3 ms·

>The good news is that airports and flying are abjectly miserable experiences I have always had fantastic airport and flying experiences. Of course, I pay tod

>The good news is that airports and flying are abjectly miserable experiences I have always had fantastic airport and flying experiences. Of course, I pay today almost exactly what I paid for airline tickets in the 80s and 90s, adjusting for inflation. That means I don't buy $90 fares on airlines where I have to scramble like a pig at a trough for a seat.

bobthepanda 3y ago
Where do you fly out of? At SEA it's pretty miserable unless you pay for PreCheck and Clear, which just feels like TSA making the entire thing shitty and then shaking you down for money to make it not shitty.
- Johnny555 3y ago
  Even with Clear and first class seats, SEA is no picnic, I try to fly out of Paine Field any time I can... for an international flight, I'll even drive up to Vancouver to avoid SEA.
- labcomputer 3y ago
  > At SEA it's pretty miserable unless you pay for PreCheck and Clear But PreCheck is $78 per 5 years, and Clear doesn't really have much benefit if you already have PreCheck (it gets you to the front the PreCheck line, which at most airports, is already very short).
- ghaff 3y ago
  If you fly any amount paying for PreCheck is just part of the deal. It’s the way it is.
  - bobthepanda 3y ago
    It's still abjectly miserable; SEA has such horrid staffing issues even PreCheck lines might get into the parking lots. Trains have either no security theater to speak of (Acela) or have very minimal stuff (Brightline)
    - snakeyjake 3y ago
      I disagree that airport security is "security theater". To support this claim I present data on airline hijackings from 1990 to 2021: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Graph-showing-the-Number-of-Hijacking-per-year-from-1990-till-2021-Figure-20_fig2_370896603 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Graph-showing-the-Number... Those numbers are even more striking when viewed against the tremendous increase in flights over that time period and there is a multitude of reasons why hijackings have decreased, but the ever-so-slightly increased chance of interception at a security checkpoint is assuredly one of them. And a list of airline bombing incidents 1933-2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_airliner_bombing_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_airliner_bombing_a... There have been no fatalities due to bombs on an American airline since Pan Am 103, and as someone who was flying prior to and immediately after Flight 103, I can assure you that TSA-era post-9/11 security measures are nothing (thanks to advances in screening technology) compared to post-103 security measures. Except for shoes and belts, most of the security pains people dislike are a result of the Lockerbie Bombing. And with PreCheck you can keep your shoes on ;-)

bobthepanda 3y ago

Where do you fly out of? At SEA it's pretty miserable unless you pay for PreCheck and Clear, which just feels like TSA making the entire thing shitty and then shaking you down for money to make it not shitty.

Johnny555 3y ago
Even with Clear and first class seats, SEA is no picnic, I try to fly out of Paine Field any time I can... for an international flight, I'll even drive up to Vancouver to avoid SEA.
labcomputer 3y ago
> At SEA it's pretty miserable unless you pay for PreCheck and Clear But PreCheck is $78 per 5 years, and Clear doesn't really have much benefit if you already have PreCheck (it gets you to the front the PreCheck line, which at most airports, is already very short).
ghaff 3y ago
If you fly any amount paying for PreCheck is just part of the deal. It’s the way it is.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  It's still abjectly miserable; SEA has such horrid staffing issues even PreCheck lines might get into the parking lots. Trains have either no security theater to speak of (Acela) or have very minimal stuff (Brightline)
  - snakeyjake 3y ago
    I disagree that airport security is "security theater". To support this claim I present data on airline hijackings from 1990 to 2021: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Graph-showing-the-Number-of-Hijacking-per-year-from-1990-till-2021-Figure-20_fig2_370896603 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Graph-showing-the-Number... Those numbers are even more striking when viewed against the tremendous increase in flights over that time period and there is a multitude of reasons why hijackings have decreased, but the ever-so-slightly increased chance of interception at a security checkpoint is assuredly one of them. And a list of airline bombing incidents 1933-2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_airliner_bombing_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_airliner_bombing_a... There have been no fatalities due to bombs on an American airline since Pan Am 103, and as someone who was flying prior to and immediately after Flight 103, I can assure you that TSA-era post-9/11 security measures are nothing (thanks to advances in screening technology) compared to post-103 security measures. Except for shoes and belts, most of the security pains people dislike are a result of the Lockerbie Bombing. And with PreCheck you can keep your shoes on ;-)