How to beat lengthy wating lines while traveling?

Your anti-social advice was the subject of the Ethicist column in the New York Times a few years back: http://tinyurl.com/b4qdxto

Key phrase is "little conscience".

Ugly American comes to mind. Why would you even consider it or ask the question? Height of self centeredness, rude.

Troll alert!

Hey, Bruce, are you having a boring day there in Whitefish, Montana? Sounds like it.

Instant Karma's gonna get you, gonna knock you right in the head.

DNFTT

The ethical way to treat your questions is this: Book tickets and passes ahead of time for museums, sites etc. Often you can skip the line if you already have a reservation or ticket. Claiming a nonexistent disability/spouse is beyond the pale.

Some assume quite incorrectly that: a) I have used the above techniques and/or b) advocate same.

The best way to skip through the line at the airport is to go Carry-On. While everyone else is waiting at the carousel for their bags, you can whip through customs without having to butt in at all.

I have learned that when flying paying the little extra for a "premium" seat gets you in the 1st boarding group after 1st, business, gold , platinum. etc.. For me well worth the extra $$ to be certain there will be overhead storage.

We don't mind lines because we always meet interesting people while waiting. As far as lines to board a plane, the plane leaves, and arrives, the same time no matter if we are first or last to get on. We use carry-on convertible bags and never had a problem stowing them. People need to have more patience.

Buy a seat at the front of the plane. If you don't fly first class, your heirs will :)

In terms of buying a seat upgrade for access to the plane's overhead compartment.....it does not work some times. I have noticed that some over seas flights have the tiniest overhead compartments where you can not put the wheels in first. the only way to fit them in is to place them sideways. now you can only really put convertible bag in per bin. On our last flight to Spain, many people had to have their bags stowed under the plane because we did run out of carry on space over head in our economy comfort zone, plus the steerage compartment in back. We barely made ours fit. On our way back, in our zone 1 loading line, we were chosen to be searched, very carefully, very slowly. They open one page of a book at a time, carefully examining for what ever they would look for in a book about the Alhambra. they took our clothes out of their compression bag. By the time they were done searching, we had to repack our bags....they were loading zone 3. So much for the upgrade to get priority boarding. Luckily, the economy comfort zone was not sold out like it was our arrival flight. If it had happened on our way to Spain, we would have had to check our bags. I am not dissing the whole random search thing for safety but it does suck to be the chosen one.
My other tactic to beating lines......going in winter. We could walk right up to the Mona Lisa barrier. I have seen videos where there are rows of people like 15 rows thick.

Actually there is a line cutting technique for one place that I learned about on a Rick STeves tour the tour guide told us about it.
It was in Venice, and it was how to get in ST Marks without the long line. We were told to take our bags to this little place to check, it was just across the square. So we did, ( apparently bags not allowed inside). We were given a small bag check slip and were told we could use that to enter at front of line. It worked. What I figured out is that everyone in line waited till they go to the front of the line, then they are told to "go check their bags".. so off then go, and of course are then allowed to return to front of line. I felt somewhat guilty, but had a child with me and it was hot,so I went in. Thats the only time I have ever used a less then ethical way of line skipping, I have since learned many other ethical ways to do so.. and frankly sometimes I just wait in lines.. they can be interesting. You hear people chatting in all sorts of languagues around you,, you can eat your sandwich, you can just take a breather.. I find it funny that some people will literally worry themselves to death about avoiding all lines.. its a line, its 20 minutes, get over it... now, if lines are hours long that does become an issue, but as I said there are legitimate ways to avoid most of those. ET last summer had 3 hour lines, we waltzed in with prepaid tickets, the Catacombs had long lines, we waited 2.5 hours, no way to skip them there, darn.

Yep, the wheel chair thing does work. It works really well when coming back from Europe or other foreign parts. ; ) I tore the meniscus on my knee last year. I really thought I was much better and didn't take my crutch. Well, I walked my knee off in London and by the end of my business trip I was hobbling. The cart guy took one look at me in Heathrow and told me to hop on and from then on it was easy streetexcept of course, my knee was killing me. When we got to JFK, yes I had to wait for the wheelchair, but hey I waited in first class! Then they wheeled me everywhere. I got cuts at customs, but the place where I really felt guilty was when we cut the taxi line. It was late and it was long and I got to the very front of the line. Since then I've had a cane or crutch and the knee is a wee bit better, but I still take the early boarding. I go up to the counter with my cane and ask to board early. And so far no probs. And, it really is easier for everyone. Oh one more line that I could have cut, but didn't was the voting line! They kept offering to take me in and I insisted on waiting. It just seemed wrong and the line wasn't that bad. And, hey I'm still learning about New Yorkers. ; ) Pam

Though I don't enjoy flying with small kids, the one advantage is that you usually get to board first which almost makes it worth it.

Hi,
I've cleaned up some of the posts here. Thanks to those who took down their own posts as well.

To avoid waiting in line for train tickets, seat reservations, etc. where I have to a ask a staff person at the counter or as in France pay with a US magnetic strip credit card, I get the ticket the night before at a time the number of people waiting is diminished... one of the advantages for staying close to the train station.

Shame on you. You probably don't properly tip the wheelchair aide either!

Once you've digested Emily Post's chapter on Travel Etiquette, avoid going to museums and art galleries on free days (often Mondays) to avoid crowds.