crimsonAA

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stevento

I opened my AmEx Biz Plat in March of 2015.
The anniversary is coming up soon.
I never took advantage of the Global Entry application reimbursement - mostly because even if I were to get it, it would be of limited use to me.

I never travel abroad on business by myself, we always travel as a family of 4, and we always have check-in luggage.

It would be of no use for me alone to get the status but not for the rest of the family...and even if we did, we'd be standing at the carousel waiting for the luggage with everyone else anyway.

But if I can get it, I can use the TSA precheck the few times per year I fly alone.

So, if I were to apply for Global Entry, what are the chances the reimbursement posts before annual fee hits? The original fee was March 20, 2015.

gooselee

IMO there is no good reason to NOT get GE, particularly since your $100 fee will be reimbursed. In fact, if you travel a couple times a year with your family, I'd encourage you to get GE for all of them - it really is worth it.

Even paying $20/yr out of pocket for it, if you take just two RTs a year by yourself where you get to use PreCheck, that's $5 per "entry" to use the Pre line. Well worth it IMO.

When travelling with family, you can take kids under a certain age with you through Pre, and you can also take the luggage of the other adults (within reason) to make their non-Pre experience much simpler.

When you return to the country, even if you have to wait for checked bags, you are able to bypass immigration lines which can be long when even just a couple jumbos arrive at the same time.

stevento

last time I applied for GE (4 yrs ago?), I was denied an interview. Very strange. Other than a few traffic tickets, nothing else on my record that I know.

Finagler

I signed up for Global Entry about three years ago, which I paid for out of pocket. Since it would be another two years before I needed to reapply, I decided to use my Platinum credit to sign a family member up for Global Entry. I signed her up online on January 24, and I received a $100 fee credit on January 31.

DrForce

The only reason I can think of is that the government will have your fingerprints in their system and government computers have been shown to be vulnerable to hacking in the last year. Who knows what the Chinese will do with your fingerprints.

That being said, I think the benefits outweigh the risks. I got GE for myself.

gooselee

True.

I often forget about that part as my current and previous jobs have required all kinds of background checks and identification/biometric capture in the past.

If any government or hacker wanted my details and fingerprints, they had the long, long ago. On the plus side, I'm probably one of the least interesting people in any of those databases.

SuperSnoop

A strange thing happened to me today.

I had applied for Global Entry and received the credit about two years ago. My wife applied using her card last year and also received the credit. My daughter just turned 13, so I signed her up last week. I used my (primary) card and was not expecting any credit. But a $100 credit showed up within 3 days.

I know it's supposed to be a once-every-five-years credit, but it seems to work more frequently.

UpAt40k

Has anyone had a problem paying with your platinum card for global entry? I don't have my physical card yet, I applied and was approved last night, but amex assures me the info I have for it (number, pin, etc) is good to go and that the charges are being approved by amex, but the cbp website keeps saying charge declined and I don't understand. Is there a number I could call to give them the card info over the phone?

bmms8

Just wait until you get the card. Its going to take forever to get your appointment anyways.

UpAt40k

Per another thread and coworker experience, it seems that appointments pop up regularly at SFO that are only a few weeks out! Thanks anyways!

CaliHotelGuy

No issues with Global Entry here. I applied on May 6th and the charge hit my new card right away and last night (3 days later) the $100 credit from Amex was applied to my account. I hope you're right about SFO not taking too long.

bmms8

I appreciate you not responding with a sneer remark, but i think waiting until you get the card will be your best bet.

jeeden

I tried this yesterday with my new platinum card number I got from the 100k mile deal. It said the same thing. I called the concierge for Amex and she looked into it and found out the CIID I had didn't confirm for her. She checked with the new cards people and said that they told her the CIID I was given on the webpage was temporary and "wouldn't work with all charges." She seemed a little baffled by the explanation and apologized, but said that my new card was rushed and would be here Wednesday and it should work then. I just saved my GE app online and will complete it today.


Just for the data point, here on the east coast with Dulles airport the appointments are pretty easy to come by based on the experience some of my friends have had.

CaliHotelGuy

To add to this, I was "conditionally approved" for GE last night after submitting my application five days ago. Logged in to schedule my appt and the next available at SFO is NOVEMBER 23rd! Yikes! I guess I'll have to check on a regular basis for short-term cancellations. Just FYI for anyone in the Bay Area.