__________ is/are overrated.

[webny99]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

[Max Rockatansky]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

Or you work for the Federal Government and you get Pre-Check for free.

[Scott5114]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

Everyone has $78?

[Rothman]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

Hoo boy...no, anyone can't do that...smh...

[formulanone]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

Hoo boy...no, anyone can't do that...smh...

If someone doesn't want to qualify for Pre-Check, they either
(1) don't fly enough for it to matter
(2) really don't have an extra $85-100
(3) have so many other external or prior situations which are probably greater problems than having a longer security line and taking off shoes, and/or dealing with narrow seats and crowds

Air travel and all of its associated hassles have to be weighed against its convenience, and any additional appreciation for the purpose of the destination. Just like everything else.

[webny99]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

Everyone has $78?

Yes, everyone that has $382 (average flight cost in the US) has $78.

[JayhawkCO]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

Everyone has $78?

Yes, everyone that has $382 (average flight cost in the US) has $78.

That $382 that they might have spend 8 months saving up for.

They're not going to give a shit about keeping their shoes on and arriving at the airport 30 minutes earlier.

This is a pretty myopic view.

[webny99]

Everyone has $78?

Yes, everyone that has $382 (average flight cost in the US) has $78.

That $382 that they might have spend 8 months saving up for.

They're not going to give a shit about keeping their shoes on and arriving at the airport 30 minutes earlier.

This is a pretty myopic view.

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

If you only fly rarely I understand, but that's not what we're talking about in the context of the hassle being overrated.

[Max Rockatansky]

I got my Pre-Check for free.  I can afford it but I probably wouldn't have gone through the hoops to get it otherwise.  Yes, it saves me time at the airport but not enough to inconvenience myself like my wife had to get her Pre-Check. 

[JayhawkCO]

Everyone has $78?

Yes, everyone that has $382 (average flight cost in the US) has $78.

That $382 that they might have spend 8 months saving up for.

They're not going to give a shit about keeping their shoes on and arriving at the airport 30 minutes earlier.

This is a pretty myopic view.

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

If you only fly rarely I understand, but that's not what we're talking about in the context of the hassle being overrated.

But dismissing that marginal $78 cost is the same as older generations saying yours can't buy a house due to Starbucks and avocado toast.

[webny99]

Also worth noting the difference between Global Entry and TSA Pre-check (the latter is cheaper and easier to get, but does not have the benefits for international travel):

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/tsa-precheck-global-entry-explained

[Big John]

Everyone has $78?

Yes, everyone that has $382 (average flight cost in the US) has $78.

That $382 that they might have spend 8 months saving up for.

They're not going to give a shit about keeping their shoes on and arriving at the airport 30 minutes earlier.

This is a pretty myopic view.

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

If you only fly rarely I understand, but that's not what we're talking about in the context of the hassle being overrated.

Like an infomercial saying 60 easy payments of $1.30 each.

[Rothman]

Everyone has $78?

Yes, everyone that has $382 (average flight cost in the US) has $78.

That $382 that they might have spend 8 months saving up for.

They're not going to give a shit about keeping their shoes on and arriving at the airport 30 minutes earlier.

This is a pretty myopic view.

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

If you only fly rarely I understand, but that's not what we're talking about in the context of the hassle being overrated.

The myopia is becoming more severe by the minute.

[webny99]

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

The myopia being described is becoming more severe by the minute.

FTFY. 

[JayhawkCO]

Everyone has $78?

Yes, everyone that has $382 (average flight cost in the US) has $78.

That $382 that they might have spend 8 months saving up for.

They're not going to give a shit about keeping their shoes on and arriving at the airport 30 minutes earlier.

This is a pretty myopic view.

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

If you only fly rarely I understand, but that's not what we're talking about in the context of the hassle being overrated.

The myopia is becoming more severe by the minute.

I run into this a lot on another forum I frequent, FlyerTalk, where most of the people who post there have white collar jobs with six-digit salaries. When someone doesn't pay the $45 to upgrade to first class, they're gobsmacked. Because why wouldn't someone do it for such a trivial amount? They don't seem to have an awareness that everyone's bank account doesn't look like theirs and other people might have different priorities in general.

[Rothman]

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

The myopia being described is becoming more severe by the minute.

FTFY. 

"I think flying hassles are overrated because I'm a frequent flyer that pays to avoid it.  Less frequent flyers' opinions don't matter."

...

On a tangent, I find the whole "pay to skip security" schemes to really show that the security theater is the Kabuki theater we all know it is.  We know that 99.99% of people getting on a plane are just doing that without ill-intention.  We put up with hijackings and the like long before 9/11 without messing with security procedures at the airport.  Now we've stoked people's fears to make money off of them.

So, this idea of "just pay extra to skip the lines" just seems like a sort of microclassism to me.  If you can afford to pay, you get to skip the line, despite most of everyone being able to pass a background check.  It is much more of a money-making scheme than anything related to transportation safety.

Sort of reminds me of some pro-transit advocates:  Make roads miserable so people shell out for transit.  We've just made the security lines miserable to enrich the pockets of those implementing the "skip-the-line" programs, when the public service should be to make air travel as safe and as efficient as reasonable.

Blech.

[webny99]

I run into this a lot on another forum I frequent, FlyerTalk, where most of the people who post there have white collar jobs with six-digit salaries. When someone doesn't pay the $45 to upgrade to first class, they're gobsmacked. Because why wouldn't someone do it for such a trivial amount? They don't seem to have an awareness that everyone's bank account doesn't look like theirs and other people might have different priorities in general.

Goodness, I sure hope you're not comparing $45 for a single flight to $78 for five years of hassle-free security. That is myopia, dictionary-style.

There seems to be a misconception of why I even brought this up in this thread. It had nothing to do with the affordability of TSA pre-check, it was about how overblown the hassle of airport travel is in general. Of course I think TSA makes it a lot less of a hassle, but it goes without saying that it's not for everyone.

[JayhawkCO]

I run into this a lot on another forum I frequent, FlyerTalk, where most of the people who post there have white collar jobs with six-digit salaries. When someone doesn't pay the $45 to upgrade to first class, they're gobsmacked. Because why wouldn't someone do it for such a trivial amount? They don't seem to have an awareness that everyone's bank account doesn't look like theirs and other people might have different priorities in general.

Goodness, I sure hope you're not comparing $45 for a single flight to $78 for five years of hassle-free security. That is myopia, dictionary-style.

There seems to be a misconception of why I even brought this up in this thread. It had nothing to do with the affordability of TSA pre-check, it was about how overblown the hassle of airport travel is in general. Of course I think TSA makes it a lot less of a hassle, but it goes without saying that it's not for everyone.

My point I was making is that not everyone's expendable income is obviously the same, and some things that people deem worthy of spending it on would not be viewed by others as a worthwhile purchase.

Then the point I was making about FlyerTalk is that people who have a good amount of money are often blind to the fact that others don't have a good amount of money, and that paying for a flight once a year is as far as they can extend their extra cash. This is similar to how some on this board, despite not being from a place, think they know how things should be in said place (the "What is the Midwest" thread is the current example).

You have the cash and clean criminal record to be able to spend $78 on pre-check. But once you did, then you now think that the hassle of air travel is overrated. Well of course it is for you, because you paid some funds to avoid it. That doesn't mean that the hassle of air travel is lessened as a whole. Especially for infrequent flyers that don't pay attention to the 3/1/1 rule or know where to go in the airport. Obviously I've been lucky enough to fly a bunch, so it doesn't really bother me, but I do understand why it makes other people uncomfortable.

[thspfc]

When it comes to whether precheck/global entry are worth it, it's a matter of two simple questions: 1) how much time am I saving, and 2) what is the monetary value of that time?

If I fly 10 times round-trip in 5 years, and I save on average 30 minutes each flight with precheck and global entry (will depend heavily on whether you're flying domestic or international), that's 20 flights * 30 minutes saved = 10 hours. At $100 for those five years, I'm paying $100 to save 10 hours - before the amount of time it took to get global entry in the first place is subtracted. Whether that's worth it will depend on personal preference. But looking at it as a monthly expense is pointless because in all the months in which you don't fly, it's not going to affect your life.

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

The myopia being described is becoming more severe by the minute.

FTFY. 

"I think flying hassles are overrated because I'm a frequent flyer that pays to avoid it.  Less frequent flyers' opinions don't matter."

...

On a tangent, I find the whole "pay to skip security" schemes to really show that the security theater is the Kabuki theater we all know it is.  We know that 99.99% of people getting on a plane are just doing that without ill-intention.  We put up with hijackings and the like long before 9/11 without messing with security procedures at the airport.  Now we've stoked people's fears to make money off of them.

So, this idea of "just pay extra to skip the lines" just seems like a sort of microclassism to me.  If you can afford to pay, you get to skip the line, despite most of everyone being able to pass a background check.  It is much more of a money-making scheme than anything related to transportation safety.

Sort of reminds me of some pro-transit advocates:  Make roads miserable so people shell out for transit.  We've just made the security lines miserable to enrich the pockets of those implementing the "skip-the-line" programs, when the public service should be to make air travel as safe and as efficient as reasonable.

Blech.

Not to mention, the security measures implemented at airports post-9/11 . . . would not have stopped 9/11.

[1995hoo]

I've decided that "the hassle of airport travel" belongs in this category, with one catch: TSA pre-check is a must-have.

Pfft.  Talking out of both sides of your mouth, there.  You go through the hassle of pre-check to avoid the hassle...

Pre-check is a one-time hassle, not comparable to the hassle of regular security if you're flying with any frequency.

Uh-huh.

Let me put it this way: "The hassle of airport travel is overrated because I paid for TSA pre-check and don't need to deal with it anymore myself."

... the point being that anyone can do that, so it's only a hassle if you choose it to be one.

Or you work for the Federal Government and you get Pre-Check for free.

Not all US government employees get Pre-Check for free.

[JayhawkCO]

And not to make it political, but one guy, one time, tried to bomb a plane with a shoe. He was unsuccessful, but we still have to take off our shoes (without pre-check). Yet lots of people have ACTUALLY died because of other things and yet...

[webny99]

"I think flying hassles are overrated because I'm a frequent flyer that pays to avoid it.  Less frequent flyers' opinions don't matter."

Actually, I would hardly qualify as a frequent flyer. 8-10 times per year tops. My comments were directed towards those who fly more frequently than that and could get TSA if they choose, but prefer to complain about the hassle of airport travel.

So, this idea of "just pay extra to skip the lines" just seems like a sort of microclassism to me.  If you can afford to pay, you get to skip the line, despite most of everyone being able to pass a background check.  It is much more of a money-making scheme than anything related to transportation safety.

On one hand, point taken. On the other, I just don't get the affordability argument when it's 20% of the cost of a single flight for five years. A drop in the bucket of the airline industry as a whole.

[Rothman]

The $78 is good for five years. That's $1.30 a month. Saying that's affordable to anyone that can afford a flight is not nearly as myopic as not investing $1.30 a month if you fly regularly.

The myopia being described is becoming more severe by the minute.

FTFY. 

"I think flying hassles are overrated because I'm a frequent flyer that pays to avoid it.  Less frequent flyers' opinions don't matter."

...

On a tangent, I find the whole "pay to skip security" schemes to really show that the security theater is the Kabuki theater we all know it is.  We know that 99.99% of people getting on a plane are just doing that without ill-intention.  We put up with hijackings and the like long before 9/11 without messing with security procedures at the airport.  Now we've stoked people's fears to make money off of them.

So, this idea of "just pay extra to skip the lines" just seems like a sort of microclassism to me.  If you can afford to pay, you get to skip the line, despite most of everyone being able to pass a background check.  It is much more of a money-making scheme than anything related to transportation safety.

Sort of reminds me of some pro-transit advocates:  Make roads miserable so people shell out for transit.  We've just made the security lines miserable to enrich the pockets of those implementing the "skip-the-line" programs, when the public service should be to make air travel as safe and as efficient as reasonable.

Blech.

Not to mention, the security measures implemented at airports post-9/11 . . . would not have stopped 9/11.

Well, supposedly box cutters aren't allowed in carry-ons any longer, so we've got that going for us.

[Rothman]

"I think flying hassles are overrated because I'm a frequent flyer that pays to avoid it.  Less frequent flyers' opinions don't matter."

Actually, I would hardly qualify as a frequent flyer. 8-10 times per year tops.

You are indeed a frequent flier: You fly more often than 90% of the adult American population per multiple survey results I've come across in Google.  Heck, even amongst those who fly at least once in a year, you're in a minority (top 25%, about).  You're then comparing yourself to the even slimmer minority that flies more frequently than you and then saying the vast majority is blowing the hassle out of proportion?

How can one not then conclude that your perception is totally skewed?

[vdeane]

Separate from whether one can afford PreCheck, there's also the hassle of the background checks, and the question of whether one should have to go through the time and money cost for something that everyone used to have before 9/11.  Plus, as I understand it, even with PreCheck there's still a random chance you could be forced to use the regular line.

My complaints with NEXUS are similar: it's basically a financial cost and hassle for something that everyone used to get before 9/11.  IMO we should go back to the way things were before 9/11 (mostly) and get rid of the security theater.  Keep the few things that actually help (like securing the cockpit), get rid of the rest.