Some say the happiest place on Earth is that park with that mouse. If you ask me, there's no happier place than the TSA pre-check lane at the airport, especially when the regular and elite lanes are both long.

I was just dropped off at SNA (John Wayne Airport in Orange County) and it was about two minutes from curb to Gate area.  And I think most of it was spent walking around the long elite lane to get to the precheck lane!

Pre-check - making flying fun* again

[*] or at least much less of a hassle.

One of the best things about flying a lot is miles.  As in redeemable miles.  As in, earn so many miles that you can fly anywhere, any time, or for me, since I hate to forego earning miles, it means fly someone else with me, usually a companion - and my companions have gotten spoiled and like to fly Business/First class - and who can blame them?

So I'm spending Thanksgiving in New York with Mark and I'm looking for a mileage flight back for him for Sunday night after Thanksgiving.  Sure, it's a busy flight time, but paying double miles means never having to say "there are no award seats on this flight" so I just had to decide which airline had the better times and better availability.

Here is how it shook down between American, United and Delta, all for NYC-LAX for Business or Business/First:

No surprises on United - absolutely no "saver" availability, but all flights available for double mileage: 50K miles for Business/First is wide open.  And from JFK these are nice lie flat seats with entertainment system and lounge access.  Nice.

The picture pretty much looks the same on American - nothing in the saver buckets, but plenty in the full price awards - these are three class planes, so 50K gets you business, and 62.5K miles gets real First.

I want to know what planet Delta is operating on that they think that 140,000 miles for Business/First is in any way reasonable or competitive.  I understand they have three levels, and this must be peak.  Regular though looked to be 110,000 (available only for 7am departure) and who cares what "saver" is - even if it was ever available I don't see it being very competitive with other airlines.

And that is one of the many reasons I don't fly SkyTeam/Delta.  I like being able to use my miles and get some reasonably good value out of them.  Delta is not where that value is.