If you fly Southwest from time to time you know about their unique boarding procedures. Everyone gets assigned to either the A, B, or C list, and there are three lines for boarding. A goes first, followed by B, then C, and you pick any open seat.

A year or two ago they began giving you an option of checking in for your flight on the internet rather than standing in line. If you have a printer attached, you can also print your boarding pass, which has your boarding group on it. You can check in as early as Midnight the day of your travel. If you do so, you almost always get on the A list, avoid the check in lines (if you have no checked baggage), and get to board first and pick the best seats.

I recently found that if you check in with your laptop or public computer for your return trip, and don't have easy access to a printer for the boarding pass, you still get assigned to whatever boarding group is still open. You still have to get a boarding pass at the ticket counter but your place in line for the A group is saved for you.

I also see Southwest kiosks in some airports to print boarding passes but have never used them. This would probably be another way to get the paper pass printed if you've already checked in by computer and have no luggage to check.

No matter which airline, avoiding long lines is not a trivial matter these days with busy airports, requirement to take your shoes off (!), and as of last week requirement to take your coat and hat off for xray as well. I spoke to a security supervisor in Portland on my last trip about why I had to remove shoes as I had selected my travel shoes specifically to avoid metal items that would set off the metal detectors. His reply was somewhat guarded, but I deduced that any shoe with a "thick" sole, which means most athletic type shoes with rubber soles, must come off as they are concerned about plastic explosives being concealed. I will wear leather shoes with thin soles for my future travel.