Earlier this month, I went to the Winnipeg airport to fly home. One sign of a good vacation, for me at least, is that I’m so relaxed at the end that I forget to check carefully what time my flight leaves. I did that this year. For some reason, I had etched in my mind the idea that my flight from Winnipeg to Denver left at 4:30 p.m. So I took one last somewhat leisurely visit with my friend and mentor, Clancy Smith. At about 2:10 p.m., I left his house to stop at a drug store to find chocolate bars that I have trouble finding in the United States. I dropped off my car at the Winnipeg airport and got to the United kiosk just shy of 2:55 p.m. Lots of time, I thought.
Surprisingly, though, there was no one else ahead of me in the United line. When I went to the front of the line to check my suitcase, the United employee tried to do so on the computer but was stymied. He made a quick call in which he asked another United employee to unlock the baggage check. A few seconds later, he printed out a baggage tag. He explained that the U.S. customs and immigration people don’t like people checking in when there is less an hour to go and I was checking in with 57 minutes to go. (When you fly out of Canada to the United States, you go through pre-clearance; when you go through U.S. customs and immigration, you are legally on U.S. soil and, indeed, once you’re through, you see a sign saying “Welcome to the United States.”)
“57 minutes to go,” I thought. I had thought I had over an hour and a half. But it turns out that my flight was to leave at 3:55, not 4:30. When I got to Canada’s equivalent of TSA, I told an employee that I had TSA-Pre, showing him that designation on my ticket. He laughed and said that that wasn’t recognized there.
Not to worry. There were only 8 people in front of me. But 3 minutes later, there were 7 people in front of me. Canada’s “TSA” was moving very slowly. I figured that once I got through, U.S. Customs would go quickly. (On this last, I was right.)
So I thought on the margin. There’s a dishonorable way to get further up in the line and that is to ask someone near the front if you can go ahead of him or her. That way, you impose costs not just on him but also on everyone behind him who was previously ahead of you.
There’s also an honorable way. That is to ask the person directly in front and ask if you can switch places with him. That way, the person who makes the decision is bearing the whole cost. I went with the honorable way. My plan was to do this with as many places I could before someone said no. I explained to the man in front that I had less than an hour before my flight left and asked him how much time he had before his flight. He said he had about 2 hours. So I asked him if he would switch. He looked kind of incredulous, as if my request were unfathomable. Then he said, “Forget it; you won’t make your flight anyway.” I answered, “I might or I might not, but if we switch, my odds improve a little.” He agreed and let me switch. The person in front of him heard all this and, with a twinkle in his eye, let me switch. So did the person in front of him. So within 1 minute I had moved 3 spaces up. By that point, there were only 3 or 4 people in front of me. One was a flight attendant who wouldn’t let me switch. Later I saw her on my flight; she was the only flight attendant on the flight and I could tell by the faltering way she read the directions from her cell phone that she was pretty new on the job. It made sense that she didn’t want to risk being late.
Thinking on the margin can be pretty powerful.
Oh, and I made my flight. The boarding didn’t start until about 10 minutes after I got to the gate.
READER COMMENTS
Khodge
Aug 18 2018 at 2:31am
So is there an exchange rate for Canadian time?
It sounds like United needs to polish its scheduling skills.
David Henderson
Aug 18 2018 at 11:01am
No, it’s I who needs to polish my reading skills.
HispanicPundit
Aug 18 2018 at 12:04pm
I did the honorable way one time at the DMV here in California also. I had to be at work, and arrived at the DMV a full hour and half before it opened, but still there was a line. By the time i got my number, I was like #12 or something like that. When I sat down to be called, I saw that it was taking like 25 mins per number! I knew I could be there easily until lunch. Someone sitting in front of me had #3 in the same color (they color code in DMV for what you are there for). I offered him $20 to swap…I take his number, he takes mine. If he has more time than I do, it was a win-win trade.
He was kind of shocked I offered him that. Took him a while to process. Then he excitedly takes it…but then yells, to all of DMV “This guy just gave me $20 to swap”…i think he was nervous that it might be illegal, and was doing it as a way to cover his ass…anyway, it worked, in the next 20 or so minutes I was called and issue resolved and off to work. For some people, simple trades like this counter-intuitive….but if you think about it, its win-win and nobody is worse off.
David Henderson
Aug 18 2018 at 4:45pm
Great story! I’ve found that money can be a turnoff, which is why I didn’t offer it.
Jack pq
Aug 22 2018 at 12:43pm
Indeed my first thought was to suggest channeling Steve Landsburg and offer each person 20$ to move up one spot. But you are absolutely right , it can be a turn off. There is a fun paper titled Pay enough or don’t pay at all* that relates to this setting. Most people are happy to be a little generous and do it for free. But once money is offered , people seem to switch from generosity to a market transaction. They might accept to do it for free or for a large enough payment , but nothing in between.
* Gneezy and Rustichini 2000 QJE.
Dylan
Aug 18 2018 at 1:41pm
Were you wrong about the departure time, or just the boarding time? I’ve noticed that it is the former that is communicated in just about everything that is sent to you by the airlines, while the latter is the one that I’m more concerned with, and that usually only shows up once you get a boarding pass. On my international flights, the gate typically closes about 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time these days. Years ago I don’t remember it working this way, and the “departure” time was the time the gate closed, and you would actually take off about 30 minutes after that, but somewhere along the line it seemed to switch, maybe to make flying times seem not as long?
David Henderson
Aug 18 2018 at 4:46pm
I was wrong about the departure time. It was my mistake, not the airline’s, because they make very clear that for international flights you should be there 2 hours in advance.
Dylan
Aug 19 2018 at 9:09am
I realize it was your mistake, but just wondered if the reason for your faulty remembering was because you had internalized the departure time, which is fairly meaningless in my experience. What matters is the time the gate closes, and that information you don’t get until you check in, which on some of my international flights where you’re not able to check in until you get to the airport means you never get the information you need.
On all of my international flights this year the recommendation is to get to the airport 3 hours early, but I always ignore that advice because I do not want to be in the airport any longer than necessary. I don’t check luggage and am normally able to check-in the day before my flight, so I always shoot for arriving at the airport about an hour before my gate will close. Most the time that gets me to the gate a few minutes before it opens, and sometimes I get there right as they are closing up. I haven’t missed a flight yet, which probably means I’ve been leaving too early.
Stephen
Aug 18 2018 at 3:56pm
Thanks for putting pen to paper (an outdated phrase but I can’t think of a good contemporary equivalent) on an everyday ethical problem that I think you’ve solved.
It’s more difficult doing the right thing in a car. Living in the Bay Area, I now sit daily in very slow-moving lines on exit ramps. I get into the proper lane as soon as possible, which means stopping a quarter mile or so before my actual exit. Meanwhile other drivers (whose time is more important than mine! breathe, breathe) speed ahead in the adjacent lane and force their way into the line. If we could communicate with them (my sitter is leaving, I’m late for my oncologist’s appointment) I suppose we’d feel better about their action, but let’s face it, we have to let them do it. Civilizational breakdown, that’s what it is.
Which leads me to the highly charged topic of immigration. I know people who’ve immigrated the “right” way and have taken years to be processed. And yet, by bull-rushing the border with kids others can get in illegally and have the moral arbiters on their side to boot. My negative feelings about line-cutting at supermarkets, banks, theaters, and freeways need to be suspended, I suppose, when it comes to immigration, but nevertheless I am struggling for a rationale that I can believe in.
Philo
Aug 22 2018 at 1:14pm
Illegal immigrants didn’t cut in line ahead of would-be legal immigrants: they got into a different line and achieved a different result (“undocumented” status, as opposed to “documented”).
Khodge
Aug 19 2018 at 4:51am
I appreciate your fault in not knowing the schedule; my post was actually 2 different observations. Admittedly, Winnepeg is not Denver but the question should be asked: ought the Winnepeg check-in desk be able to handle an increase in desk traffic?
David Seltzer
Aug 20 2018 at 4:52pm
Brilliant application of the Coase Theorem as transactions costs were near zero.
Charlie
Aug 22 2018 at 3:54pm
I would have let you through, but it stinks that I’d have to stand in that stupid line longer, because you aren’t responsible to show up on time.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t have the gall to ask someone in front of me to pay for my mistake by letting me through. I wonder what percent of people do. I guess I’d rather just accept what comes rather than ask for charity.
I guess people like me are the suckers in this situation. Always giving, never taking.
David Henderson
Aug 22 2018 at 5:18pm
Your attitude expressed in your first sentence might have been the attitude of the first guy. I can’t say I would blame you or him.
By the way, if I were in his position, I would have gladly switched.
Hazel Meade
Aug 22 2018 at 4:28pm
Excellent strategy for optimally allocating queue position! I wonder if there are other applications for it, besides airport security lines.
I have noticed that my doctors office will sometimes call me to ask if I can reschedule a visit for a later date to make room for a more urgent patient. I can also see applications in packet prioritization on the internet.
Hazel Meade
Aug 22 2018 at 4:31pm
You could write a whole series of papers on this in a game theoretic context – position swapping as a strategy to achieve optimal distribution of queue positions in queuing systems.
Michael stack
Aug 22 2018 at 4:58pm
I once had somebody ask to cut in front of me, and I explained that while I was ok with it, it wouldn’t be fair to everyone behind me. The look I received in exchange was priceless.
David Henderson
Aug 22 2018 at 5:18pm
What was the look?
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