Originally Posted by
Often1
If you don't have a passport, you don't need GE !
GE costs $100 for 5 years, while Pre-Check costs $85 for the same time period. That is a $15 difference or $3 per year. If you take one overseas trip a year, it is costing you a $3 "premium" to have GE access.
Unless you have no projected need for international travel or have what one might nicely referred to as a checkered past which CBP, but not TSA, may find problematic, GE is a simple investment.
It's easy for us on FT to forget, but less than half of the US population holds a passport. If you don't yet have one, and don't plan to need one, then GE isn't just $15 more. It's $15, plus $145 for the passport, plus photos.
I agree, though, if you have a passport and travel internationally even occasionally, the GE is easily worth it.