I’m currently in Charlotte on my way to Ohio for work (clearly my flight wasn’t direct. In fact, some might say it’s been rather indirect.) Interestingly, Bradley airport changed its queuing system. Previously, they had a wild maze of temporary barriers that channeled the masses up to 5 or 6 desks after which you proceeded through security based on seemingly random selection.
This morning, however, I found that Bradley now had 10-12 straight lines herding the people forward. They were organized by traveler experience. Families and casual travelers were on the far left, expert travelers were on the far right. How novel! I zipped through the expert travelers line in no time at all and enjoyed being trusted to remove my laptop from my bag without the constant reminders of the security personnel. Granted, the airport was not busy during my check-in this morning. I’d be curious to see how the system fared when stressed.
Welcome to last year, Bradley Airport!
I heard something a little while back about pretty much all airports doing this.
Seattle switched to this system last fall, and it really annoys me. There are three categories: families with children, casual travelers, and expert travelers. They still have the “express” line, but they made super limited now. If I carried zero carry-on luggage, which I often do, I qualified for this line. No more! Boo!
Also, some of the people who think they are “expert” travelers flippin’ aren’t prepared, dag nab it! They don’t know the 3-1-1 thing, they are slow in taking off shoes, the buzzer goes off, they leave change in their pockets, etc. Any “expert” traveler who sets off the metal detector should be banned from the “expert” line for two years.
interestingly, I haven’t noticed this at any other airports. Though it should be noted that over the past year most ‘other airports’ that I’ve visited have been in Ohio.
I saw this last time I flew, I think it was at the San Jose airport. But there wasn’t any wait time when we were going through. I’m curious if it works any better at high volume times.
Yeah it definitely isn’t the smoothest system, although I do like that I now shouldn’t have to be in a line with a family with children, that usually slows things down immensely.
At Midway, they actually have the expert lane go down a little hall to the furthest possible security checkpoint, so it’s a deceptive line length and not worth the trouble.
Word, Columbus and Oakland have had this for at least 2 years.