miss my flight.

How does fast track work then? I only know about priority boarding but that's at the gate after security. I've never seen a fast track at security.

Separate entrance and queue with dedicated scanners for those with fast track

Sometimes people are in a rush through no fault of their own. We've been minutes from missing a flight, despite being hours early, because check in opened so late. We would have missed it had we not been allowed to queue jump?
Would it make you feel better if people missed their flights? Who does that benefit?

I was recently flying and we got bumped to an earlier flight when we checked in our luggage because our aircraft had been swapped to one that wasn’t accessible for one of our passengers mobility scooters.

We had no time whatsoever and it was completely beyond our control, you bet we jumped every single queue or we’d have missed our flight and onward connection.

I ran ahead and spoke to a member of staff though, we didn’t ask the other people in the queue.

You don’t always know why people are jumping forward, we’d allowed more than enough time for the flight we should’ve been on.

You shouldn't have to. It's just a money making scheme on the part of the airport. And their inability to run security efficiently means that more and more feel they have to pay.

TBF, everything except the flights are a money making scheme for the airport.

The flights are just put on to give you a reason to go to the airport and spend money on other things (parking, fast track, overpriced food and drink, lounges, duty free, even arcades and beauty treatments).

Thanks. Do all airports do this? I usually fly from Bristol.

Stansted has been awful lately. I stood in the security queue for over 1.5 hours whilst I watched the queue beside me move quickly. When it got to 25 minutes before take off I did open the barrier thing, spoke to a very apologetic worker (who acknowledged my queue wasn't moving as they only had one scanner open) asked the people at the front (it was right next to where you put your luggage) how long they'd been waiting (20 mins!) and asked if we could go in front. They were lovely. I'll never fly out of stansted again without fast track. I just about made it as has dc with me so could only run so fast.

Or the same delays that held the OP up! 😂