By Kristina Malsberger

Q While waiting in line at the airport, the guy in front of me waved several friends over and they cut right in. I fumed. Should I have said something?
A Four words: First come, first served. If these guys wanted to be served at the check-in counter before you, they should have come to the airport earlier. It’s not as if you’d set your alarm for 4:30 a.m., strained your back hoisting luggage, and sprinted through the terminal for the fun of it.

Of course your new queuemates didn’t simply infiltrate the line solo; they had inside help. This shifts their crime from the clearly insidious cutting to the more murky premeditated place-saving. Assemble a jury of average people and you’ll find that the majority see place-saving—"Honey, you get in line and I’ll be along with our darling kids"—as the manifest destiny of those traveling with family and friends. In the airport, nepotism trumps justice.