Want to Hold Onto Elite Status With Your Airline? It’s Going to Cost You.
On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I watched as one woman’s bag of groceries sailed off the curb as she ran to catch it. Another woman rushed to her neighbor’s apartment window to get her children out of the door. Two more women were arguing in the parking lot as I passed several cars.
Then there were those who were struggling to get through the airport terminal, looking to see what flight was going to take them home.
As the day wore on, the lines to get to the gate began to snake around each other at every other point. And as it all progressed, the security folks seemed to run to the far corners of the terminal. While I was able to see that people were following the flight’s assigned path to the gate, they looked a bit frazzled and, more importantly, lost. It took them a long time to make it all the way to the gate and back to their flights. They were too tired to fight the crowds around them and the lines to get back on to the next flight.
It is my observation and belief that the security lines are longer to get through those at LAX and some airports in Europe. Why are we doing this? Let me tell you what I understand is going on: The security folks are doing it because they don’t want to see people standing in lines, with no one left behind. They want the lines to get longer. If they are all leaving the security line and are not behind anyone in the line, their waiting times will be longer. Security will be forced to slow down and the wait times will be longer. It will make all of us on the line slower and more likely to be caught going through the lines.
This is not a security issue. It’s an issue for the airlines. As a passenger, you want to get on to your flight, not have to get through
