Thread: No More 30 min Prior for US Air Flights in LAS, Moving to D Con...

Originally Posted by StormHawk

Ooooh, tell me more, please.

Oh, hey there newbie! :P

Ok, so just about every airport has a line for employees. The specific rules vary from one airport to the next, but the majority of them will allow you to go through security with a companion or two. Sometimes it's a dedicated line, sometimes it's like the lines they have for passengers in first class to cut to the front. Sometimes they're the same line. If you don't see any signs for crew/employee entrance, just ask an airport employee. They all know. They may ask for a "SIDA" badge - just tell them you don't work at the airport (those are the badges issued by the airport, not the airline, and let you bypass the security checkpoint AS LONG AS YOU AREN'T GETTING ON A PLANE). If you do have one, they generally have you scan it just to log you going through the actual checkpoint if there's a question about that.

Anyway, as far as I know you're SUPPOSED to be able to get through with only an airline badge. But lately, they've been asking to see a boarding pass as well if I'm not in uniform. Or even in MSP, those turds were still making me show a government ID. To them, my badge was worthless for some reason. I tried emailing the TSA asking what the policy is SUPPOSED to be, and the response I got was simply "Thank you for asking why airport employees don't have to go through security. Employees go through intense background checks, blah blah blah..."