TSA PreCheck Program - Questions/Experiences for United Airlines Travellers

I was going to use the TSA Pre-check lane at SEA this morning, but it was a complete mess and I ended up getting through the regular security line much faster.

Seems a bit odd to me that the TSA Pre-check lane at Seattle is at the North end and not in the middle, more accessible to all gates & airlines. Oh well. No biggie, but it was just a bit strange that I sailed through regular security and even got waved through the old magnetic scanner instead of the x-ray.

I've also posted this on the Security board but maybe I can get a clearer picture from fellow MileagePlus'ians.


I guess I don't understand this program at all!

Both my spouse and I have GE and have been approved for Pre-check. We have all our numbers registered with all the airlines and have Gold status with UA . We fly out of SFO (where pre-check is not even on the radar) but we were finally in an airport where it is offered (EWR).

I will add that we were on the inbound leg of an international, multi-stop itinerary. We were already through customs and immigration and needed to go back through security to head to SFO but we were denied. No explanation.....just a shrug of the agent's shoulders.

If this is a TSA/government endorsed program to which we have chosen to apply, relinquish some semblance of privacy and pay the fee for the privilege of being interviewed and scrutinized before being approved, why is it up to UA to say whether or when we can take advantage of it???

What am I missing???

There were discussion on this thread about international itineray is excluded from PRE-check.

There should have been signs announcing that the PreCheck lane is moving from checkpoint #5 to checkpoint #3 (closer to the middle) next week; did you see any?

PreCheck is scheduled to begin at SFO on Nov. 15th according to rumors posted in this thread.

PreCheck is available for domestic-only itineraries. Any international segments either on the front end or back end will cause you to to be denied PreCheck clearance for the domestic segments.


It is not UA who determines your eligibility or acceptance. They are simply sharing your flight information with the government when you check-in. The system evaluates your information and determines if you are eligible to PreCheck or not on a flight-by-flight basis. Your boarding pass is then encoded with a flag in the barcode. UA really has nothing to do with it.

The fee you paid was for Global Entry - a separate program which serves a completely different purpose than PreCheck. Even though they are both a part of the Dept of Homeland Security, GE is run by CBP (Customs and Border Protection) and PreCheck is run by the TSA.

The fact that you had to submit to a background check for GE means you are automatically accepted for PreCheck but they are not one and the same.

Good point. With paper BPs, the agents appear to scrutinize them fairly carefully, but with electronic BPs, they don't seem to look. (I'm not 100% sure what appears on their side of the LCD display of the scanner, but surely it's not big enough to display all of the flight details, so they may not even know what terminal you are supposed to fly out of.)

As FH said, it's moving to where you think it should be. That said, it'll be a tad less convenient for the AS flyers needing to head to the N gates, and AS is likely the biggest user of PreCheck in SEA (since they have the highest number of elites in SEA and are offering it to their elites).

As alluded to by mrswirl, in your instance, UA is not allowing or disallowing you from using PreCheck.

There are two completely separate, independent ways to qualify for and sign up with PreCheck:

1) Be invited by your airline, OR
2) Become a Trusted Traveler via the CBP's Global Entry, NEXUS, or SENTRI programs

For #1, airlines are typically only inviting their top (or near-top) elites. In UA's case, they're only offering it to Plats and 1Ks. In any case, if you opt-in to PreCheck via an invitation from UA, you will only get the benefit when flying on UA. Also, UA doesn't make the ultimate decision about whether you will receive PreCheck on any particular itinerary; they transmit your information to the TSA, who then responds back with a "yes" or "no," which UA then encodes in your boarding pass. Even if you qualify, TSA reserves the right to deny you PreCheck benefits on any particular itinerary (and appears to do that somewhat often) in order to introduce a certain amount of "randomness" into the process and keep you from getting too complacent about airport security.

For #2, you get your interview (as it sounds like you have done) and then receive a PASS ID number. You can then place that PASS ID into the Known Traveler Number field in any airline reservation (regardless of whether you've been invited to participate by that airline or not), and that will be transmitted to TSA (along with your name), and they will again determine whether to allow you access to PreCheck on that particular itinerary.

Got PreCheck (verified beforehand using PDF barcode reader).

Scan BP: get error about "Invalid Sig". I guess that means the hash didn't match... hmmm.

Scan the mobile BP (quite a PITA when using an iPad) and it works.

Note that UA never allows or disallows you from precheck. As you mention, UA simply sends your info to the TSA, who determines, on a flight by flight basis, whether you will be granted use of the program for that time.

Also, you do not have to be "invited" by your airline if you don't have a TT number. Any UA MP member (I think, but at least any elite member, at least, from what I can tell) has the checkbox to apply. My wife, a 2P, without a TT number, or invitation from UA, has been successful with pre-check both directions on at least her last two trips. Some got invitations, sure, but it is not mandatory. I suspect FF status will help your acceptance (or acceptance rate) with the program.

I would guess it wasn't reading the bar code properly, causing an invalid sig. Maybe the bar code was too weak, or the reader wasn't working properly. I know my wife had this issue once, must have pulled the mobile bp away before it had finished reading it or something. But scanned it again and 3 beeps.

I've had this problem with mobile BPs at MCI. Usually the details show after a moment or two. If not, the clerk will rescan the BP and it will work.

I was able to use the PreCheck line successfully at PIT on a US flight this past Wednesday. Entered my GE number (known traveler #?) into the reservation and it worked. No info carried over from UA FF #, it had to be done manually.

Thanks for the tip. I downloaded manatee scanner and scanned my BP from last week. No magic 3s. I have a trusted traveler number through NEXUS. What information has to match between reservation, airline profile and NEXUS profile? For example, do name/DOB have to match up exactly on all 3?

The current wisdom is that the traveler information provided for each reservation has to match the trusted traveler record exactly with respect to name (including middle name vs middle initial), DoB and gender. You should also make sure your PASS ID is entered into the information for each reservation. If you recently added it to your profile it probably was not automatically added to existing reservations. You can also edit the traveler information for existing reservations to make sure the info matches the trusted traveler record.

Re: DEN

Pre-Check opens daily at 4:30am, and closes at 8:00pm.

Told the Van Nuys FlyAway driver "United Premier" which I wasn't (yet). Got off at T6 and headed to the roped "off" PreCheck line. Ducked and crossed. Non-TSA staffed asked whether I was PreCheck. Still to this point I couldn't be sure I really belonged, but less than half a minute later, THREE BEEPS!

BP only had LAST/FIRSTMMR. My online UA ID field had my full middle name. I believe it was without the hyphen, but it still worked.

Tomorrow's return from ATL will be AA, which doesn't officially have it yet. I'll go to the south PreCheck line and try. Report will be on AA's thread.