langurmonkey: If you fly from an the airport in Hamburg, Germany to London, UK for example, you will have to go through security. And if your final destination is the USA through Newark, New Jersey then you will have go through security again in London. What express lanes? I've never seen an express lane. Then you have to go through customs. :) Do you know how fucking long the line is for customs? And there is no way to skip it.
orcishgamer: You realize that nowhere was I speaking about international flights, obviously if you have to change countries you get to get that new country's anal probe.
Yeah, I just noticed it was all a big misunderstanding. When I was talking about flying, I meant flying from country to country to country. It has been a long time since I've flew around in the USA. Inside the USA, things are probably much faster, security is more relaxed.
After you said this "You're still allowed to ask for a normal pat down, I always do and the TSA has always been excruciatingly polite about it, to the point of bordering on the ridiculous. It takes no longer at all."
I assumed you claimed it takes you and your compatriots only 3 to 4 seconds to get past security. And when I was thinking of security, I was thinking of the kind of security you go through before going to a different country. I wasn't thinking from Houston to Chicago.