An airline worker has been praised for his cut-throat method to tackle ‘gate lice’.
Often unexperienced flyers, gate lice, attempt to queue up the minute their gate opens. These people might try to board in front of First or Business Class passengers, or those who are in an earlier boarding ‘zone’.
They can also cause delays and confusion if a passenger in a wheelchair needs to board.
But one gate agent took matters into his own hands to solve the problem.
According to a thread on Reddit, the airport employee came up with a ‘punishment’ for those attempting to jump the queue.
‘Gate agent stated if he caught anyone trying to board before their zone was called, he was automatically confiscating and gate checking their carry-on bags,’ wrote Reddit user FAPietroKoch in a post on the Delta Airlines subreddit. ‘He said they would also go to back of the line.’
Airline trials ‘beep of shame’ to catch out sneaky airport queue jumpers
Some airlines are coming up with more official ways to tackle queue jumpers.
In October, American Airlines announced they were testing a new type of tech, the so called ‘beep of shame’.
As passengers scan their boarding passengers at the gate, it detects if they’re in the wrong queue, and a noise will ring out, signalling that they must step aside, and wait their turn.
It’s up to the person manning the gate to decide if they’ll relent and let them through, or insist they stand by and awkwardly wait until the priority group has boarded.
The noise was dubbed the ‘beep of shame’ by NBC presenter, Sheinelle Jones. While her co-host, Craig Melvin added: ‘I love the idea of publicly shaming people who break the rules… the beep should get louder the more often you do it.’
Sounds brutal, right? But most commenters approved of the method, showing that scorn for gate lice is held by more than just airline staff.
‘Kudos to that gate agent,’ wrote one the Reddit user @ExFed925. ‘Gate lice are getting out of control.’ He even took it a step further, adding that gate lice should have their boarding pass ‘marked’ and be forced to board last.
Another, @theflighthawk said: ‘This should become standard practice on all airlines.’
And @Recluse_18, said: ‘Sorry, but they’re simply can no longer be Mr. Nice Guy when it comes to airport operations,’ she wrote. ‘Entitled people take advantage all the damn time and it impacts travel for the rest of us who do follow the rules.
Should we really be so hard on gate lice?
Pretty much everyone in the Reddit thread agreed with the gate agent’s method for dealing with pesky, ‘selfish’ gate lice. But are we being hard on them?
To many, queuing early at the airport is futile, and those who do it are bewildering.
‘I don’t understand people who cut lines to get on an airplane,’ wrote the Redditor GillieSCARE.
‘If you board first you’re not getting there faster than the person who boards last. You’re on the same damn plane. Just sit there and relax until you can board.’
Of course, some people board early to ensure they get space in the overhead lockers, but others might just be nervous flyers.
Psychologist Dr Audrey Tang thinks it’s about feeling in control: ‘Queueing for boarding as soon as we are able to can help us to feel in control, which in turn makes us feel less stressed,’ she previously told Metro.co.uk.
‘This is more likely to be true for people who have experience of being late.
‘Knowing you have faff time, especially with luggage or children, can also play a part.
‘Maybe some people just like to be first, but it’s largely to do with keeping ourselves calm.’
What do you think? Are we too hard on gate lice?
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Maybe…
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Definitely not
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