Pay in airport to fasttrack

Idbatterim

mods please move to travel forum if this is in the wrong place! I frequently use Dublin airport, sometimes I am pushing it a bit for time, others I simply could not be bothered queueing for ages if I had the choice to pay say €5-10.

Would they not open a counter where you could pay this fee and save a lot of time, whether you were in a rush or simply not bothered waiting? They would also likely sell more in retail, as your are obviously not spending when in a q or if you think you have to rush to gate etc...

L1011

Too many people would buy it when busy and it'd self defeat.

SteM

L1011 wrote: »

Too many people would buy it when busy and it'd self defeat.

Agreed. This is what happened in Stansted to us a few Sundays ago. It was mental, the fasttrack staff couldn't keep up with the demand and it was almost as slow as going through the main security.

alias no.9

You can pre-book Fasttrack for €6 and they have annual Fasttrack for €200 if you're such a frequent user.

Noxegon

Could be worse. There's an airport in the UK – I think it might be LPL, but don't hold me to that – where Fast Track vending machines are available and the entire security area is designed in such a way that it's impossible to see how long the main queue is before buying your token...

Dogwatch

Some of the airline reward schemes allow you to use fastrack. Aer Lingus gold card is one of them.

arubex

Hmmm in my opinion paying for a service like that just encourages the airport to deliberately underfund the main security processing.

There's no cost to them if people miss their flights due to slow security ( passenger fee already paid in the ticket ) and the upside of more revenue from those who can pay.

'Hmmm' again.

goingnowhere

Dogwatch wrote: »

Some of the airline reward schemes allow you to use fastrack. Aer Lingus gold card is one of them.

Considering it take 20-25 minutes to get through fast track in DUB T2 at 06:00 its not exactly worth it, regular screening is just as quick

paulhardman

Noxegon wrote: »

Could be worse. There's an airport in the UK – I think it might be LPL, but don't hold me to that – where Fast Track vending machines are available and the entire security area is designed in such a way that it's impossible to see how long the main queue is before buying your token...

Bristol Airport does this. There are two or three "main" queue entry points and one FastTrack point, which all feed you around a corner to another queuing area which you can't see from the entry point...

WheatenBriar

goingnowhere wrote: »

Considering it take 20-25 minutes to get through fast track in DUB T2 at 06:00 its not exactly worth it, regular screening is just as quick

I went through fast track around 11am recently and it was empty,through in 1 minute
The regular security had horrendous long queues

Dogwatch wrote: »

Some of the airline reward schemes allow you to use fastrack. Aer Lingus gold card is one of them.

only if you have a high status with them eg BA gold or silver will do,so you'd want to be flying frequently enough to attain those
It's not a case of join gold circle on one or 2 flights a year and you can use a fast track

Idbatterim

I went through fast track around 11am recently and it was empty,through in 1 minute
The regular security had horrendous long queues

the reason I dont book in advance though is, what if the regular q has virtually nobody in it or you are not in a rush. you are down E6 for nothing. Thats why it would be great if you could simply choose to use if you felt the need. Maybe charge E10 at peak times, to stop it being mobbed...

I thought the airports were always looking for ways to make more money? this is low hanging fruit IMO... The quicker they get through security, the more time they have to spend buying things. This issue was another one I was reading about the other day...

If too many are using it, you simply charge more...

Hmmm in my opinion paying for a service like that just encourages the airport to deliberately underfund the main security processing.

There's no cost to them if people miss their flights due to slow security ( passenger fee already paid in the ticket ) and the upside of more revenue from those who can pay.

Does the regulator not have a say in this? IMO the q should be no longer than half an hour...

I mention this as I was reading an article, homeland security were offering 15,000 dollar for best suggestion on how to reduce security times (without hiring more staff, I assume)

Chris_5339762

DAA app is my savior, their "T1 and T2 security time" estimates are reasonable (not perfect), but at least you know if it says 5 minutes the queue is short, 20 minutes medium, 30 minutes long.

arubex

Idbatterim wrote: »

Does the regulator not have a say in this? IMO the q should be no longer than half an hour...

Good question. I had a look for the UK and in general the CAA doesn't seem to be involved much more than doing occasional surveys of passengers to determine their experience of security screening.

However due to monopoly issues there is a CAA / Competition Commission-enforced Heathrow Service Quality Scheme that has queuing time as one of the metrics:

http://www.heathrowairport.com/static/HeathrowAboutUs/Downloads/PDF/Heathrow_Service_Quality_Rebate_scheme_implementation_overview.pdf

If they fail on metrics then they have to reduce their service charges for airlines. I suppose the aim is that indirectly this will benefit the customer by encouraging improvement.

lord lucan

Idbatterim wrote: »

Does the regulator not have a say in this? IMO the q should be no longer than half an hour..

The regulator fines the daa every time the the que time goes beyond 30 minutes. Off the top of my head they changed the metrics relatively recently and the time is tracked from security entrance area to having passed through the security process, not just time waiting to get to the scanner.

The big screens at the entrance to security give a very accurate estimate of the time from what I've seen of it. The DAA will do whatever they have to to avoid fines, sometimes staff security is chronic because they've closed one staff checkpoint to cover an extra lane for pax through departures.

andy_g

Dogwatch wrote: »

Some of the airline reward schemes allow you to use fastrack. Aer Lingus gold card is one of them.

Lufthansa Senator cards, BA/One World, Turkish Airlines FQTV cards to name a few.

lord lucan wrote: »

The DAA will do whatever they have to to avoid fines, sometimes staff security is chronic because they've closed one staff checkpoint to cover an extra lane for pax through departures.

Every day this week

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Tzardine

I am thinking of doing this for an upcoming flight.

Do you get out into a different , quicker security screening or is it just a fast track for the boarding pass check.

Del2005

Tzardine wrote: »

I am thinking of doing this for an upcoming flight.

Do you get out into a different , quicker security screening or is it just a fast track for the boarding pass check.

Different security queue. Depending on the time of your flight the fast pass can sometimes be slower than the ordinary queue though.

evolving_doors

depends on your circumstances and time you travel too I spse.
I chanced the fastrack which was on offer one time (kids went free I think).. best thing ever with bratty cranky kids (ours) who wouldn't entertain the notion of standing in line. What could have taken us about 30mins took us 1min.. never seen such puzzled looks from other weary families as we sauntered through on our own escorted by a steward.

SteM

Gebgbegb wrote: »

depends on your circumstances and time you travel too I spse.
I chanced the fastrack which was on offer one time (kids went free I think).. best thing ever with bratty cranky kids (ours) who wouldn't entertain the notion of standing in line. What could have taken us about 30mins took us 1min.. never seen such puzzled looks from other weary families as we sauntered through on our ur own escorted by a steward.

Yeah, they have started charging for kids now unfortunately.

Blut2

andy_g wrote: »

Lufthansa Senator cards, BA/One World, Turkish Airlines FQTV cards to name a few.

Is there a list anywhere of which airline status cards allow you to use Fasttrack? I had a look there and wasn't able to find anything.