How to Beat the Lines at the Airport

Author: The Traveling Professor/Friday, May 13, 2016/Categories: Travel Tips

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First of all, flyers can view the security wait times for any US airport at this site: http://apps.tsa.dhs.gov/mytsa/wait_times_home.aspx

Here are The Professor's tips to get to your airplane seat quickly:

Print Out Boarding Pass Before Getting to Airport:  An alternative is store a digital scanned boarding pass on a smartphone.

Carry-On Bags Only:  Checking luggage requires waiting on a line, a long line in some cases.

Get a Credit Card Offering Priority Boarding and Preferred Security Lines:  Some major airlines provide expedited security lines for preferred passengers.   Cards like the MasterCard Elite World Traveler provide this benefit.

Fly Out of a Smaller Airport:  The terminals with the longest security wait times are going to be the big ones like LAX, JFK, CLT, and DFW.   I recently flew out of Chattanooga (CHA) where 9 passengers were doted on by 11 TSA agents for a 7 am weekday flight.  Similar service can be found at other smaller airports.

Get in a Program like TSA Pre-Check:  But act quickly, appointments are backed up.  Apply here.

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