A man in a navy suit behind me shifted his laptop bag and sighed loudly as the line ground to a stop.

“Is something wrong with the card?” I asked.

“The ID’s valid, ma’am,” the officer said.

He picked up my paper boarding pass and pointed at the top right corner.

“It’s the transit boarding code.

It shows a priority command flag, but your ticket’s issued for regular coach.”

“The desk clerk told me the code would clear at the gate,” I said.

“It won’t clear here without a supervisor override,” he said.