Travel experts claim airport's 'fast track' is only worth it if you follow one rule

Travel gurus Chelsea and James, known on Instagram as Cheapholidayexp, put the airport's premium Fast Track to the test during the bustling Easter holiday period.

The duo meticulously timed their security clearance efforts, with Chelsea gripping a tiny plastic bag for her in-flight essentials.

As they approached the security line, Chelsea noticed an additional lane opening up, remarking: "It's really not too bad. How's he doing? I don't think there was any queue for the premium is the problem."

From James' perspective, the camera captured his breezy walk straight to security, bypassing any wait.

However, Chelsea managed to navigate through the standard checks in just eight minutes and 22 seconds, reports Birmingham Live. 

Anticipating a delay for James, who often gets stopped, Chelsea commented: "Now there is a chance he will have been stopped because he gets stopped all the time. So hopefully that's on our side."

In a twist of fate, Chelsea emerged victorious, passing through quicker than James, who faced a security halt to inspect his bags. When they met up again, she quizzed him about his £6 Fast Track experience, to which he responded: "Waste of money."

It took James a total of 16 minutes and 30 seconds to get through security. Curious about the hiccup, Chelsea inquired, "So what was the reason you got stopped?" James simply stated, "Camera."

Chelsea concluded with a savvy traveller's insight: "So it doesn't matter if you've paid for premium or not, if you don't follow the rules, you're gonna get stopped. So not only was I quicker, I saved money too."

The practicality of the Fast Track service at airports can dwindle if passengers run into issues with their bags while passing through security, according to a pair of content creators. This delay was reportedly attributed to a camera left in the bag rather than it being properly unpacked.

James, one of the pair travelling, would supposedly have breezed through the security check had his bag not posed a problem. They add a note of caution saying: "It's tough because some security lines say just laptops, whilst others say electronics. Basically, it's always worth a quick ask when you're unpacking your bits."

They added an unexpected twist to their video addressing the topic: "I wasn't expecting this twist. Some of you SWEAR by Fast Track but is it worth the £6?! We decided to test it out!! Save this for the future and tag someone you've had this argument with!!

"As we were travelling at peak times (hello a Saturday in the Easter holidays!) we decided to test out whether Fast Track was worth the cost or not. Naturally, James went with the fancy premium service and I stuck with normal FREE security."

The savvy travellers offered some guidance for those contemplating giving airport Fast Track a go by purchasing the service in advance. Apparently, pre-booking the Fast Track service yields a saving of £2 compared to buying it at the airport.

James' sluggish airport experience was exacerbated by the sheer volume of travellers in his queue, as they noted: "There are loads of reasons that more people were being pulled in his queue, and here's a few of them: More families were using this area with more items and therefore more chance of error in things being placed through security."

The day James opted for premium service, the bottleneck worsened because, "on the day James used premium, they only had one bag checking area available for two security scanners".

They added: "As Premium was quiet, the airport was feeding normal security through to this area too which means it has potential to slow down a premium user's journey should their bags get pulled."