And, I'm going to guess, not having children.

Have child, just got Pre Check. Kids under 12 don't need their own known traveler number. Pack light, gate check the car seat, and you're pretty close to the parent post's timing. Even if you have to check luggage, Southwest's check-in lines are short more often than not.

I would assume that adding children to the mix also increases your time to prepare and get to and from some future HSR train station as well, so it's probably a wash.

Children can be enrolled in the program as well.

Also I do not check in any luggage.

But you are giving up their fingerprints to the government. That's one thing that really bugs me about those programs. I want to remind everyone of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Mayfield. They arrested him because some of his fingerprints slightly matched. The FBI claimed they exactly matched. Quoting from the wikipedia article

"His prints were ... taken ... when he joined the military. He became the prime suspect because of his conversion to Islam and because he had represented one of the Portland Seven...

The FBI described the fingerprint match as "100% verified". According to the court documents in judge Ann Aiken's decision, this information was largely "fabricated and concocted by the FBI and DOJ".

This is why I'm reluctant to give the govt. my fingerprints, but my friends think I'm overreacting.

In no way is that remotely acceptable, but the dude got $2 million. The government making a habit of that behavior would get expensive quickly.

Are you kidding, that’s your defense?

$2M in taxpayer money is nothing to them. Just like the expense of incarceration didn’t bring down jail terms for minor offenses. Or settlements for police brutality haven’t affected that one iota either.

If they did that to ten thousand US citizens (.0031 percent chance of being messed with), a 2 million dollar settlement would cost them $20bn. Affordable, but certainly not a rounding error line item.

The officers working on the case do not decide about the govt budget. I'm not even sure if the government tracks expenses from those cases and would know how to react if the costs escalate.

I would assume that the vast majority of train passengers between LA and SF would also not be children.

The real secret is not flying United out of SFO. I typically make it through security in Terminal 2 (Virgin / AA / Alaska) in about 10 minutes. Not much longer with the international terminal.

How many minutes before the flight do you usually arrive to the airport? If not 15, why?

30 minutes before boarding they no longer allow you to print a boarding pass (so you’d better be checked in and have it on your phone). I learned this the hard way when I arrived 20 minutes before a flight. However, it’s no big deal really, I caught the next flight an hour or so later since they are obligated to book you the next available flight.

I try to be there about 30 minutes before the flight now, but with boarding pass ready on my phone. The only reason I give 30 minutes is in case of traffic or if I want to grab a quick bite. If I could guarantee my arrival time at the airport it would be even less.