Duck1981

I was recently flying with my wife to the US and back from LHR. I have Global Entry - my wife got SSSS on the way to the US and TSA Pre on the way back.
So she went from suspicious to trusted in a few days

Jokes aside, I think she got TSA Pre as she was on the same booking - but who knows....

beachmouse

In my experience, they also use it to load balance the security lines during times when some algorithm predicts line wait times would be longer than desired. I've never gotten free Pre out of my home airport, where the security lines are never more than five minutes and about half the flyers have Pre, but I go on streaks where I'll get it more than 50% of the time from larger, more crowded US airports.

dougzz

I flew MAN-PHL-PHX-SAT in October/November last year. I'm pretty sure all the boarding passes were printed at MAN. The transatlantic was SSSS and the next two TSA-Pre as a result of having GE. So presumably quite different criteria. Maybe this means I wouldn't get TSA Pre as part of managed inclusion mentioned above.Whilst on this trip I had a separate MCO-CLT-AUS trip which somehow didn't get my known traveller number included meaning no TSA Pre, took one look at the queues and returned to ticket desk to sort it out, as the respective queues were none and a giant snake of people into the distance.

Mats

@Duck1981 that's not at all unusual. PreCheck is not considered for flights TO the United States. This is absurd; they're failing to use a vetting system that is already in place. It is always a problem when one is deemed to be an upstanding citizen on one segment but a threat on the next. The airlines' response is always their curious an grammatically awkward, "We want to know ho you are who you say you are." And that's exactly why went through the interviews, fingerprints, and background check for PreCheck/Global Entry/Nexus/Sentri.

The other problem is that they have drastically increased the number of passengers with SSSS on international flights to the US (15 to 30 percent of passengers). Consequently, they have to fill their SSSS quota, and they end up with passengers who have PreCheck and Global Entry. It's an astonishing waste of resources.I wrote to Acting DHS Secretary Nielsen asking for explanation, and nobody replied. She probably doesn't know what PreCheck or SSSS mean.

@mikem004, it's also quite common for people who have not paid for PreCheck to be graced with it. Sometimes--like you--it is printed on your boarding card. In other cases, the TSA staff can grant you PreCheck while you are waiting in the queue. They can permit you to enter by passing the sniff of a dog, an ion scan of your hands, with a randomizer, or by magical secret messages that enter their heads from unknown sources.

T8191

No, we are not subscribed to GE
No, we are not subscribed to TSAPre
Yes, we have had TSAPre on all our American sectors (24 TATL and Domestic) for the last 3-4 years.

Why?
BA Gold/OWE? Flying in Business/Domestic First? Frequent US visitors for about 15 years? Nationality/age?
Throw all those factors into an algorithm and let it happen?

We are just very grateful, and long may it continue!

Post 15 by SkyTeem is very enlightening.

extremelyhappy

I got the same TSA Precheck too when flying from LHR-NYC-LAS-LA-LHR
Flew with AA and Jetblue stateside.

flatlander

I get TSA Pre (or, as I like to think of it, "grown-up security") pretty often in the USA, flying AA on an AA frequent flyer number (often booked with BA). I've never signed up for any of the US border crossing special programs, and I am not (nor do I appear) of pensionable age.

I do not have a beard, so perhaps I don't look mad enough to take over an aircraft. I've also never entered a flight simulator and said "landings aren't important"; my landings are fairly reasonable as it happens [1]


[1] for an amateur assisted by a BA FO...

caburrito

Even on "guaranteed" flights you can still be subject to search.

quemalo

Actually, it is. Anyone 12 and under or 75 and older is highly likely to get pre-check when flying. On some airports it even states it right there at the pre-check lane.

missdimeaner

Deleted- see post quote below

missdimeaner

jeffers

My wife has TSA Pre, and whenever we travel together on the same booking, I always get it too. I didn't sign up.

Kumulani

Having a TSA Pre membership is not the same as getting TSA Pre on your boarding pass. You can get TSA Pre without signing up for anything through the Managed Inclusion program, which has been well described earlier in this thread. For those who don't meet the criteria of the Managed Inclusion, you can sign up for a trusted traveler program. US citizens/residents can become a TSA Pre member which involves them taking your fingerprints and running a background check. There are other trusted traveler programs also available to non-US citizens from certain countries, like NEXUS and Global Entry, that have the same effect. However, it's important to note that even being part of a trusted traveler program does not guarantee you the TSA Pre experience every flight; you will get it the vast majority of the time, but it's possible to be randomly selected for the full screening.

That press release is just BA trumping themselves up. The biometric exit checks were not their idea, and they were not the ones who installed the equipment. This is a US government program which they've been wanting to implement for over a decade, but is now coming to fruition through an executive order from President Trump. It's also being helped by more advanced technology since the last time they tried (and failed) to pilot this. They claim the goal is to get more reliable and accurate data on who is leaving the country and when. They seem to be trying to sell it as "more convenient" to the passenger since you don't need a boarding pass. But as you can see, it's a very rough pilot program being done at a few airports, only with the airlines that have agreed to it (BA being one of them), and there are a lot of kinks to be worked out. Such as getting the facial recognition right, matching the correct passenger photos from the database, dealing with overstays efficiently, and managing to do all this without delaying the flight. Eventually, this will be rolled out to all international flights departing the US. Someday, it may lead to segregated international/domestic departure areas of US airports like Schengen/non-Schengen in continental Europe, though the airlines will fight this.

lhrsfo

I used always to get TSA-Pre as a UA 1K but I haven't got it on my last two trips, and UA has emailed saying that, because of TSA changes, their top elites are now unlikely to get it unless they are enrolled in Pre, GE or Nexus. This must refer to the changes in the Managed Inclusion Program.

Strangely my wife, who has GE, has now managed to get SSSS on her last two trips to the US.

It seems to me to be more of an UnManaged Inclusion Program.