Timed travel

Transportation | A new program allows frequent fliers to speed up trips through airport security | John Dawson

For frequent fliers like Mark Peck, every minute counts. Some call it the art of the business traveler: the learned skill of minimizing the time it takes to get from driver's seat to loading carry-on luggage above the aisle of a commercial jet.

Those who negotiate an airport every week (or multiple times a week) learn to do it well. "There are plenty of times when you're cutting it very close," said Mr. Peck, who logged close to 100,000 air miles while working for Cisco last year. "There are times when you walk up to that gate just as they're boarding and you're trying to get somewhere and you've got almost no time to spare. You count on those close shaves."

There's something else business travelers count on—the routine indignities of a security screening. But for airline customers willing to shell out as much as $100 a year, that process could soon change.