Personal Finance Advice

The Transportation Security Administration has announced they plan to lower the price from $200 to $110 a year the cost of getting fast-tracked through airport security. The reduction comes after companies argued the $200 fee was too high and “could deter millions of people and some airports from signing up for the Registered Traveler program.”

While I travel more than the average person, I certainly don’t travel as much as those who do it for business, but is it worth $110 for most people to get fast tracked through security? I probably travel by plane 6 times a year and even with the new screening methods, I haven’t had to spend a whole lot of time waiting (except the first day after the rules were implemented and I happened to be flying), so my guess it will appeal to the business traveler most. The question is will the business traveler have to pick up the expenses on their own or will companies start to pay for this for those that travel often?

The program would require that those registered would still have to go through the same screening process each time they traveled, but it would just be a bit more convenient and a bit less time consuming since there would likely be less people in the fast track lanes.

I guess I can see that for a business traveller who does so on a regular basis, the $110 may be a good investment in time savings, especially if they use that extra time saved on work. I don’t, however, see it being worthwhile for the average person who travels a few times a year. Does anyone reading plan on signing up for the program once it goes live?