In what feels like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, American Airlines is expanding a program to catch passengers who try to sneak ahead in line.

The airline has a new system that deters passengers from boarding before their official boarding group has been called. The system reads passengers' boarding pass, and if they're trying to sneak on early, it will set off a *beep*. At the same time, a message will pop up on the scanner, alerting the American Airlines employee of the passenger's stealthy effort.

According to a story in the NY Post, airline employees have a name for these people: “gate lice."

After a test-run at airports in Albuquerque, Tucscon, and Washington D.C., the technology will now be deployed at more than 100 airports across the U.S.

If a customer boards before their assigned group is called, the new software will not accept the boarding pass. Instead, it issues a beep to alert the gate agent that the group has not yet been called. In these instances, the American employee will "invite" the customer to rejoin the line when their boarding group is called.

A statement from American Airlines says that passengers who are paying for early access should get what they paid for. Apparently, people who are paying extra are getting irked when others try to get the same perks for free.

"The new technology is designed to ensure customers receive the benefits of priority boarding with ease," it says.

American Airlines' current boarding system has become an exercise in the haves vs. the have-nots, with nine levels of boarding groups, from elite status members and credit card holders all the way down to the Basic Economy nobodies. It's gotten worse since the pandemic, with extra charges applied to every element of flying, including a charge if you want to choose your own seat.

As an explanation of why people might do it, the NY Post cites a theory that travelers try to get ahead "out of a tendency of conformity and a sense of competition."

Public shaming is a powerful motivator, and Larry David fans would surely agree that line-cutters should always be called out — but there is also a valid case to be made for trying to cut ahead, and that can be summed up in two words: overhead bins.

Too many travelers place their luggage in overhead bins that are not located over their seats. Who has not seen the guy stash his suitcase in bins not near his actual seat? If you get on the plane when your boarding group boards, there's no guarantee that your overhead bin will have room for your suitcase. This is an inequity not policed by the airlines.