[jamesaguilar]

I'm fine with it. I don't care very much whether airline profits go to the company or the employees. I don't care if pilots have to deal with an unstable industry. As far as I'm concerned they are complicit in it by voting the way they do in union elections. They have brought it upon themselves. (With apologies to all the pilots that vote for saner policies -- I tend to see large groups of strangers as single entities.)

What's important to me is airfares are incredibly low and I can fly anywhere I want with insane convenience. And in that sense, the American labor movement is doing exactly what I want: providing an ever-increasing quality of goods and services for me to consume at lower and lower prices.

[loewenskind]

>I can fly anywhere I want with insane convenience.

At least you could before 9/11. Pre-9/11 I would have flown anywhere that was more than 3 hours away. Now I would drive up to 10 hours to avoid flying.

[matwood]

At least you could before 9/11. Pre-9/11 I would have flown anywhere that was more than 3 hours away. Now I would drive up to 10 hours to avoid flying.

I read this all the time on HN, but I fly relatively frequently I have never had a problem flying post 9/11. Flying out Denver I can get through security in 10-15 minutes tops. The biggest domestic problems I have had have either been delays at the giant airports (ATL for example) or a single long security line at small airports in BFE.

I've been stopped twice for forgetting to leave my money clip in the car (it has a small knife on it). The TSA guy was polite and simply asked if I wanted to throw it away or mail it back to myself. Both times I paid the $10 to mail it back since it was a gift and is engraved. After filling out the paperwork they then put me through the express line so I wouldn't be delayed any further. For a mistake that was clearly on my part they were beyond reasonable.

The biggest issue I've had in the last 10 years was getting shaken down by customs in Jamaica. Third world countries, fun stuff.

I'm sure there are people who have issues while trying to fly, but I don't think it's as widespread as people like to believe. I recently spoke to a friend of mine who happens to be an executive who travels 3 weeks of each month. She has had zero problems from a security standpoint, with delays from weather being her biggest complaint.

[DrJokepu]

Exactly my thoughts. I just came back to London from New York (JFK) a couple of weeks ago. The immigration & customs officers, the TSA officers were very quick, polite, nice and helpful. It all went incredibly smoothly. One TSA officer lady even flirted with me lightly (which doesn't happen very often). In general, it was an A+ experience.

[jamesaguilar]

It adds 15 minutes to the trip. It makes no pragmatic sense to shift your crossover point back seven hours in response.

But I suppose if you derive some serious negative utility from security inspections that would make sense for your personal case.

[loewenskind]

15 minutes? I have to arrive up to 2 hours earlier now. The security scan itself doesn't take so long but rather everything leading up to it.

[jamesaguilar]

My wife arrives one hour early for domestic flights and has yet to miss one (she travels as part of her work). I even in my anal-retentiveness about flights rarely arrive more than an hour and a half early. So there is a good amount of time you are leaving on the table that you could reclaim. I hope this series of comments will help you waste less time and money driving.

[loewenskind]

Well, I fly into the US from outside. That entails rechecking all baggage and going through a second security line. There are less airports you can fly into now from the outside and all of those I've been to so far have huge lines at the security. We now schedule in 4 hours between that initial connection and we've still almost missed the connecting flight a few times.

[pavel_lishin]

What all does that involve, and how was it different pre-9/11? You can't pack a bunch of fluids in your carry-on, so you have to get little travel things - that's not worth 7 extra hours.

[loewenskind]

It's not a straight x/y calculation. For me, going through security usually takes between 40 minutes to a couple of hours depending on the air port. But the experience is so awful that I dread it for hours ahead of time and am infuriated by it for hours afterwards. I don't like driving long distances but at least I can avoid some of the stress.