You could try NOT leaving at rush hour? When I went to Seattle in 2009, I failed to think about rush hour and bought a ticket landing between 2 and 3pm. By the time I got my luggage and my rental and headed out, I hit the gridlock going south out of Seattle. BAD planning on my part. I think I'll have those things in mind on future trips.

I have a 500 mile rule, if it is less than 500 miles, I drive. Over 500, I fly. There are exceptions, of course, but here is the math for 500 miles.

I live rural, near an interstate highway. So if where I am going is 500 miles, I am looking at 8-10 hours allowing for stops for fuel, food and just to walk around.

I live 1.5 hours from the nearest airport. I allow 1.5 hours for clearing parking, check-in and security. It is a smaller regional airport, so this is adequate. New math has me adding 30 minutes for the new procedures, but this may not be necessary long term. Total so far: 3.5 hours.

500 mile flight: 1.5 hours gate to gate. 5 hours total.

Wait for luggage (I have to check a bag) plus get rental car, plus get on road. 1 hour usually unless it is an exception airport. 6 hours now.

My final destination is generally less than one hour to the airport, so call it 1 hour with traffic. Total 7 hours. I take into account the risk of lost luggage, airport delays, and this turns into roughly the same, on the outbound, but it slightly favors flying.

The return is where the math works in my favor. If I can coordinate my work being done just as I need to go to the airport, then then return math works exactly like the outbound math. But, we all know this does not happen. Many of us schedule the first flight out of the morning after the work is over. If I am driving, as soon as the job is done I start home. It may be 12 hours before the first flight leaves, and I may have to pay a significant premium to be on it. It may be sold out.

So the lost time occurs mostly on the return. The beauty in driving is starting home at the earliest possible time.

It might also be less expensive on your employer to drive, but I do not find the difference to be hugely significant at current mileage reimbursement rates, but it can be.

There are two down sides, the loss of productivity while driving. I do get some work done while at the hotel and airport. And weather. It is much easier to fly over winter storms than through them.

Because of the new potential for added delay, I am currently considering a 600 mile rule, but the extra two hours on the road may be just a bit too exhausting. I may need a better car. :)

I guess each individual has their own personal threshold and for many of the people in our office the latest TSA atrocities with the enhanced patdowns pushed them over the edge where before they were willing, very reluctantly, but willing to put up with TSA's bull**it.

The 5 hour figure is one I threw out. One of our people had a meeting recently in NewOrleans, they elected to drive, have their meeting, stayed overnight and drove back the next day.

Several have a meeting coming up in Chicago next week, much longer than a 5hour drive, and already most have said they will drive. I havent mapped it out, but I am guessing its around 16 hours each way, all to avoid the TSA hassles and perverts.

This meeting has been in the works for a while, originally flying was the way everyone was going to go, but again it seems the enhanced pat downs pushed many people over the edge that they were very close to already.

I reached my own personal theshold about a year and a half ago with a TSO I had an encounter with in CLE.

It helps when the ceo of the company who has an intense scathing opinion of TSA, comes out and says, "if you want to drive or find other means of accomplishing the goals of your meeting, and not have to put up with TSA and all its #&%*ing, bull**it procedures or to avoid getting your crotch massaged by a mall cop reject, then please go right ahead, if it is so far that driving is not a realistic option or if you just do not want to put up with all of this, even if it means we loose business or a contract, I am not going to require someone put up with that kind of indignity when I refuse to do so myself".

Now that is a great boss to have^:)

CMH was definitely back to normal this morning. 45-minute line to get through security at 6:30 a.m., complete with barkers and NoSs (Terminal C, Delta/AirTran). Woo hoo. Couldn't see the check-in area at BOS from the silver line bus, though.

I agree that the only way to stop this madness is for the business travelers to slow down their flying so the airlines feel the financial impact.

From a couple of news reports I heard from LGA today, it would seem that the NoS is not being used. Also heard that some people were passing out "opt out" flyers!

NOOD was a one-day wonder, effectively defused by a TSA sweetness campaign.

It would make a much greater impact if January business travel were off by 20 or 30 percent and flight load factors got knocked down commensurately. Nothing says policy change like an empty airport after the holidays. FFers would simply have to get through a few weeks earning no miles or status, and resisting the inevitable bonus promotions the airlines would lay on to get you to abandon your principles.

So, here it is Sunday. The locall station says that 172,000 will be flying from/thru DEN. Compared to Wednesday, today was just as easy to fly from DEN. I observed for approx 40 mins of both checkpoints in the main hall (south and Colorado Flag checkpoints). Here are a couple of those observations:
- 5 TDCs checking IDs at both checkpoints
- 9 lanes open for screening at the Southside point
- 8 lanes open for screening at the Colorado Flag point
- 1 of 4 NOS machines being used (Southside point)
- each checkpoint staffed with 45-50 TSA
- only watched 3 patdowns (all occured on the southside point); 2 older gentlemen and 1 eldery women. The women being patted down had the screener go inside the waistband but minimally
- One lady had water left in her water bottle; screener took the bottle and dumped the contents out and handed it back
- As compared to Wednesday, there were fewer screeners helping passengers with their bin contents
- Those that went through the NoS were given an additional patdown of pockets after coming out of the machine (assuming to resolve any anomolies)
- Teenage girl carried through what looked to be jam; screener swabbed it but handed it back; no additional patdown given.
I am still flying out on Tuesday so will get to provide some additional observations. With all that said, I had an interesting interactions with Denver finest. I will report that under the thread titled "That's Up to the FBI" coming soon.

You would think that line TSOs (the 'bad' ones) and/or their management would realize that if they make an effort to be civil, it can be a much better experience for everyone.

It's easy to have a stalemate: pax say TSOs should ease up, they are causing the headaches, TSOs say it's all the fault of pax. But you can communicate (to some extent) with nearly all TSOs at one time - can't do that with pax.

Wish I believed it was going to last...