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"TSA Pre✓™ allows select frequent flyers of participating airlines and members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler programs who are flying on participating airlines, to receive expedited screening benefits during domestic travel. Eligible participants use dedicated screening lanes for screening benefits which include leaving on shoes, light outerwear and belts, as well as leaving laptops and 3-1-1 compliant liquids in carry-on bags."
"...Certain frequent travelers from Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and certain members of CBP's Trusted Traveler programs, including Global Entry, SENTRI, and NEXUS who are U.S. citizens are eligible to participate when they are booked on a participating airline. As of November 15, 2012, Canadian citizens traveling domestically in the United States who are members of NEXUS are also qualified to participate in TSA Pre✓™. In addition, passengers 12 and younger are allowed through TSA Pre✓™ lanes with eligible passengers."
Link to FlyerGuide Wiki listing of American Airlines (only) TSA Pre✓™ checkpoints.
Link to FT thread AA Airport / Concourse TSA Pre-Check / Precheck Hours [only] (may not be current)
See also post 1 of this thread. (It contains much additional info in the Moderator's Note.)
I too haven't taken mine out in over a year. Was in STL this week and the woman asked me i removed my liquids and gels. I replied "we're all good." To which she replied "I asked you a direct question- Did you or did you not remove your liquids and gels?" I took out my toiletries as I wasn't going to lie especially since she would be able to see the truth in about a minute. Cant wait for TSA PRE to come to STL (TSA are the worst there).
When I flew out of STL last week a TSA Agent told me that TSA PRE will launch at the C checkpoint in STL on July 31.
I just realized one possible reason why "who else is on the plane with you" could be so signficant: I can imagine that the risk would be lowered for a plane on which they expect to have a FAM (federal air marshall) than on a plane oin which they don't expect to have one.
If so, someone who tends to fly flights which don't have an FAM scheduled (that may always, of course, change after the determination of LLL/CLR was made) might get a higher failure rate than someone who tends to fly flights which have an FAM scheduled. (But whether it does or not might depend on your own risk factors!)
Also, you would also think that if "who else is on the plane" is a factor, it might mean that you are evaluated at a different risk if you have a multi-flight itinerary (because there's different "who else"s on each plane!) than if you have a nonstop itenerary!
In short, the more we learn, the more we can see that there's no simple "bullet" to explaining why different people seem to get different results, and there probably never will be. There are so many factors that go into each of the subsets jackonferry lists above, once you start combining them it's obviously a very complex pattern.
There's probably no one reason alone why certain people keep getting mostly LLL (ie, x/x) and no one reason alone why certain other people keep getting mostly CLR (ie, 0/x) and no one reason alone why yet other people are somewhere in the middle.
I think you're VASTLY overestimating DHS's competency and the complexity of the data analysis they do. I say "vastly" because the government has generally failed to analyze the data they have. Besides the plentiful historical examples to that point, take the fact that CBP (for example; they certainly need data more than the TSA to do their job) has almost no information about visa holders. Think they know who you're working for? Or, after being told time and time again during re-entry, that you're now working for a different employer than it says in your visa? Or anything really? Nope. "Sorry, I don't know this, please tell us before we get started next time"
Keep in mind that this algorithm was probably farmed out to the lowest bidder, and that TSA's interest is not in keeping the plane secure, but to appear that they are doing something. Anything. It's probably just a pseudo-random algorithm.
> Pre-check does not negate the rules as to what you can/can't take on board,
The Pre-Check line ALWAYS GRIPES at me when I extract/declare my 8 oz bottle
of codeine cough syrup. The TSA Apparatchiks always admonish me for not simply
leaving it buried in my carry-on.
I'm reluctant to ignore the rules regarding declaration; fearing it might get me yanked
from the Pre-Check list.
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, Lifetime Platinum, HH Gold, SPG Gold, Travelers Aid JFK Volunteer
Posts: 9,022
Quote:
Originally Posted by ziobacio
This is an oddity that might have some deeper significance, but I can't figure it out.
I'm GLD, wife is PLAT; I haven't been invited to TSA Expedited Screening, but wife has been, and accepted. Earlier in the week we flew BGI->MIA, overnighted, then MIA->DFW the next morning.
On the BGI->MIA segment, I couldn't print my boarding pass at the hotel (wife's printed fine) and did self-check-in at the airport: I got SSS on my BP and had to go through extra security before boarding.
On the MIA->DFW segment, wife got LLL and went through expedited screening.
So TSA thinks a LLL will travel with a SSS? Perplexing.
Exact same thing happened to me departing BGI!!! It is completely beyond me why a PreCheck pax (who is also GlobalEntry, NEXUS, and EXP) would EVER get SSSS. I have already been cleared as low-risk through extensive background checks and an interview. DHS/TSA is wasting its resources and those of the airlines (whose personnel or contract agents sometimes perform the SSSS procedures at overseas stations like BGI). On my last BGI departure, I was the ONLY person selected for SSSS. Surely there was somebody on that flight with a more suspicious travel record than mine!!! Agents said it was "random," but it seemed like they were pretty surprised that it happened....they weren't even set up for it at the gate, and had to call in a special guy to do the search.
One thing that occurs to me is that BGI was recently in the international news as being an increasingly important transshipment point for South American drug smuggling to the USA. Maybe DHS/TSA has decided to increase the SSSS percentage on the ex-BGI flights, especially for pax who fit a certain profile, such as who travel alone and go down there for many short stays (like me....my family owns a home and thus we go back and forth throughout the year).
But still, I found it rather insulting that after going through all of the NEXUS, GE, and PreCheck opt-in, I was given the SSSS treatment.
Finally, it is worth noting that prior to my opting in to PreCheck this year, I had never (not once) gotten SSSS, in more than 10 years of being an AA elite. Not once. Now that I opted in to PreCheck, I have gotten SSSS TWICE IN LAST FOUR MONTHS!!! (once departing BGI, once departing FRA). If it is going to keep happening, I am tempted to yank my participation and go back to regular premium security in order to (hopefully) avoid the unbelievable headache of SSSS, which I should have no reason to have to submit to, after a decade as an elite and as a Trusted Traveler member in good standing.
Finally, it is worth noting that prior to my opting in to PreCheck this year, I had never (not once) gotten SSSS, in more than 10 years of being an AA elite. Not once. Now that I opted in to PreCheck, I have gotten SSSS TWICE IN LAST FOUR MONTHS!!! (once departing BGI, once departing FRA). If it is going to keep happening, I am tempted to yank my participation and go back to regular premium security in order to (hopefully) avoid the unbelievable headache of SSSS, which I should have no reason to have to submit to, after a decade as an elite and as a Trusted Traveler member in good standing.
But you've never gotten SSSS at airports where they know you're TT! (Airports that aren't set up for PreCheck, at least coming in the future, have no visibility of your TT status.) Therefore I bet you'd be getting the SSSS whether you were TT or not at these airports.
The formulas for PreCheck and the formulas for SSSS are totally independent from each other.
Presumably, at an airport what has PreCheck awareness, your odds as a TT of getting SSSS may be lower, but at an airport that has no PreCheck awareness, I don't why it would affect you one way or the other.
And, as you mentioned, there have events at one of these airports (BGI) which might be a much more plausible explanation.
And, btw, aren't BGI and FRA both outside the US? TT doesn't even apply outside the US at all yet! So especially outside the US, I would expect TT and SSSS to be comlpetely unrelated.
So I think it's just coincidence that you got your SSSSs after getting TT, and undoing TT would have nothing to do with it. (But since we can't predict whether you'd keep getting SSSS, you can't even run a good experiment by undoing it once. Only if you unded it, got no SSSS, then redid it, then got SSSS again, then went back and forth a few times and had corresponding results each time, would I believe that one has something to do with the other. But if you aren't geting SSSS on every single flight, then if you drop TT and don't get SSSS for a while, I don't see how that proves the connection, it's just more "clumping" of random results.
(By "clumping", I mean it's quite common for random results to be in this patten: no-no-no-no-no-no-no-yes-no-yes-no-yes-yes-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-yes-yes-no-no-no-no-no. In other words, SSSS is not truly random like a coin flip. It's semi-random, and the factors -- not all of them personally atributed to you -- that dictate its frequency may be such that "clujmps" of SSSS could occur among long stretches of no "SSSS". And if you don't know when a "clump" would have ended "naturally", then you can't tell if a single change you make once made a difference or not.)
Programs: AA (EXP), Hilton (Diamond), SPG (lowly Gold)
Posts: 4,317
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrewerSEA
I doubt it. I bet the agent simply saw that OP was enrolled in the program.
Maybe, but my reading of the two posts is that each poster had the check-in agent specifically tell them they had been selected for expedited screening. Maybe I misunderstood the posts, but they seemed to be clear on that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ESpen36
Exact same thing happened to me departing BGI!!! It is completely beyond me why a PreCheck pax (who is also GlobalEntry, NEXUS, and EXP) would EVER get SSSS.
My reading of the post is that the poster's wife was enrolled in Pre-Check but not the poster, and that the poster, not the wife, got SSSS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ESpen36
I have already been cleared as low-risk through extensive background checks and an interview. DHS/TSA is wasting its resources and those of the airlines (whose personnel or contract agents sometimes perform the SSSS procedures at overseas stations like BGI). On my last BGI departure, I was the ONLY person selected for SSSS.
Presumably, it's fairly random and not picking on you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ESpen36
But still, I found it rather insulting that after going through all of the NEXUS, GE, and PreCheck opt-in, I was given the SSSS treatment.
I think most of us would find it insulting, even if it was random.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ESpen36
Finally, it is worth noting that prior to my opting in to PreCheck this year, I had never (not once) gotten SSSS, in more than 10 years of being an AA elite. Not once. Now that I opted in to PreCheck, I have gotten SSSS TWICE IN LAST FOUR MONTHS!!! (once departing BGI, once departing FRA). If it is going to keep happening, I am tempted to yank my participation and go back to regular premium security in order to (hopefully) avoid the unbelievable headache of SSSS, which I should have no reason to have to submit to, after a decade as an elite and as a Trusted Traveler member in good standing.
I hope the two aren't linked. Hard to understand how they could be, but at a minimum it's sure a big headache for you to get SSSS now.
Programs: AA EXP, AS MVPG, TK *G, Hilton Diamond, NEXUS/GE
Posts: 2,561
Quote:
Originally Posted by anabolism
Maybe, but my reading of the two posts is that each poster had the check-in agent specifically tell them they had been selected for expedited screening. Maybe I misunderstood the posts, but they seemed to be clear on that.
I read the posts as saying that but nonetheless highly doubt the check-in agents can actually see if the traveler will get LLL.
But you've never gotten SSSS at airports where they know you're TT! (Airports that aren't set up for PreCheck, at least coming in the future, have no visibility of your TT status.) Therefore I bet you'd be getting the SSSS whether you were TT or not at these airports.
About two weeks before JFK had precheck, they scanned my bp and I got the (melodious) 3 beeps--so had precheck been in place that day, I would have gone to the proper line.
Programs: AA EXP Hyatt PLT Hilton GLD HA,AS,VX all at PEON level
Posts: 2,341
I went to use the Pre-Check line at LAX on June 14.
There is now a Pre-Pre Check area, which is a podium/scanner to the left of the line, sort of near where the elevator that brings Flagship/5 Star passengers up. I can't remember if the staff member stationed there was TSA or Security Contractor, but my Boarding Pass was scanned, and I was then directed to the Pre-Check side of the que. Maybe something new ?
Programs: AA PLT, SPG GLD, Marriott GLD, Amex PLT, Hertz GLD, National EX
Posts: 287
LGA
Anyone know if the PreCheck line is open at LGA? I'll be flying MIA-LGA-MIA on Thursday and would love (the chance) of going through the TT line. Thanks!
I went to use the Pre-Check line at LAX on June 14.
There is now a Pre-Pre Check area, which is a podium/scanner to the left of the line, sort of near where the elevator that brings Flagship/5 Star passengers up. I can't remember if the staff member stationed there was TSA or Security Contractor, but my Boarding Pass was scanned, and I was then directed to the Pre-Check side of the que. Maybe something new ?
My experience also back on June 7. It was contract person.
Most interesting to me that day was the x-ray of my carry-on which included a 4 oz bottle of contact lens solution.First time the size has ever been an issue regardless of which lane. TSA had to check the solution to confirm it was in fact what was stated which took about 5 minutes.
) 3 beeps--so had precheck been in place that day, I would have gone to the proper line.
