Alex Fugman was standing in an airport security line with her husband when, she says, a man walked up, pulled back the black rope of the barrier and stepped in front of the two of them. Her husband’s response, by her account, was short: “Hey, man, sorry. Back of the line.”
Fugman, who posts as @justalexfugman, tells the story in a 91 second video filmed indoors under a wood plank ceiling, her cheek pressed against her baby, who is dressed in smiley face pajamas. She delivers it as a report to the child: “Your daddy and I, we were in line at the security at the airport.” Her caption is two words long, “Unreal no???”
She stresses that her husband “said it very politely.” The man, she says, “wouldn’t even make eye contact with us.” What he offered instead was a reason: “I’m going to find somebody.” The couple let it go. “We didn’t say anything,” she says.
In her head, she says, she was working out whether that reason was good enough. In “certain scenarios,” she tells the baby, a person can save a spot for somebody in the security line, “but that’s not really the vibe.” So she kept her eyes on him. “I watch him because I’m like, who’s he going to meet?”
By her account, the answer was no one. She says she watched him walk forward past a long stretch of the line, “he probably jumps 50 people,” and stop in front of a man “who’s just on his phone scrolling.” He stood directly in front of that man. “He wasn’t even going to meet anyone,” she says. “He was just waiting for the first person that was not paying any attention, and he got in front of him in line.”
“I was shocked,” she says, because she had been debating a different question. She thought the issue was whether one traveler can hold a place and have a companion come meet them in the security line. Her ruling on that one is tolerant: “I wouldn’t do it, but, like, do your thing.” What she says she saw was a man who told two people he was joining someone and then joined nobody.
Still speaking to the baby, she says “there is this thing called karma” and that it is “coming for him.” She is careful about the scope. “His plane’s not gonna be delayed because the karma’s not gonna affect everybody on the plane, but something’s coming for him individually.” She says she was going to tell him so herself, “Hey, buddy, karma’s coming to you.” Her account stops there, and she does not describe anyone sending him back.
The useful part for anyone with a flight coming up is what she says would have changed her answer. “He could be nice and he could say, hey, I’m gonna miss my flight. I really need to go up there,” she says. “I would let him cut.” She repeats the offer a second way: “You can go right in front of me if you just tell me the reason.” Her objection is two words: “He lied.”
That gives a late traveler a script. Before stepping over or under any rope, speak to the people directly ahead, say your flight is about to leave without you, and ask whether you can go in front of them. Then ask again at the next group instead of passing 50 people on the strength of one yes.
If you are the one being cut, her husband’s wording covers it in one breath, an apology and an instruction together: “Hey, man, sorry. Back of the line.” When the reply is a reason you cannot check on the spot, do what Fugman did and watch where the person ends up. If they settle in front of somebody else, the staff member running the line is the one to tell.
The last lesson belongs to the stranger farther up the line. Fugman says the man chose “the first person that was not paying any attention.” In a roped line, that means keeping the phone down while the line is moving, closing the gap ahead of you, and looking up when someone lifts the barrier beside you.
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