SEATTLE — If you fly out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA-TAC), you may want to listen up: Their SpotSaver program that helps you get through security lines quickly is going away.
The program lets you reserve a 15-minute window to go through security, and it’s loved by many, including frequent flyer Susan Miller.
“I use SpotSaver every time we fly; we just came back from Hawaii and all twelve of us in my family use SpotSaver,” Miller said.
Even with the popularity, the program is departing for good on November 30th.
“That’s really a bummer; that’s one of the perks of flying out of SeaTac is using SpotSaver,” Miller said.
SEA-TAC Spokesperson Perry Cooper tells us the program was created years ago to fix long lines that were sometimes even out to the parking garage.
“In the past we were looking at 35-45, even 60-minute waits, so jumping into something that would only take 15 minutes made a difference,” Cooper said.
Cooper said over the past few years, they have solved that wait time crisis in other ways that are more permanent instead.
“We’ve opened two new checkpoints, that is checkpoint one and six, and we also opened additional lanes at each,” Cooper said.
In addition, Cooper says the SpotSaver program isn’t used enough to justify keeping.
“In the last three weeks we’ve had 23,000 people sign up for SpotSaver and only about 10,000 people used it,” Cooper said.
He tells us passengers are getting to the airport to find they don’t actually need to walk down to the SpotSaver checkpoints because the other lines are moving just as fast.
However, passengers like Susan Miller say they swear by reserving their slot.
“I was doing Clear, and then I didn’t re-up it because this (SpotSaver) was here and this is better,” Miller said.
Cooper said that by getting rid of the program, the line distribution will even out because they will replace the SpotSaver line with an extra line instead.
“This allows us to create more space in some of those general screening spaces,” Cooper said.
He tells us that all SpotSaver reservations that are made by November 30 will be upheld and the program will operate as usual, but after that, the reservation page will be taken down.