TikToker fakes an injury to cut airport security lines. Viewers are seething

One woman’s “hack” to cut long lines in airports isn’t flying with her TikTok audience.

Charlotte Rees, who lives in the United Kingdom, shared a video of her donning a fake medical boot on her foot as she traveled through the Manchester Airport.

“How do get through airport security in five minutes from start to finish,” she captioned the video, adding that there was a three-hour wait in line.

Rees limped into the airport with the help of her travel partner and recorded herself bypassing all the lines and using the priority assistance travel line and skipping hours of waiting.

At the end of the video, she leaves the gate and peels off the boot, ditching it next to a trashcan in the airport.

The idea didn’t go over well with viewers on TikTok.

“This is a disgusting thing to do,” someone commented. “Pay for fast track if you can’t stand in a queue like everyone else.”

“Yeah, you really have something to brag about,” another person commented sarcastically.

While the majority of Rees’ viewers were enraged by the scheme, some said they would have to “remember this” the next time they travel, or questioned why Rees didn’t keep the boot to use the same idea again.

“I just couldn’t stand the thought of having to stand in the queues. I was very surprised it worked,” Rees said after the flight, The Mirror reported. “I did feel bad for the other people waiting. But if they thought smart they could have jumped the queue too. I just thought of many different ways I could have jumped the queue, choose the boot idea in the hope it pulled off and it did.”

Manchester Airport said in a statement that “anything that undermines our ability to provide the best possible experience to those with the need for assistance is totally unacceptable and cannot be condoned,” according to Sun Online Travel.

This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 6:48 PM with the headline "TikToker fakes an injury to cut airport security lines. Viewers are seething."

Alison Cutler

mcclatchy-newsroom

Alison Cutler is a National Real Time Reporter for the Southeast at McClatchy. She graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and previously worked for The News Leader in Staunton, VA, a branch of USAToday.