After being approved for GE, do you have to activate the GE card before you can use GE? I am aware that one cannot use the card at airports, but I am trying to understand if the card needs to be activated before you can use GE. Here is my story:

I was approved for GE, but I left the country before I could receive the card, so I wasn't able to activate it. On my way back to the US, at the pre-clearance center at AUH, I tried using my GC on the new kiosk and the machine was unable to read it after multiple attempts. Like a few others have mentioned earlier, these machines are not ideal for GC's because it's impossible to know whether you need to slide the card in the middle or the left end or the right end! I got the option to enter the details manually, which I did (9 digit GC number), but the kiosk said that I don't have GE, so I ended up standing in the regular line.

Funny thing is that I asked the DHS guy and he was vehement that I need to use my GE card at the kiosk and laughed at me when I told him that the GE card cannot be used at the kiosk, but only my GC.