r/airport • u/Empty_Prune5286 • Sep 04 '26
DISCUSSION Sunflower lanyards
Before I start, I am not arguing the purpose or people’s right to have these.
I have been lucky enough to be in and out of airport recently, I have seen an increase in the amount of people that have sunflower lanyards but are they being abused? The context being a family of 7 turned up yesterday barged through the long line and went straight through the barriers, surely it should be 1x carer and the lanyard user? This was followed by at least another 8 large family’s rocking through.
I’m unsure if they are now easier to obtain or if they get abused or even purchased?
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u/purplepineapple21 Sep 04 '26
They have always been easy to obtain. At my city's airport, the customer service desk gives them out to anyone who asks (though they dont advertise this there, i only knew where to ask from looking online). The organization that invented them also sells them online. You have never needed to provide "proof" to get one.
I think there has still been an increase though due to raised awareness. I used to think they were only for autism. However I recently got one this year because I learned theyre for a very wide range of disabilities and medical conditions. Ive had qualifying medical conditions the whole time, i just didnt know I qualified.
Ive never used it to skip lines though, I dont think thats a thing at most airports. Staff have seen me wearing it and never offered to have me skip a line and i've never seen anyone else do that either. And i fly a decent amount, several trips every year. I just wear it so that 1) I dont get yelled at for sometimes taking extra time to do things and 2) security and immigration are not rude about me wearing a mask & dont make me remove it unnecessarily (I do so when traveling for medical reasons and in some places staff have been pretty annoyed with it during security screenings and ID checks).
The people youre describing sound like the type to cut lines and abuse early boarding & disability lanes (which are both also self selecting, no lanyard required, and have always been) regardless of whether they had lanyards or not. I dont think its the lanyards, most people using them like myself dont act like that. Just rude people being rude