https://jamiewheal.substack.com/p/movin ... late-stage
excerpt:
Moving the Goalposts on Late Stage Capitalism
Third World Problems, Coming for the First World
JAMIE WHEAL
JAN 18, 2024
(Note: this post may seem a little dark! Didn’t mean it to be. Just came out that way. Will be following up in a series of subsequent posts that are more oriented to solutions. This one highlights a particular dynamic we’re all gonna experience more of, so figured it was worth mapping first)
TSA airport lines: Chronicle of a mess foretold - POLITICO
Was with the fam over the holidays and we got up early to catch a flight. Only to arrive at the Austin airport to find lines snaking out the doors and onto the sidewalks. I navigated us through the sliding glass to find the Clear line, which I’d signed up for during COVID as a lazy man’s TSA Pre-Check.
(registering for Pre-check, was, for me, always like that bluegrass tune where one hillbilly points out to the other that his roof’s leaking. Then his neighbor responds “well, when it’s raining it’s too wet to fix it, and when it’s sunny it’s as good as any man’s.” Whenever I’m at the airport, I don’t have time to stand in a TSA application line, and when I’m home I never think about it. Forgive me)
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Only problem–the Clear line was also jam-packed and led us right back outside. We were victims of the company’s success. Any benefit of pay-to-play iris scanning had now been erased by excess demand.
Too late, I realized that regular ol’ Clear had been upstaged by Clear Plus, a newer shinier version that combined PreCheck with its own subscription service. So the regular one was now next to useless, even as they continued to over-enroll unsuspecting newbies in it, and upsell members to the pricier one that still (kinda) worked.
Fortunately, I was able to wiggle us through to a less-busy gate and get us onto our plane in time. But I’d damn nearly wrecked the trip by not planning for that unforeseen two hour queue.
We landed for a long layover in Mexico City and that’s when I pulled out my second travel hack to try and keep my family comfortable. The AmEx Centurion Lounge. That too, I’d signed up for during Covid as a slightly safer and quieter place to hang out during layovers.
In the same way I’d always punted on TSA PreCheck, I’d also resisted getting hooked into any loyalty programs with major airlines that would’ve (eventually) granted access to their lounges. I wasn’t keen on any of them, and only ever wanted to buy the cheapest flight to get someplace. This lounge program seemed a possible solve for all that.
But as we got to the front desk of the supposedly luxe Centurion “Membership has its Privileges” lounge, I realized that they too, had re-traded their deal. When signing up you were promised all sorts of bennies and perks, along with the obvious ability to have family come inside with you.
Apparently, too many folks had signed up for the AmEx card as well, and there weren’t enough seats in their lounges to welcome the new crowd. Now you had to do $75,000 of business with them each year to have guest privileges re-extended! Otherwise they cost $50 a pop. And oh yeah, BTW, those really nice buffets that used to be complimentary are now cash on the barrel too.