Power Up and Stay Connected
Check your phone battery and power bank before lining up. That will ensure your device stays on, while also eliminating any conflict with service staff. (I’m sorry, but you really do not have the divine right to use our power supplies.)
And make sure your headphones are also charged, while you’re at it, so you don’t inflict noise pollution on those around you. I want to listen to the new Boards of Canada album as much as the next person, but what to me is profound music may be other people’s final straw — particularly if they’re tired and weighed down with bags.
Answer the Call of Nature
Whether you use an app or your eyes, locating a bathroom should be a top priority before entering a long line. Otherwise, you run the risk of abandoning the line for a comfort break and trying to reclaim your space once everyone has shuffled forward. That sounds easy enough if you have a partner guarding your position for you, but sometimes newcomers will bar your path and insist you join the back of the line.
Security can mediate where possible, but when temperatures are high and we’re administering first aid to people who’ve fainted or suffered panic attacks, we don’t have the time to produce CCTV footage in order to prove who was originally standing where.
Do. Not. Cut.
We all have our reasons for wanting to cut the line. Paying for a fast-track option or priority access, for example, increases our sense of entitlement, even over others who’ve paid the same. But in 20 years of working security, I’d estimate that less than 1 percent of the jumping-ahead incidents I’ve witnessed were justified.