Originally Posted by
jkhuggins
I'll cut the TDC some slack on this.
- If you were traveling with a group of people, and the rest of them didn't qualify for PreCheck, you might choose to decline PreCheck in order to stay with your travel companions. That's not an unreasonable choice. But the TDC has no idea if you have travel companions --- and if the TDC asks "are you traveling with others today?", some would view the question as too personal and an attempt to make The Big Catch.
- If the ID checker responded to you by grumpily ordering you to "get in that PreCheck line over there", there would be plenty of folks who would object to the sour attitude and the demanding demeanor.
The TDC attempted to offer you access to PreCheck in a pleasant, undemanding manner. If the wording of the offer was a bit inelegant, it could have been much worse.
+1 - No. You're supposed to bash the Officer on FT because he didn't look in his crystal ball to make certain that OP wasn't traveling with others and wanted to stick with them. Plenty of people decline pre-check when traveling with family or colleagues. And, as you note, plenty of people would post a rant, "TSA made my wife cry because I was ordered through pre-check".