Is Six Flags' line-jumping Flash Pass worth the ransom you pay for it?

If you haven't been to a Six Flags lately, you won't know that it, too, has adopted a strategy popular at airlines, hotels, and on cruises. It's charging customers extra for smoother service. The Flash Pass is the chain's for-rent gadget that grants guests the right to leap to the front of the long ride lines.

That's right: Only the little people wait in line anymore. Whether it's United Airlines and the TSA or Six Flags, the wealthy are being teed up to get a clearer swing.

But is it worth the money? And does it work? I went to two of Six Flags' most successful properties -- one in Georgia and one in California -- in a little over a week, to see how it breaks down.