Spending & Earning

Flyers Book $34,000 Private Jets to Escape TSA Hell at Airports

Travelers wait in line at a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, US, on Friday, March 27, 2026. Several of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the House are resisting swift passage of legislation to end a partial government shutdown that has snarled air traffic and threatened to ripple through an economy already roiled by the Iran war.Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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By Casey He and Aashna Shah

March 27, 2026 at 6:47 PM UTC

As TSA chaos spreads through US airports, some travelers are shelling out thousands of dollars to skip the lines altogether.

Airport security wait times have reached historic levels, due to a partial government shutdown, with people complaining of four-hour delays that make them “feel like cattle.”