If an airline would offer an expedited access to one of its services it woudl be a fair transaction to ask money for that, but this case is different.

The Airlines, including Southwest, are selling expedited access to government services, which we taxpayers all paid a security fee for (and possibly even more than that via income tax etc).

No fellow citizen should have a right to expedited access to a government service which I have paid for, defacto pushing me to the back of the line.

Not even with filing taxes a citizen would be encountering that. He would simply file his taxes and be processed in order of arrival of his return, regardless if that return is for 1 million or 1K dollars.

And as far as I know, by paying a 3rd party, one cannot cut in front of someone in court either, nor at the police.

I’m an Ameriva by choice and, was a big fam of SWA, until I read about their Fly By privileges for business tickets, which they give using my taxpayer money. That is un-American indeed.

I can clarify the relationship for you, and it’s not as you think. In the TSA’s mind, they control the checkpoint and all the security screening, but how people get to that checkpoint is up to the airlines and airports to decide. That’s why you see elite lines in some places and not others – it’s an airport/airline decision. So the government really isn’t involved in this. They just deal with people when they reach the front of the line.

I just wrote this to SWA:
—–

I’m a regular customer of SWA.

A question on this privilege via Business Select to get in front of the line at the TSA (so government run, taxpayer paid) security check-in:

Who pays the TSA for this extra privilege? Does SWA pay the TSA insteda of the taxpayer, or does this come from the taxpayers money only?

I’m not happy of this either way, since it is inappropriate for government to give privileges to one citizen over another. Our Constitution and laws are based on ‘equal treatment under equal circumstances’. Otherwise this would be a form of bribing government to get privileged treatment with it.

Please clarify the government-SWA relationship in this. It seems in your interest to do so, considering the above and how this would come over with other travelers.

In Europe this would often not be an issue, since either the government offers a priority service direct to all, without an airline in between, or the security is run by private companies and again one can pay them for the extra privelege or decide not to. Or the government in a country there simply violates the rights of individuals by giving priority to those paying bribes, since their laws are not respectful of individual rights like ours. So there it differs either way from here in the USA.

Next stop, I hope: SWA Airline Clubs

RedStripe – Maybe we’ll see that one of these days, but I think that’s probably a last resort. Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen!