The Fast Food Hack To Consider Next Time You're At The Airport

A trip to the airport is a long sequence of waiting in lines: the security line, the line to board the plane. In between, there's often a busy line to order marked-up food at all the fast food restaurants and convenience stores in the airline terminal. You can't control the price of airport food, but if you can't wait for the airlines to prepare your in-flight food on the plane, you can cut out at least one line if you're smart about when you order your food at the airport.

If you're planning to eat at a chain restaurant or chain coffee shop once you get through security, then you should check to see if that restaurant has an app you can use for mobile orders (most major fast food chains do). If so, you can use the app to order your food from the security line. When you think you're getting close to the front of the line, pull out the app and order. Security itself should last you a few minutes once you've reached the X-ray machines and you're throwing half your wardrobe onto a tray. While that's happening, your food is being prepared, and it may be ready by the time you've put your shoes back on and entered the airport terminal.

Most of the major fast food chains have released apps over the past decade or so, usually with promotions and other bells and whistles attached. The big chains which allow you to order ahead of time on your phone include McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, Chipotle, as well as coffee chains like Starbucks and Dunkin'. Plenty of fast food apps are actually worth using, and a chain restaurant's app should work at most locations, including in airports. You can often check whether a specific airport location allows mobile ordering on the fast food app itself, or sometimes on the fast food chain's website.

This does vary: many apps such as McDonald's mobile ordering app only work at certain locations which the app will display, and customers at coffee shops like Dunkin' and Starbucks have claimed that some stores will opt out of mobile ordering and be unavailable on the app. So long as a fast food or coffee shop app lets you order beforehand, it should easily work while you're waiting in the security line. Some of these apps should work no matter where in the world you're traveling; for example, you can use the McDonald's app in different countries. Depending on the app, however, some users sometimes have trouble getting these apps to work abroad. You may not have so much luck trying this while you're deboarding a plane after an international flight, but it should easily work when you're in security.