Originally Posted by
mnbp
Airlines have nothing to do with assigning TSA Pre to individuals. All of those decisions are made exclusively by TSA.
If TSA Pre is printed on a boarding pass, a TSA computer system put it there.
If an inexperienced traveler is sent to a TSA Pre line, that was done by a TSA employee.
If there are people in the Pre lane who do not know what to do, it is TSA's fault for not providing a predictable experience.
At some airports, TSOs routinely decide that
all Pre pax have to remove LGAs/laptops. That's not what Pre pax paid for and that's not what they prepare for. If the rules chance constantly, then TSA has the responsibility to provide polite real-time information to the pax.
If TSO does not tell people in the Pre line to ignore what Pre promised them when they signed up and ignore what the Pre signs say, then any delays are the fault of the TSOs.
If TSA is granting Pre to large numbers of pax who have not paid for the privilege, then it shouldn't be rocket science: dedicate more lanes to Pre as the regular lanes dwindle.
According to AskTSA, the lanes are opened and closed according to demand and airport ops (a lie, but we'll ignore that for now). If that were true, there shouldn't be overloaded lanes because TSA knows
exactly how many pax it has granted free Pre to at any given moment.
In short: if someone is in the Pre lane and doesn't know what to expect, it is 100% TSA's fault.