Passengers flying with airlines like Jet2, Ryanair, Easyjet and TUI from various major UK airports have been warned over paying for ‘fast track’ or ‘queue jump’ tickets for airport security.
Most major airlines and airports now offer fast track or security queue jump tickets which promise to get you in a priority queue for airport security for your flight.
And now one Tiktoker Chelsea Dickenson of Cheap Holiday Expert has put the fast track tickets to the test with a ‘Top Gear’ style race between herself and her friend.
She tested this by paying the £6 charge for an airport fast track ticket and having her partner stick with a normal ticket.
The pair were travelling at peak times (a Saturday in school holidays) and put fast track to the test.
Chelsea said; “Naturally, James went with the fancy premium service and I stuck with normal FREE security. I wasn’t expecting this twist.
“I really thought this would be very straight forward but allow us to question how much is worth paying for minutes saved but… that’s not what happened.
“Because James got his bags pulled. The security said he *thinks* it was because his camera hadn’t been unpacked but it’s tough because some security lines say just laptops, whilst others say electronics. Basically it’s always worth a quick ask when you’re unpacking your bits.
“What’s interesting though is that if my bags had also been pulled, I’m 95% certain I would have still got out quicker because there was no backup in my security.
“However in James’ queue, there were a lot of people waiting for checks. And that’s what really slowed him down.
“Overall, had his bag not been pulled, James would have got through in around 3 minutes but because it did, it took over 16.”
She went on to add that she thinks he was slowed down further because there were more families using the priority line, with more items to pack and unpack, so more chances of a packing error to be checked.
She added that the airport even fed some passengers through the premium line who hadn’t paid for it, because it was quiet in premium, which slowed him down further.