The Expert Podcast

Well, airport security sure has changed over the years. Obviously, 9/11 in 2001 was a big milestone for that; that was 20 years ago. But even before that, there were a lot of differences in airport security, and one of them was that non-passengers could go right up to the gate. So, if you were accompanying your family or picking somebody up from the airport, you could go through security and go up to the gate and either greet somebody coming off a plane or bring somebody to the plane that may be visiting you or a relative or whatnot.

Well, after 9/11, all that changed. The only people allowed through security were ticketed passengers. And there's a lot of reasons why that's not a good idea if you want to go up to the plane. Before we get into that and ways you might still be able to go to the gate if you're not flying, we're going to take a look at this photo from the probably the 1970s of a typical airport security check.

First of all, you notice that the security people, they're not uniformed, right? They were usually employees of the airlines. And look on the sides of this metal detector—it's wide open, right? You can go through this. If somebody distracted the guard, you could walk right around the metal detector. Maybe you could throw something on the floor and pick it up. It wasn't really that expert security as it is now after 9/11, obviously, and realistically. But this security gate is a perfect example of where there were gaps and holes in security. You could walk right around this metal detector if nobody was looking, and you could get away with it.

So, what about going up to the gate if you are not a ticketed passenger? Maybe you have relatives that are coming in from out of town and you want to greet them at the gate. Maybe you have a friend that you're bringing to the airport, and you'd like to hang around with them up to the last minute at the gate. Well, you can't do that anymore unless you're a ticketed passenger. However, there are a few workarounds, and we're not advocating doing anything illegal or immoral or jeopardizing security, but there are some methods that are used. Sometimes private investigators will use these methods to get access to seeing passengers embark or board a plane if you need to prove activity or see who they're meeting at the airport. A lot of times in investigations, you want to see who the person is meeting up with at the airport, maybe who they're traveling with, and you can see them in the waiting area.

One way to do it is if you are actually going with somebody to the airport. You can get a pass as an accompanying colleague. So, if you have a young child, an older person that needs help, maybe somebody who needs more assistance because of a disability, or more luggage, you can request from the airline to get a pass to go through security. It doesn't always work, and not every airline does this, but that's one way to do it.

Another way that we've seen been done is if you go to the airport or even at home before the day before and you purchase a full fare first-class ticket on the same day that's fully refundable. So, if you purchase a fully refundable ticket and you get a boarding pass on your phone, you go to the airport, you check in, you go through security, but don't check in. Make sure that the flight that you book is way later—maybe eight hours later, nine hours later—so that you can cancel it in time. A lot of times, you have to cancel it at least an hour before the flight.

So, if you use your pass to get through security, now you're inside the secure area, cancel your flight, and now you can accompany somebody to the airport. You can take photos of somebody who's traveling—whatever you need to do, whatever the reason that you want to do that is. Just make sure that you verify that what you're doing is legal. You don't want to break any laws, but that's one workaround that many times an investigator or a family member or a caring colleague uses to get access to their gate for another person that they want to be with or observe.

A fully refundable ticket—book it in advance, go through security, cancel your ticket, maybe decide not to go—is one workaround, or get a colleague or pass to a company. Somebody that is already traveling might be a way to go.