Originally Posted by
chollie
If I am in a regular lane and someone offers me a card so I get the 'Pre' experience, that is not 'expedited screening'.
That is a 'bait-and-switch'. Pre advertises dedicated lanes, no disrobing or unpacking except for rare secondaries. Sounds a lot like GE, right?
This business of trying to intermix Pre and regular pax in one long line is a recipe for confusion and disaster - and it cheats the paid Pre customers. My experience is not 'expedited' if the people in front of me are not Pre and are busy disrobing and unpacking.
It doesn't help that there are regular, if infrequent, reports of airports forcing an entire Pre lane to unpack LGAs and laptops. People signed up for infrequent secondaries, not entire lanes arbitrarily converted to a regular experience for everyone, 'just because'.
I think what you are talking about is what is sometimes called Pre-Light.
Example, a person who has paid for Pre-Check finds the regular Pre-Check lane closed and is given a card to use in the regular lane. What happens then is all over the board, they may get to keep shoes on or not, laptop may come out or not, and so forth. It certainly is not what the traveler signed up for and is not Pre-Check.
TSA has failed to properly staff Pre-Check lanes after selling an expedited screening product. In any other business there would be legal consequences for such a business practice.
What TSA should be doing is screening everyone using Pre-Check type standards and escalating screening for alarms. Everyone benefits, travelers and TSA staff.