The airport isn't a great example here. There are 3 lines because there are 2 different parties involved: the TSA, which has authority over the security checkpoint, and the airport/airlines, which have authority over the lines leading up to the checkpoint.
The regular line is self explanatory. Precheck is solely run by the TSA, and they politely ask the airports to set up dedicated lines for precheck. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Until passengers are in the checkpoint though (i.e. beyond the id check), the TSA has fairly limited authority. The airport is ultimately responsible for getting passengers to the security checkpoint, subject to some minor conditions by the TSA. Clear pays the airport/airlines a kickback from the subscriptions to let their agents manage the queues, which includes putting their subscribers in front of the other lines. One thing they can't do is give you special perks inside the checkpoint like precheck does.
So, 3 lines because 2 different parties get revenue from one each.
The point is, you pay more, you save life time. The government could have chosen to make it free so everyone can access these time saving measures, but our leaders did not, deeming it acceptable for further tranches of society to be publicly displayed.
If you make it free, then everyone will choose the fastest one.. which means it will no longer be faster. So in order for time saving measures to work, you have to require selectivity.
Paying is an easy way to select for those who value it the most, which are the frequent fliers. If you’re a business traveler or otherwise someone who travels a lot, the price is small compared to the flights and the time saved is very large. That will be the inverse for those who need it least, the infrequent travelers.
Yes some people who travel infrequently will choose to pay for the faster line, but then they are also subsidizing the extra cost of staff to run the other systems.
The idea that this is meant to put tranches of society on display is ludicrous.
Knowing a number of people who have to travel a lot for work, I might even say that most of the poor shlubs in the precheck lines who have to travel monthly or more frequently are the real losers in the grand scheme. Traveling in flying sardine cans to make a living is no fun.
>If you make it free, then everyone will choose the fastest one.. which means it will no longer be faster. So in order for time saving measures to work, you have to require selectivity.
Or you can increase staffing.
> The idea that this is meant to put tranches of society on display is ludicrous.
It may or may not be meant to put it on display, but it shows it for what it is. People who can afford to pay to save time get prioritized through public infrastructure, and people that do not pay have to wait.
Increasing staffing doesn’t help. It’s a basic queuing problem. You would have to increase the size of the airports along with the staff.. meaning perhaps hundreds of separate lanes, hundreds of separate X-ray machines and belts etc etc.
At my local airport, all security lanes except for one for precheck, are well staffed and move as fast as the passengers allow. The space is already used maximally, however lines are exceedingly long. Switching the precheck lane to regular would have almost no effect on wait times.
Which would increase the cost. You could pay for that by charging everyone more, but many people on their annual trip don't think that the extra $10 on the ticket is worth the 20 minute saving. More importantly they'll choose the airport which is $10 cheaper as they have fewer agents so the peaks aren't smoothed.
No, collecting biometrics at registration is required by the legal framework they operate in (a.k.a as a "Registered Traveler" program [0]). However, they could use other biometrics like fingerprints if they chose.
The regular line is self explanatory. Precheck is solely run by the TSA, and they politely ask the airports to set up dedicated lines for precheck. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Until passengers are in the checkpoint though (i.e. beyond the id check), the TSA has fairly limited authority. The airport is ultimately responsible for getting passengers to the security checkpoint, subject to some minor conditions by the TSA. Clear pays the airport/airlines a kickback from the subscriptions to let their agents manage the queues, which includes putting their subscribers in front of the other lines. One thing they can't do is give you special perks inside the checkpoint like precheck does.
So, 3 lines because 2 different parties get revenue from one each.