[tommi]

Well said though to clarify the reason why you wait 40 minutes at the gate is probably because you have to calculate some extra per each step leading to it. You can't be sure you'll make it in 5 minutes per check in, security and walk to the gate. Also, the added cost in time and money of missing a plane is quite high compared to missing a train e.g. in Europe, so that further increases the buffer you add to the process.

[NotSammyHagar]

I've been reluctant to get precheck because I hate to give up my fingerprints. There have been a few infamous mistakes where they messed up like the Oregon lawyer thought to be involved with the Spanish train bombers. Being in software, I know many immigrants to the us and they all have precheck and the border check version - while me and many of my natural born citizens don't have it, at least partly for that reason of fingerprints. I solved that problem for now by not flying during covid ;-) Am I unnecessarily paranoid? Probably.

[justaguy88]

Applying for a US work visa or residency involves writing down so much about yourself (inc. getting fingerprints), that pre-check afterwards feels like just re-providing a subset of the same paperwork

[darkwizard42]

Yeah this is a good point... I definitely don't want to miss my flight and now I have a really good and predictable handle on how long security and check in takes, but I never seem to have a good handle on how boarding will go (I usually just abide by the "domestic gates never close till 30 min before the flight earliest" rule)