Your air travel experience will be much more pleasant if you exclusively do carry-on. I've never needed more than a backpack and a suitcase. Most destinations have laundry machines.
My understanding is that weather, taxi gridlock, and under-provisioned gates are the primary drivers of slowness in airports.
It is probably safe to say that almost anyone flying on the concorde at the time would have pre-check today.
Can't say what JFK on the way was back like as I flew to Barbados, where facilities were a little more basic.
There are still ways to get faster through security, London City airport always feels fast when I fly through it and one day I will do the BA001 flight (Concordes old number) to JFK where again I suspect time spent in security theatre will be small.
It's $85 for 5 years, and realistically, yes, most of that money just goes to line the pockets of the politically connected. On the other hand, you can pretty consistently go from curb to club in 5 minutes, and you bypass the nude-o-scope.
I'm all for standing up for principle, but this one is already lost. TSA doesn't care if 10 ppm of the traveling population opt out. Google "managed inclusion" if you want to understand why organizing an opt-out protest on Thanksgiving (or generally encourage people to opt out) won't change anything.
Ever notice how older airports don't have the huge snarled lines of TSA checkpoints worked into their design? Instead they have disabled escalators that the line snakes down or a ton of stanchions forming waiting areas down side hallways and such. It's because there were no huge snarled lines at a few choke points when they were designed.
The baggage screeners just plowed bags through and looked for a guns, cartoon style time bombs and knives. I recall rushing my aunt to JFK as a kid and literally getting to the terminal 5 minutes before takeoff -- and she made it! Consultants who had to swap gigs for whatever reason would physically exchange tickets at the airport, no problem.
I suspect our ideas about the efficiency and timeliness of Amtrak may differ.
Instead of just chucking your hand luggage on the conveyor belt, you have to take out your laptop and tablet, you have to take off your jacket, belt and shoes, and assorted metal things (keys, etc.) -- I usually end up having to use four trays for all my stuff when traveling internationally.
I remember the 90s well, when the security gate took less than 20 seconds -- you walked through the metal detector and then waited for your bag. Since the queue wasn't jammed up with people, your bag usually came out at the same time that you were done walking through the detector. Occasionally something set off the detector, of course, but then they just made you go through again without the offending item.
It's definitely much worse now.
Security didn't deter from the LHR–JFK route before with security at the UK end, and I doubt it'd deter from it at the US end.
Then there's the baggage x-ray and metal detection, after which my son routinely (this has happened every time at Gatwick) gets pulled aside for extra screening, which involves x-raying his shoes, and passing him through an extra scanner, and then patting him down. I usually don't have to, but if I don't it means I won't be able to accompany him through a process he already finds uncomfortable and scary.
Nobody has been able to explain why he always gets pulled aside, and it doesn't happen on the return journey from Oslo (most of our foreign trips are to visit family in Norway).
(Meanwhile we routinely forget to take bottles of water or juice out of our carry on, and nobody has ever noticed it until I've realised afterwards; in other words, the fluid restrictions only work on people who voluntarily hand it over and doesn't put it in their bags.)
So while security can be quite efficient now, for a substantial number of passengers it's gotten to be a real pain, and it's pretty much unpredictable enough that you have to plan for it to take time just in case.
It's not a matter of people delaying or impacting flights, it's a matter of the flight being less appealing with inevitable security wait times.
Requiring anything like this will only make an already niche service less accessible with no benefit.
Eg, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08... and http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/magazine/11wwln-lede-t.htm... .
And Concorde passengers had the money.
A background check and your fingerprints, because ..? I recently landed in Heathrow after a looong time staying in Europe (yes, England's not Europe) only. I was literally shaking when I saw all the people going through a random scanner, looking into a camera, providing their fingerprints.
Ignoring that the system didn't even work half the time while I was watching and that it needed a supervisor that reset everything, brought the people back out of the 'check zone' to .. turn it off and on again: That's insane.
This is the amount I'm willing to pay to a crappy government to go easy on me:
This is the list of governments that are allowed to take my fingerprints outside of a criminal investigation(* ):
Again, I really really hope you were just kidding and making fun of a bad situation.
*: The next time my German ID runs out I _might_ have to do that for my own home country - and I still try to figure out ways to avoid that/let the ID run out (illegal) without a renewal etc. And I try to vote for the parties that aren't insane.
That was the full extent of the questioning, which lasted maybe 5 minutes.
(I thought also for the ID, but I was more confident about the passport.)
Get off plan, walk for a long way following signs towards arrivals exit, spot sign for UK residents/nationals, no queue, a sleepy fellow looks at my passport and face, then I walk through to the arrivals area and try to find the underground station.
Have things changed that much?
And the "I WON'T ANY GOVERNMENT HAVE MY FINGERPRINTS" is all fine and dandy, right until you, say, want to visit US and aren't a citizen of VWP.
Of course, you may value your beliefs about fingerprints higher than visiting some countries. Many don't. I don't.
Since I wasn't exactly able to move over and inspect the device from up close I admit that I just _assume_ that the hand thingy compares your fingerprints - I wouldn't know what else it could look at otherwise. Maybe it's just a bible and you have to solemnly swear not to be a terrorist, on camera. Looked weird from 10m away, everyone putting down their (right?) hand on the device, looking into the camera and waiting for the machine to say 'You are good to go'.
I don't plan to visit the US, ever. Personally I can easily state that I my desire to see some (probably) cool places over there isn't high enough to put up with the BS, professionally I am able to dodge any and all suggestions to go there so far - and will try to keep it that way (but that's the loophole: I won't sit on my hands and flat out refuse if my company forces me to go there. I will complain loudly and make sure that my unwillingness to go is heard though).
Great Britain lies on the European continental shelf, part of the Eurasian Plate. The United Kingdom is also culturally and politically affiliated with other European countries. Why is it not in Europe?
It would be like referring to someone from Cuba as 'American' because they are from North America. Technically true but people assume American means someone from the states.