Airport question - going to gate/not flying

[notsocreepylurker]

I watch a LOT of TV.  In many of the shows pre-9/11 the characters will buy a $50 one-way ticket to wherever to get past security to go find someone at a different gate (to say I love you, to say don't go, etc).

It made me wonder.  If someone did that today and bought a ticket to somewhere and went through TSA security but never boarded their flight do they get put on some kind of watch list?  Like they are suspicious for entering the gate area but not boarding?

[TR]

Pre-9/11 you didn't even need a boarding pass to go past security, I'm pretty sure.

[TR]

But to answer your real question I don't know. My cousin once missed her flight bc the gate changed and her and her friends were at the bar and didn't pay attention to the change and didn't hear them paging them. It happens not infrequently so I doubt all f those people end up on a watch list.

[suzyp]

Nov 27, 2017 11:06:35 GMT -5 TR said:

Pre-9/11 you didn't even need a boarding pass to go past security, I'm pretty sure.

Correct. Anyone could go to any of the gates in the airport. I think you had to show id (cannot remember). I worked at DCA for a few restaurants shifts when the "new" terminal first opened.  The restaurant was outside of security and we would go in/out of the gate areas to get food (and did not have special access as a restaurant worker).  I also met my sister there on a layover after my first niece was born to see pictures of her.  Just rolled on in for an hour and left.

I'm not sure now if they would really know unless you did it more than once.

[redheadk]

Nov 27, 2017 11:06:35 GMT -5 TR said:

Pre-9/11 you didn't even need a boarding pass to go past security, I'm pretty sure.

You didn't. DH and I were long-distance and he'd fly up to see me at least once a month. I always met him at the gate until after 9/11.SaveSave

[devonpow]

It's true, anyone could go through security and to the gate without a boarding pass. I miss those days - I think its weird that my kids have never known that. My dad would always come with me, and we we would play cards while I waited to board

For the actual question, I imagine it happening once or twice wouldn't be a big deal at all - I'm sure there are many times people go through security and have either a last minute emergency and leave or mess around and miss their flight entirely (umm....sheepishly raises hand). 

[joy]

Getting off a plane pre-9/11 was so lovely. Family waiting right there - so many hugs and and squeals of happiness. Now it’s silence.

[mrsericnorthman]

I don't think you go on some sort of list. I know a couple of people who seem to miss their flights all the time.

If I ever bought a ticket just to get to the gate to meet someone, I'd probably tell a ticket agent I missed my flight (after the flight leaves) and I'm okay with not rebooking it for good measure!

[TR]

Nov 27, 2017 11:24:22 GMT -5 @stilljustash said:

isn't this the whole premise for the beginning/end of Love Actually? people hugging/kissing at gates?

oh but i suppose that wasn't necessarily in the US. can you still go to gates internationally?

I'm trying to picture it and I can't remember if it was the gates or the area right outside of security where people come out. 

[killercupcake]

Nov 27, 2017 11:24:22 GMT -5 @stilljustash said:

isn't this the whole premise for the beginning/end of Love Actually? people hugging/kissing at gates?

oh but i suppose that wasn't necessarily in the US. can you still go to gates internationally?

In Australia, you can. My friend and I were saying our goodbyes at security and the agent was like “Uh. She can go with you...” lol

That was for a domestic flight within OZ though. I don’t think they would have let her through if I was taking the direct to US flight.

[killercupcake]

And you can sometimes get a security pass to get to the gate to meet someone under special circumstances, so nobody has to buy a one way ticket.

[Alps79]

Nov 27, 2017 11:04:38 GMT -5 notsocreepylurker said:

It made me wonder.  If someone did that today and bought a ticket to somewhere and went through TSA security but never boarded their flight do they get put on some kind of watch list?  Like they are suspicious for entering the gate area but not boarding?

I doubt it. We lived overseas when dd was a baby. When we would leave after visiting my parents here, they would buy a fully refundable ticket on SW to help me get to the gate and have extra time with us. After we left, they would just go to the gate and get their full refund. I don't believe they are on a watch list  

[notsocreepylurker]

Cool - I might do this then next time my dad visits me and has to fly home. He can't travel alone really so I have been getting a companion pass at the airport but they refuse to acknowledge my TSA PreCheck status and we get separated at security which is mostly the reason he needs someone with him (he panics, doesn't know what to do, etc).

[sonrisa]

Nov 27, 2017 11:04:38 GMT -5 notsocreepylurker said:

If someone did that today and bought a ticket to somewhere and went through TSA security but never boarded their flight do they get put on some kind of watch list?  Like they are suspicious for entering the gate area but not boarding?

if you check luggage but never board, that is going to raise some flags. just missing a flight, probably not.

[atarianna]

Airline employees do this A LOT. They sign up for stand-by with no intention of boarding the plane just to get through security.

[Deleted]

Nov 27, 2017 11:38:39 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

And you can sometimes get a security pass to get to the gate to meet someone under special circumstances, so nobody has to buy a one way ticket.

My mom does this because flights out of her town's airport are alwaysandforever delayed, so she gets a gate pass and sits with us to give DD another outlet in what is usually a 3-4 hour wait.

[joy]

Nov 27, 2017 11:24:22 GMT -5 @stilljustash said:

isn't this the whole premise for the beginning/end of Love Actually? people hugging/kissing at gates?

oh but i suppose that wasn't necessarily in the US. can you still go to gates internationally?

Love Actually was made post-9/11.

Hugh Grant even has a line referencing 9/11 in that opening sequence.

All those people greeting each other in the airport - the regular people at the begining and the end - man, they get to me. ::sniff::

[joy]

Nov 27, 2017 11:21:20 GMT -5 connie0000 said:

I feel so old now.

I remember my mom smoking on a transatlantic flight. There was a lounge section in the back of the plane!

[ECB]

Nov 27, 2017 12:03:09 GMT -5 joy said:

Nov 27, 2017 11:21:20 GMT -5 connie0000 said:

I feel so old now.

I remember my mom smoking on a transatlantic flight. There was a lounge section in the back of the plane!

I remember flying on domestic flights where smoking was allowed!! Rows in the back of the plane

[y4m]

I miss flights intentionally fairly regularly (strategic hidden city ticketing where you get on the first flight but miss the second and your destination is the connecting city). I'm not on any watch lists that I am aware of.

[4speedy]

Nov 27, 2017 11:08:26 GMT -5 TR said:

PS,  Sorry TR.  I didn’t mean to quote you but it won’t let me edit the tag.


 People miss flights all the time so that would not likely be a red flag.  But there are things in this scenario that ARE red flags.  Buying a ticket at the last minute is a red flag.  Buying a one way ticket is a (minor) red flag.  Not checking luggage is a (minor) red flag.   None of this is suspicious on its own but combine more than one of these elements and all of a sudden you are on the TSA’s (or another agancy’s)  radar.

I know this first hand because it happened to me.

I was a last minute hire right before my new employer held a national sales meeting. They screwed up my new employee on boarding and failed to buy a ticket for me to get to the meeting so they scrambled to buy one the night before I was to leave.   I had a previously scheduled vacation that overlapped the sales meeting (I had asked for my start date to be after I returned from my vacation but they really wanted me at the sales meeting for a new product launch so we agreed I would go to the meeting and then leave from there to go on my vacation.  so my employer only purchased a one way ticket to get me to the meeting because I was able to change my original ticket to get me from the meeting to my vacation spot and then back home (this was in 2002, before change fees).  When I checked in, I only had a carry-on and I was flying from Detroit to San Diego.  I got through security pretty easily but when I got to the boarding gate, I was pulled aside by narcotics agents and I was searched and questioned.    After the fact, I was telling the story to a friend who is a narcotics agent.  He told me my ticket was probably flagged the minute it was purchased and everything that happened after that threw up additional red flags.  My age (birthdate provided at time of purchase), the fact that I was female, the fact that I was flying from Detroit to just north of the Mexican border,only having a carry-on for a long distance trip and not having a return flight booked all fit the profile of someone who would be transporting cash to carry over the border for a drug deal.  i was cleared and actually did make my flight but my new CO-workers, who had watched me get pulled aside, teased me relentlessly about being mistaken for a drug dealer.

so to answer your question, missing a flight would not put somebody on a watchlist but buying a ticket last minute without checking any luggage would.

Edited to add, and no you probably wouldn’t be on a permanent watch list but your activity for that day would be noted and watched.

[definitelyO]

Nov 27, 2017 11:38:39 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

And you can sometimes get a security pass to get to the gate to meet someone under special circumstances, so nobody has to buy a one way ticket.

I've done this to pick my mom up at the airport and meet her at the gate and to walk her to the gate.    What UAL and Delta have told me that if I'm noted as her emergency contact then they'll give me a gate pass to meet her when she deplanes. It's not usually been a problem to do.

[frlcb]

Nov 27, 2017 11:24:22 GMT -5 @stilljustash said:

isn't this the whole premise for the beginning/end of Love Actually? people hugging/kissing at gates?

oh but i suppose that wasn't necessarily in the US. can you still go to gates internationally?

No, at least not in Europe

[YahYahs]

Pre 9/11, lots of people used to go to our airport just to shop and dine. And actually, I just read that a few months ago, the airport started allowing non-flyers in to shop/eat without flight tickets (but they still go through security). triblive.com/local/allegheny/12669024-74/access-to-pittsburgh-airports-shops-and-restaurants-to-open-to-nonpassengers

[mccallister84]

Nov 27, 2017 11:47:50 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Nov 27, 2017 11:04:38 GMT -5 notsocreepylurker said:

If someone did that today and bought a ticket to somewhere and went through TSA security but never boarded their flight do they get put on some kind of watch list?  Like they are suspicious for entering the gate area but not boarding?

if you check luggage but never board, that is going to raise some flags. just missing a flight, probably not.

Yep I think this is the bigger deal.

[mich1]

I wonder how much only having only a carry on bag is useful red flag these days? I pretty much always travel with only a carry on and haven't checked a bag since they started charging to do so.

[4speedy]

Nov 27, 2017 12:41:31 GMT -5 mich1 said:

I wonder how much only having only a carry on bag is useful red flag these days? I pretty much always travel with only a carry on and haven't checked a bag since they started charging to do so.

When my incident took place, it was February 2002, so pre checked baggage fee.  It was unusual back then to fly 2000 miles with only a carry-on but now that there are fees, most people probably try to fly with only carry-ones.  These days, flying with checked luggage might actually be the red flag.

[Linie]

Nov 27, 2017 11:24:22 GMT -5 @stilljustash said:

isn't this the whole premise for the beginning/end of Love Actually? people hugging/kissing at gates?

oh but i suppose that wasn't necessarily in the US. can you still go to gates internationally?

At the beginning of the film, people meet just outside the exit - in the arrivals' hall. At the end, the young boy jumps security to see his friend at the gate of her plane to the US.

In all European airports I have seen, you cannot get past security to go to the gates if you have no ticket. It has recently changed to accompany minors or people with special needs (for whom you have paid special services).

[notsopicky]

Did I read or hear something in the last month or so that said an airport, or a couple of airports, were going to allow non-ticketed passengers past security? Am I making shit up again?

[y4m]

Nov 27, 2017 14:08:50 GMT -5 notsopicky said:

Did I read or hear something in the last month or so that said an airport, or a couple of airports, were going to allow non-ticketed passengers past security? Am I making shit up again?

Pittsburgh.  But it's because that airport makes much more sense as a mall vs. an airport.