Passengers are advised to show up early at the airport, to make sure they don’t miss their flight. Check-in lines might be long (if you’re checking bag or not using self-check-in). Security lines might be long. And planes are frequently full – getting on a later flight can be a challenge.
For most people that’s good advice. I believe if you’ve never missed a flight you’re spending too much time in airports. Whether you show up early – and how early you show up – depends on just how catastrophic it would be to miss a flight. (And if it’s really bad, should you be flying in the day before, since your flight might get cancelled anyway?)
If security lines are long, and you have the time, you should queue properly. It’s the polite thing to do! But if you’ve shown up late to the airport and the security lines are long enough that you might miss your flight, guerilla tactics are in order. You just need to do approach the task correctly.
this guy was trying to cut the tsa precheck line and this lady in front of me was like "i think the line is back there" and he said "life comes in all directions" and then stepped in between us
— Kyla Scanlon (@kylascan) November 14, 2023
Last year I showed up at the airport in Austin earlier than usual, a full hour before departure. But it was the day after Formula 1 and some other events. It was a day that garnered national news for the backup on the roadway entering the airport, where people were abandoning their rental cars and walking to the terminal.
The PreCheck line snaked out the terminal and CLEAR wrapped around past several check-in counters. The place was confusing enough that I simply slid into the middle of the CLEAR line, and then saw my spot to cut a second time. I made it through and walked onto my aircraft as one of the last on the plane.
- Take advantage of confusion in the crowd I was in nobody even noticed I’d slid in.
- Just do it and if you’re aggressive enough, the people around you passive enough, you’ll be fine.
- Have a good story do it and garner sympathy with (1) being late and (2) how devastating it will be if you miss your flight.
- Try again if you get shamed or kicked out after trying to cut the line, identify another opening elsewhere in the line and take it.
Many of you will find this abhorrent and I’ve done it maybe twice in my life, including that time last year. But is it really such a violation of social norms?
The TSA line is really law of the jungle, and mostly self-enforcing. It’s under the airport’s control, and in same cases terminals are controlled by a dominant airline, not by the government. And the rule is very much not ‘first come, first served.’
- At some level isn’t PreCheck itself cutting the line?
- And certainly CLEAR, which takes you to the front of the screening line, is literally cutting the line.
Bonus, cutting in line could also be a good way to meet people in airports. “I’m sorry, I was in such a hurry but it would be worth missing my flight to meet you for a moment or two.”
weird day i was just approached with a "i saw you from across the airport, do you come here often"
— Kyla Scanlon (@kylascan) November 14, 2023
Let’s hear all of the reasons that this is terrible advice, but when you’re doing that please also explain what someone who is facing a long screening line and going to miss their flight should do instead.
Nice narcisitic entitlement. (know you likely won’t post this…)
Accept the result of their circumstance and start working on altering plans. That’s what they can do instead.
I run into more people wanting to cut into immigration/passport control lines than wanting to cut into security screening lines. Yet again this month on a Sunday morning in Germany, the passport control line to enter the Schengen area was so very slow I felt bad for the people stuck waiting in the all passports line and a lot of us let some cut up when they said they were going to miss their flight. When I got through, I noticed some of them were on the same flight as me and didn’t seem late at all. Others were cutting it very close due to an arrival and deplaning delay. Amusingly, the Germans and others in the EU passports line got furious when the booths for the EU line were abandoned for 20 minutes and the All Passports line counters wouldn’t call them over. 45-55 minutes of life that I’ll never get back just so that German police could be slow and go by the book as if there was all the time in the world after the EU line initially emptied out.
Passport control lines are worse than passenger security screening lines are for me on too many of my frequented routes.
@ Gary — Next time just try this one: “You’re so hot, can I cut in front of you?”
I have no problem letting someone cut in front of me as long as they can show that they are going to miss their flight without it and I am not going to miss mine. The boarding time is usually on their paper boarding pass. In the spring I had a tight connection at ICN where a Korean Air agent put me in the almost empty line for wheelchair passengers after I asked him for help. That allowed me to make it to the gate with four minutes to spare before the official gate closing time. The airplane was held about 20 minutes after departure time for other passengers to make the flight. We still arrived on time.
My favorite story was when I (unusally) was at the airport early, and waited in the line because I had plenty of time.
Then, all of a sudden a woman on a cell phone arrived in the area and was panicking- I could overhear say to the other person things like, “I don’t know what to do!”, and “There’s no way I can make the recital in time!”.
So I decided to make a big deal and loudly say, “Mary! You made it, let’s get going!”… At first, she was bewildered, but then got it. And said, “My name is Elizabeth, and thank you”, and I said, “Don’t worry, my name is not Jon.”
(Though it is, lol)
Random acts of kindness are a thing. 🙂
-Jon
There are people who would never cut the line, even if it means missing their kid’s wedding.
There are people who would cut in line without a second thought. It may even be intentional to arrive late and cut in line.
There are people who would never pass judgment on others, who assume the best in others, who perform random acts of kindness like @Jon Biedermann in the comment above mine.
There are people who would judge everything, assume the worst, and will decline someone the chance to make a flight to hear their loved one’s dying breath. These are the people Israel and Hamas should unite to kill. Whether you love or hate Jews or Palestinians, nobody and no culture needs such curmudgeons in the world.
If so, then many of “us” are closed minded morons.
If we were really so important, if our time were really so valuable, we would not be waiting in airport lines at all. Police would block off the streets for our motorcade. We’re seeing this in San Francisco for the APEC summit literally right now.
If we’re sitting in commoner traffic or waiting in commoner lines, you do what you gotta do. These people finding it abhorrent would not be thinking twice about cutting you in line if somebody on the other end was offering as much as a free Bud Light, but only if they cut in line.
I’m going to spend the rest of the day observing this comment section and ripping a new anus to anyone who dares disagree with me.
More than 20 years ago, I cut in line in New Zealand. That was the last time.
@derek — Why? The present discussion is meant for US travelers (as the Thanksgiving holiday is next week). Line etiquette around the world could be very different. There are some places where if you don’t cut in line, you will never make it to the front.
It’s like driving norms. In smaller cities at red lights, you wait for pedestrians to completely clear the crosswalk before you turn. In larger cities, you creep into the crosswalk and complete your turn while people are still walking.
I’ve gone around people taking 14 forever to get their stuff into bins in even the PreCheck line.
And I’ll continue to. You slow, I’m ready to go.
@Patti, that’s the proper procedure. That’s not cutting in line. Those people aren’t in line. They’re dumping their stuff into bins so they can get in line (for baggage screening).
Same as deplaning on arrival. If I am ready to go, and the aisle ahead of me is clear, I will slowly walk forward. I will look at both sides of the aisle and yield to any passenger who is preparing to get up out of their seat, but if they clearly intend to remain seated, then I will move ahead.
@guwonder At which German port of entry did you have an issue? I have an upcoming flight arriving from the US and switching planes at FRA. I have not had issues in the past, but perhaps things have changed there. I have a 2 hour, 15 min scheduled layover there–should that be long enough?
I wish that more Schengen airports would follow the direction of the Portuguese airports and allow nationals from the US, Australia, and some other countries use the e-gates. Passport control in Portugal used to have terrible lines, but the expansion of who can use the e-gates has made everything much faster.
Cheaters never prosper. Karma will come back at you big time. And you will deserve it. Your flight and time are no more important than every other customer in line. The human emotion of shame is apparently absent in you, just like good manners and consideration for others are
So essentially encouraging to lie and/or be a bully. Undo everything that was learned in kindergarten.
More National Enquirer reporting. Fueled by social media “facts”
Makes sense.
How about the old “Chat and Cut” (from Curb Your Enthusiasm)?
https://youtu.be/Vd7XO18qxJg?t=28
Twice, in similar situation, I just asked if I can cut in line in order to make a flight. Someone near the front always obliged, and I do the same when asked. Ask next time Gary, and I promise to let you cut in front of me. No need for stealth lol.
People who fly Delta rarely encounter long lines at TSA. That is why Delta is able to charge premium fares.
@TLU — we’re harking back to ELEMENTARY SCHOOL? Are you out of your mind? Elementary school is a safe space for little kids. The real world for adults is not such a space. Lying and bullying are necessary not to get run over by others who are doing the same. This is basic Prisoner’s Dilemma.
Here’s what happens if you don’t lie in the world.
– Lower salary because you didn’t exaggerate your background or invent competing offers to gain leverage during pay negotiations.
– Uglier women on dating apps because every other man is adding 2-3″ to their actual height.
– Missing flights because you didn’t follow the advice in this blog post.
No money, no hottie, no travel — then what are you doing with your life?
Lie.
Every US President ever has lied.
Stop referencing anything taught in Kindergarten if you want to be taken seriously in the real world.
@Jake — there are assholes (not you) who will respond that they will let you cut in line if everybody else behind them also agrees to let you cut in line.
The most infuriating thing is that they have a point. You’re not just cutting 1 person you’re cutting everybody. However, f**k everybody (that is the way of the USA).
This is an awful post. Just risk missing your flight, and pay the consequences for your poor planning, instead of forcing everyone else to. You’re not that important.
@ HVC – very true, and that’s why I make the request loud enough so folks down the line can hear and understand my situation, and hopefully empathize and don’t object. No problems, at least on those two occasions.
@Jake — it sounds like @Mantis might be an objector. If you’re ever catching a flight to something important and Mantis or somebody similar expresses that view out loud, go ahead and knock ’em the f**k dead. If I’m on the jury in your criminal trial, you will not be convicted.
Sad about this post and many of the comments. Gary, which topics are you still ethical about, if any?
@DaveS– whoever taught you ethics taught you in effect that when you have the choice between giving someone the option to make a flight, or to miss it, you should choose MISS IT.
MISS IT is what your paternal sperm should have done to your maternal egg, but alas here we are.
@HVC – re:@Mantis & @Dave S: “This is an awful post. Just risk missing your flight, and pay the consequences for your poor planning, instead of forcing everyone else to. You’re not that important.” And…
“Whoever taught you ethics taught you in effect that when you have the choice between giving someone the option to make a flight, or to miss it, you should choose MISS IT.”
Nope, (a) choice is being made since an imposition has been created to make said choice, and (b) making the quite rational decision not to be taken advantage of in the face of bad actors who, often in bad faith, attempt to gaslight others to their world view. And frankly, this isn’t merely about queuing in airports, this is about queuing behavior in general.
So, the cute girls that once tried to cut in front of me when a line shifted at an airport McDonald’s by loudly blurting out to the lady in front of me, “Ohhhh, I think we were behind you.” – sent to a spot in line behind me by me. Didn’t give a damn about their cuteness factor.
To that guy that insinuated his time was so important that l allow him to go ahead of me when I was next to be served at the rental car counter – he remained second.
The guy at the concert who wanted to literally squeeze in between me and concert goer when just the space between our elbows was the space available – yes, ask the other concert goer if he’s comfortable with you taking his portion of the personal space.
At another concert, this time involving that entitled 20s-something couple whose solution to being nearly crowded out at their left side by another concert goer was to push into my space. Young, cocky dude I suppose wanted to prove his toughness to his gf by hip-checking me to make me move. But cooled his roll when I gave him a nice stiff shove in return.
@Jake has the right idea – you can announce, ask, cajole, get physical, etc., all you want, I maintain the right to empathize, or not….and object, or not to object.
You, @Mr. HVC are the gaslighter.
Stop procreating the gaslighters / “arrive late on purpose planning to cut the line” folks and you get universal kindness. Those burned into distrust after an act of kindness can trust again.
Best trick in the world for getting thru customs (pre Global Entry) was a folding cane and a fake limp 🙂 Worked like a champ
Have arrived late a few times, when security line was long enough to cause me to miss flight. But with a little politeness and chutzpah, it may not be necessary to cut.
Just call out loudly, “excuse me, folks. Our flight leaves in xx minutes, so would any of you folks mind if we went ahead?”
It has never failed yet.
advice to all the entitled people out there – a new low
The more critical it is that you make your flight, the earlier you should plan to arrive at the airport. Traffic happens, transit delays happen, computer outages happen, crowds happen.
When my wife and I have to travel to board a ship, we will often get to the port city the day before and stay in a hotel. If something goes wrong with the travel to the port, we’re covered.
If it is absolutely essential that we make a certain flight because of something important at the destination, then planning to get to the airport three hours or more ahead of time makes the worry factor a whole lot smaller.
Just learn to get there on time for face the consequences. Sure you may have a chance of getting ahead, you also might get caught out with an annoyed tsa agent. Keep breaking the rules and you’re risking your continued pre-check membership as well as the ability to ever have it again. Not worth it, in my opinion.
Why are we not discussing the cause of the problem? Airports know who will be there and when they will be there. It’s literally no surprise to them how many customers they need to process at any given time. There is literally zero excuse for a queue of more than a handfull of people.
The sociopathy on display here is wild. “It benefits me while harming others, but since I can get away with it, I do it.” People thinking that they can just opt out of shit nobody enjoys by dumping MORE shitty stuff on other people is exactly how we’re in, like, all of our current mess.
P.S. Try this “easy trick” while not being white and see how well you get away with it.
P.P.S. I REALLY can’t wait for the time one of you serial skippers tries this with the wrong sort of antisocial asshole and gets the shit beat out of you.
“explain what someone who is facing a long screening line and going to miss their flight should do instead”
Suck it up and suffer the consequences of your poor planning. Besides, how do you know that someone behind you won’t miss their flight because you cut in ahead of them?
@Gary I love this post. I always tell people that I don’t wait on lines I’m good at them.
I once had a lady tell me not to cut her because she was on the same flight as me so I invited her to join me 😉 Was in old EWR term A. Cutting was a breeze I miss that terminal.
Absolutely pathetic! Show some class and common courtesy.
Done reading your column. It’s just low class.