I was in that boat for a while, but it's been rocky recently at a few airports that I fly in and out of as the number of Pre users have gone up and airports have toyed with the idea of Pre only lines (which sometimes are far from where you actually want to be). I think it's coming back to normal, but there have been several times over the last year where I've considered using the regular line for the same of time.

> with TSA Pre, I haven’t needed more than 15 minutes for security

Same. With Clear, that goes down to 5 minutes tops. Add in airport lounges, and showing up a bit early goes from being a nuisance to a pleasure (or opportunity to be productive).

I’m a huge fan of trains, but they’re only marginally competitive for passengers in the Northeast.

At least for the north or south subset of the Northeast Corridor the type of transportation honestly boils down to preference. Train is in the comfortable but relatively pricey and slow end of the equation. I could drive from Central Mass to New York cheaper and faster than train but I hate doing that drive.

This probably depends a lot on exactly when/where you’re flying.

Even if it seemed true for me, I’m not sure I’d bet the price of a ticket (and my schedule) on it always working out.

At which airports? I've seen short precheck lines but I've also seen 1h+ lines.