The difference wasn't worth paying Concorde prices, but it was an extra $200 and since my billing rate is over $500/hr and considering the hotel prices in LA, the client was happy to pay it if it meant seeing me the same day I flew in.
Business is a different story since I wouldn't be paying directly and those trips are generally more fast paced and require you to be at 100% soon after getting off the plane. Those extra hours could help you finish preparing for a presentation or something.
Granted that's the outlier, but nothing says these aircraft need be limited to concord speeds either.
For a 1-2hr flight within my region, I need
a) 30m at least of security time (let's assume passenger willing to pay has pre-check/global entry/clear/et)
b) 30-60m to get to the airport. same for arrival.
c) must arrive by boarding time or airline can deny you (about 45m at least).
So that's like 3-4h for each flight (e.g. 6-8h total roundtrip) for a door-door connection, and that's the safe minimums. If security is overloaded or traffic is jammed (or train is delayed), you risk missing your flight.
A business day is still lost, but it's possible with an early flight that an early or midday meeting could be attended on late notice - which might be an acceptable compromise for your average moderate company C-level to avoid using a private jet.
And don’t forget deboarding which seems to take a least 20 minutes. And waiting for your luggage.
I also forgot customs/border control for international flights.
Of course, for personal/family, this adds probably an additional 30-60m + 30 for international.
I would love it if someone (countries) starting optimizing for full travel time. But the incentives are not there. Airports are shopping malls. Security ensures you have to buy more liquids in the mall.
Imagine: 20min train from King’s Cross / Union Station to the heart of the airport, 10 min travel to gate, 5 minut security, 15min boarding.
Equally futuristic: Plane tickets working like train tickets. Buy a flight from LA to SF. Show up (almost) any time. Take the first available. Of course optimized via estimated arrival times and demand calculations.
Many small/medium European airports manage this for flights within Europe. At least in Dublin, Gatwick, Frankfurt Hahn, the security has been under 10 minutes for me, without buying any fast track passes. Add to that mobile boarding passes from most airlines eliminating the need to do anything beyond "weigh bag at automated machine without a queue, put sticker on, drop at bag drop" in the check in area, and it's a much faster experience.
The issue comes when flying to the US, where at least in Dublin, there's a second TSA-run security station behind the main security for flights going to the US. This is the only one where I've had delays of over 20 minutes for security in Dublin (which is still much better than I've had in the US, including a 1hour security queue in JFK once).
This is also where online check in is usually not an option, where there's a long queue, and where I get US customs interviewing people in the line to make it even longer.
So it seems to be the US specifically causing this problem
It was phenomenally successful for a few years. It's not clear that this model could be replicated today due to air travel security concerns.