Thus was born PreCheck, a name adopted with Tuesday morning's launch to replace Expedited Screening Pilot Program (ESP), the unwieldy original moniker. Never mind that another facet of post-9/11 security specifically created for private enterprise was being co-opted by the TSA, PreCheck at least promised to reestablish the concept that many travelers, and especially frequent flyers, could be proven safe and be exempted from the security Kabuki at the nation's airport.

To the TSA's credit, the underpinnings of PreCheck are rational, even elegant. For potential volunteers, it plumbed the list of pre-cleared "trusted travelers" enrolled in several programs operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It then worked with Delta Air Lines and American Airlines to identify elite frequent flyers using four major hubs: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Miami International, and Dallas/Fort Worth International airports.

But that's when the TSA's committee of camels took over. Business flyers want (and have proven they will pay for) a trusted-traveler plan that offers a consistent experience, speedy processing at the security checkpoint and exemption from the annoying game of hide-and-seek TSA agents play with our shoes, computers, toiletries, and outer garments. Yet PreCheck is specifically designed to frustrate all of those aspirations.

Consider this, for example: Travelers accepted for PreCheck are not even guaranteed the right to use it. It's only at the checkpoints that PreCheck participants will be told if they can use PreCheck facilities for that particular flight. A program that is so random as to sometime or most of the time bar its participants is of dubious value to business travelers.

But, wait, there's more. Or, more accurately, less.

A flyer distributed by TSA when the plan was still called ESP seems to promise much. "For select participants," it explains, "pilot program benefits may include no longer removing…shoes, [toiletries] bag from carry-on, laptop from bag, light outerwear/jacket, belt."

Notice the weasel word "may." The TSA promises nothing. In other words, if you're in ESP and if the TSA allows you to participate on a selected flight once you've reached the security checkpoint, you might be able to leave your shoes on and your laptop in its case if the TSA feels like allowing you to do so.

That, of course, destroys the entire concept of a known/trusted/registered-traveler plan. Without knowing the rules of the game, business flyers gain nothing from PreCheck. No time is saved, no hassle is avoided, and no trust is built between the government agency and the 99.44 percent of us who are not a risk to commercial aviation.

Naturally, the TSA committee of camels trots out its all-purpose excuse whenever it chooses not to commit to any particular (and thus quantifiable) procedure: If we tell you what we're doing, then the terrorists will know. In other words, you can be known, trusted, and registered, but you could still be a terrorist, and we judge you guilty until we run you through an ever-changing series of hoops to prove your innocence.

Or, to use the TSA's exact words, which appeared on an ESP webpage that was removed on Tuesday: "Passengers are always subject to random, unpredictable screening measures.… At no point is this an entitlement club."

Then what is the point?

The Fine Print…

There are several major shifts in the hotel landscape to report. Hyatt Hotels has purchased nearly two dozen Hotel Sierra properties and will convert them and its existing Summerfield Suites extended-stay hotels into the Hyatt House brand. Meanwhile, two boutique brands, the mostly East Coast Thompson Hotels and the mostly West Coast Joie de Vivre chain are merging. For the moment, the new parent company of the 45 properties is called JT Hospitality. And Accor, the gigantic French lodging group, is slapping its Mercure name on 24 former Ramada Jarvis hotels in the United Kingdom. The properties were taken over by the lender, Royal Bank of Scotland, after the previous owned defaulted.