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If this works, this would make travel one heck of a lot easier.

This is pretty fantastic, I just went through Midway on Monday, this would've helped a lot.

For a second, I thought that said "Shalom course"

Having worked for an airline for a little while, my opinion is this is doomed to fail. The reason? The passenger chooses which line they belong in, as opposed to being told which line they belong in. It will be the Southwest Airlines "choose your own seat" boarding cluster times 10,000! I'm not buying what Midway is selling.

I do see a problem with people getting in the expert line thinking it is faster. Maybe they should make a system where you have a little travel experience card and you get promoted and demoted.

I can already hear the airport conversations... "Yay, just two more patdowns without squirming and I am on my way to double-diamond expert level!"

This has been in effect at the Salt Lake City Airport for a few months now. The expert line was definitely the longest of the three.

What I'm really waiting for in terms of airline efficiency is loading the airplane by column, instead of row. "Window seats, you may board first."

Hey Digg, I could use some more laggy-ass flash ads! Thanks!
/I shouldn't have to install ad-block to make the site surfable

Everybody that has flown more then twice in their lives are going to consider themselves black diamonds.

"If you are a terrorist, you probably are not going to go into the family line," noted Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition.
I'm not sure if he's serious or if he's really just tricking the terrorists into taking the family line.

Anyone else bothered by the real estate designated to the actual story??? Half of this whole thing is a 4-5 word wide column. Ugg. Scrolling is such a painnn.

"Stupid is as Stupid does"

did anyone else think they were talking about an island in the pacific?

They've got this in denver too. The best thing about it is that it gets the families and slow people in their own line so the other lines are much easier. I hate getting stuck behind a parents with like 8 kids who have no idea what's going on.

Anyone bothered by the new "Behavior Detection" Officers? I can't believe they keep expanding the TSA and wasting our money on ways to scare us even more. So now, just LOOKING nervous, you can be dragged away to a tiny room and background checked/searched?!?!?! How long before state police start employing "Behavior Detection Officers"? ("Yea, he looks sketchy to me. Full cavity search, ASAP")

This is really disturbing. Especially how they coin the phrase "potential terrorist". Can't we all be a "potential" terrorist?

The OHS and the TSA are just pure fail.

So is this a self-selection process? Is so, won't it end up with a lot of situations like this? (taken from the poll on the page)

Which line do you belong in? Novice
Which line are you planning to use? Expert

They had this system at the Oakland airport on Monday when I was flying home from a weekend trip to Berkeley. I fly on at least a monthly basis and would naturally consider myself an expert traveller. Unfortunately the Homeland Security Genius (I think that's what his jacket said) was funneling everybody else into the Expert line as well....

Back to the Woot Off ;)

This has been in place at Denver for a few months. At first, I was excited that it would make a difference but I've quickly found that it has had absolutely zero effect from what I can tell. People just naturally feed to the perceived shortest line since there are no physical barriers separating the lines.

The lines are still out the door but now it's due to the inept (and deliberately slow moving) TSA document checkers at the front of the security queue rather than the typically inept TSA screeners who actually check the bags. I've noticed lately that when the line for the metal detectors start to back up, the document checkers will deliberately slow the flow of people through their checkpoint to a crawl. For Christ sake, it does not take 45 seconds to verify a drivers license!

I can see this getting very messed up, very quickly.

Good idea in theory, for someone like me who can get their shoes off, laptop into a separate bin, and my toiletries "freedom baggie" out of its special pocket in about 15 seconds. I just fear that too many infrequent travelers will get into the wrong line and slow things down for us. Basically like drivers who can't figure out that the left lane is for faster traffic.

Certainly willing to give it a chance though.

There may still be slow people in the expert lane, but I'd be willing to bet the noobs and families will still go in the beginner lane. Thus, the system will be faster than it is now. I like it.

I saw them staging the signs at LAX Terminal 6 last Friday so hopefully it will help that mess of an airport.

How about we just get rid of the TSA and the DHS completely and go back to the way things should be? That would solve the whole damned problem. All the TSA and DHS do is ***** upo the lives of thousands of people every single day of the year.

Screw 'em, they are working for he WRONG team.

illinois probably isn't the best state to use a ski metaphor

WoW, this will be a great experience for those that love skiing.

"slalom course"...? i get the attempt on continuing with the ski theme, but unless the passengers have to run very quickly through a bunch of zigzagging gates, it's not the best choice.

I like how TSA stereotypes. "Workers helped steer flip-flop-wearing vacationers one way, and briefcase-toting business travelers the other."

They'd probably stick me in the green line just because I'm fat.