Visconti

Recently at SFO, I've noticed a sudden increase of people in the TSA Pre lines. And, most have no idea how they got it or what to do.

I though they stopped offering it randomly?

beachmouse

They still give it randomly. I'm about 50/50 with it at any airport that is not VPS. My hypothesis is that they're trying to load balance the security lines. If a day or several consecutive hours of a day doesn't have 'enough' pre-checks scheduled, then their system starts to pull low risk passengers from the general line to pre-check in order to move more people through the lines in a more 'efficient' manner.

I never get free pre-check out of VPS. This is an airport where a) it's small and everyone is in one common line until document check and b) about 50-70% of the flyers have pre-check because they've got DoD IDs and it's included with one of those, therefore no need to do one time comps to anyone else.

sparky3141

We were in line at LAX - and the pre check line was longer than the regular line. Yes, there were MANY people in front of us that had no clue what to do in this line. I am not sue why they are just randomly doing this. We paid for the service, went through all of the checks and these people just randomly get selected for pre check. This is a really bad deal for those who have paid for it.

chollie

With all due respect, how are folks determining who has paid for Pre and who hasn't? Have you asked them?

According to TSA , they have been overwhelmed with Pre applications. Wait times are longer because so many people are signing up.

Unfortunately, even if these people get 'instruction' during their interview, and even if they read the signs at the airport, depending on their flying habits, they may encounter closed Pre, Pre-lite, Pre open but all LGA/laptops out (LAX, PHX).

Infrequent flyers never knew what to expect at checkpoints. Many of those same people now have Pre. They are told what to expect at the interview, they see the signs, they reach the belt and...the interview 'training' was wrong and so are the signs, and now they're frantically trying to figure out what they're supposed to do, because they hadn't planned on taking out LGAs/laptops or removing outerwear and shoes.

At PHX, there's a new stupid twist, not on any of the Pre signs. Everyone in Pre has to remove LGAs/laptops - except it doesn't say so on the signs and the TSOs don't tell you until you've already dropped things on the belt - if they tell you at all. Then you have to rescan your BP/ID at the WTMD. If you re-packed your BP/ID, you have to back up, remove shoes and outerwear, empty pockets of lint and tissues.

Even seasoned Pre travelers are repacking BP/ID after the TDC, loading things on the belt, and then finding out that without the second BP/ID scan, they've got to hold up the line while they remove shoes and outerwear and empty pockets.

I'm putting any blame for pax in the Pre line (paid or not) who don't know what to do right where it belongs: on the shoulders of the TSOs who see it and do nothing and the LTSOs, STSOs, and BDOs who also stand around and do nothing besides indulge in personal chit-chat in between barking sessions and play with their cellphones.

If you're going to change the rules everyday. then keep the signage updated (hour-by-hour, if necessary) and tell TSOs to put their cellphones down, stop the personal conversations, and tell pax what the rules of the day are - in a quiet inside voice.

squarestatejeff

I went on a recent trip with seven other colleagues. I was the only one with paid TSA and we all booked our own reservations. Every one got pre-check both ways on the trip.

My own theory is that after all the negative publicity about the long TSA lines in the spring/early summer, TSA began giving more people pre-check to help speed things up and deflect attention away from them.

txflyer77

TSA at PHX seems to go out of its way to come up with new and unusual ways to engage in epic stupidity and uselessness. And I say this as someone who dealt with IAH's name-game on a weekly basis.

petaluma1

In spite of an early rush to sign up for PreCheck when TSA created the long, long lines, that rush has apparently slowed down significantly. TSA wants 25 million enrolled in PreCheck and in order to try to get that many, they have to keep giving it away for free in an attempt to entice people to sign up.

Should 25 million enrollees ever be attained, PreCheck lines will be longer and slower than the regular lines.

televisor

They may be longer, but I don't see why they'd be slower.

I think it's silly to think that TSA created precheck as something to help travellers go faster, it's all about making the TSA's work easier/more efficient.

chollie

Except...during the work slowdown earlier this year, when lines were regularly topping an hour at times, or longer, TSA was pushing Pre as the solution.

That meant either the Pre lines were going to be shorter (but moving at the same pace as the regular lines) or they were going to be faster (but possibly as long or longer than the regular lines).

Of course, it could also mean that TSA's work slowdown was designed to push people into signing up for Pre, even though TSA had no intentions of actually delivering the product they were marketing.

How does delivered-as- advertised Pre make TSA's work more efficient or easier? Other than reducing tub-stacking?

It's not like Pre pax are always going to be better prepared than the average traveler. Even someone with paid Pre is going to be scrambling at the last minute if s/he reaches the belt and finds out s/he has to unpack LGAs and laptop because the FSD has decided not to offer full Pre that day.

televisor

Pre increases throughout per group of employees manning a scanner+ WTMD. Ergo, less employees needed to process the same number of passengers.

Yes they advertise it as being about your convenience, but it's really just to minimise their employee costs.

petaluma1

If you've got 75% of travelers in the Pre line and only 25% in the regular line, the regular line is going to be faster. There are already reports of this happening on AskTSA.

leaveamessage

A little confused here...

I have an AA flight departing LAX tomorrow and have checked in online.
I have pre on my BP...



....except I have never applied for Precheck, or global entry for that matter!? In hundreds of flights, I have never had this on any BP before, including my last couple of flights which were quite recently. It is also showing on my BP on the AA app with a nice green tick.

Does this mean I can actually use the precheck lane or is it an error? It is at peak time so would be very useful if so.

Thanks in advance, and apologies if this has been asked before!


Edit to add: I am a lawful permanent resident/green card holder. Ignore the lowly BA status - I have let it lapse and I need a TP boost!

televisor

That depends entirely on how the scanners and WTMD's/AIT's are allocated (and at some stage you'll have to manage how you allocate the doc-checkers too). If you allocate 25% to normal scanning and 75% to Pre, I can guarantee you Pre would be faster - which is entirely the point of Pre from TSA's perspective.

TWA884

It's called Managed Inclusion.

Yes, you can use the PreCheck lanes.

I've merged your question into the thread discussing this program.

Loren Pechtel

That makes a lot of sense, although they could use a bit of intelligence about it. My wife is likely to get pre-check and thinking about it, it's been close to 100% when we fly at slow times. Last June was the first time we both got pre-check, though. Idiots, if you're going to do a risk-based pre-check there's little point in giving it to only some members of the party! Our luggage has no masculine or feminine, it all bears identical luggage tags that on casual inspection only have our last name. (Look more carefully and you'll find my name and a couple of phone numbers. Look very carefully and you'll find the addresses that go with those phone numbers.) How hard would it be to send any suspect bag with the person that got pre-check?