Crossin Jordan

Am I the only one this happens to?

I was approved for pre-check at least 14-16 months ago. ONly problem is for the last 1+ year, I seldom came in contact with it so usually couldn't take advantage of it. Now that it's showing up more in more places (including now RDU my home airport), I should be breezing through all the time. But in fact, it's exactly the opposite. I go thru the express lane to TSA, but then get diverted over to the barefoot line.

I've asked TSA about it and they always tell me it's random and a number of factors can affect approval or denial. But since February I'm batting zero and that's BS. Did i somehow get myself kicked out of pre-check?

SirFlysALot

When I was downgraded to Platinum on AA I didn't get Pre-Check for a whole month. The last two trips I was Pre-Check again

Yeah it's weird.

Also a co-worker told me that if you change your reservation within two weeks of the flight you are denied Pre-Check. Has this been anyone else's experience?

saulblum

A true shame that the government extortion scheme known as PreCheck isn't working out for you.

Crossin Jordan

I don't typically change a reservation in advance of my travel dates, but I often change my reservation on the day of travel via SDC on DL. But so does every other Platinum, Diamond, etc, and that doesn't seem to have an adverse affect on their pre-check success.

SFO777

The only problem I have with Pre-Check are the non-TTs that clog up the line and the TSA agents that don't kick them out of the line and send them back to the regular line.

BubbaLoop

^^^

I am a non-PreCheck frequent flyer and will continue to "clog up the line" whenever I can, because I believe everyone should have the right to be checked in the manner you are.

Bubbaloop, in a rebellious mood.

SFO777

More like an a$$, and even more reason to screen the line before it gets to the checker. TSA should NOT permit non-PreCheck pax to jump the queue. They should be kicking them out of the line and sending them on the walk of shame back to the regular kettle line. Start doing that and it will cure the problem.

nrr

Are you also in GE? From reports in other threads, pax who were pre-check eligible who weren't getting selected improved when their GE profile was added.

Crossin Jordan

No, GE I am not. But I was approved at the pre-check checK point this norning at msp and wss ablle to proceed thru thankfully. My averages still aren't that great, but I'll take what I can get.

RadioGirl

This is one of the (numerous) perception problems created by Pre-Check; that those who are not PreCheck eligible are "kettles." BubbaLoop may very well be a far more frequent flyer than many US citizens who qualify for Pre-Check through their FF program, but as a non-US citizen she is not eligible.

Those people you call "kettles" standing in the "regular line" clutching their Freedom Baggies and with shoes off, waiting to be groped by a representative of the United States Government, may well be influential business owners, acclaimed academics, important scientific researchers, professional musicians or artists, world-class medical doctors, or entrepreneurs - any of whom could bring significant economic, practical or intellectual benefit to the US if they chose to do business or practice their profession there - but they're treated like garbage by the TSA (and by the people in the Pre-Check line) simply because they're not US citizens.

There was a time when the US proclaimed to the rest of the world: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, ... with the understanding that the "huddled masses" would, in time, become productive members of society. Today the message is "Line up the furriners over there to be treated like criminals, regardless of what value they may be willing to bring to the country."

saulblum

The most egregious misconception is that PreCheck is about security.

Unless you can show me the data that supports the notion that a passenger who flies 100,000 miles per year is less likely to be harboring a bomb in his or her shoes or laptop or jacket than a passenger who flies 15,000 miles a year and has done so uneventfully for the past decade.

RadioGirl

Well, yeah, that's the main one.

But I'm attacking the (equally ludicrous) notion that a non-US citizen who flies 100,000 miles/year is statistically MORE likely to be harboring a bomb in his or her shoes or laptop or jacket than a US citizen who joined a FF program last week.

Fredd

Both of your assessments are correct IMHO. ^

Am I cynical to believe the main purpose of TSA Pre✓™ is to divide and con, i.e. to buy off the frequent flyers who will otherwise be complaining repeatedly (and occasionally even effectively) about TSA procedures?

If we're to take everything done by the TSA seriously, doesn't this open up another opportunity for terrorists to coerce or bribe someone in this category to carry something through the check point, just as certain exemptions for airline crew, the very old, and the very young have?

My rhetorical questions have been asked and answered repeatedly here and elsewhere. In other words, it's just one more bit of security theater, coupled with damage control.

SFO777

And rightly so. BTW, non-US citizens are indeed eligible. BubbaLoop is either not from the right country, is not a frequent flyer or is too lazy or cheap to qualify for Pre-Check.

Well, we certainly have a burr up our backside today, don't we? And why should any of those "esteemed" pax get special treatment? There is a process. If they haven't followed it and don't qualify, tough. I suppose you want to give my F seat to Y pax as well, because it's unfair that I was upgraded or spent more money for that seat.

As for supposedly being treated like garbage, my non Pre-Check TSA experience is, I suspect, far more extensive than yours, or most FTers here. I have never once been treated like garbage by any TSA. Then again, I don't cop an attitude.

OK, I'm going to cut you some slack because you are a foreigner and in this discussion, a "kettle". The TSA has nothing to do with letting people into the US. That is a CBP function. Oops.

As for US immigration policies, once upon a time your characterization was true. And once upon a time, the US was not a socialist, entitlement country with an embarrassing government. IMO, considering the current direction of this (once great) country, not sure why anyone would want to come here anyway, unless they were looking for a handout, apparently like BubbaLoop.

saulblum

Passengers who are sitting in first class have either paid for the privilege from a private company (the airline) or are being rewarded by a private company (the airline) for previous loyalty and spending.

Passengers receiving a quicker and less burdensome screening are being told by a government agency that they are more trustworthy because of the amount of money they have spent with a private company.

Huge difference.

The passenger who flies coach three times a year is paying the same 9/11 security fee in his fare as the passenger who pays $1,000 for his first-class transcontinental flight once a month.

Why should the latter be assumed to be less of a risk than the former? Where is the data that shows that the former is more likely to be hiding a bomb in his shoes than the latter? I mean, PreCheck is "risk-based security," so surely there has to be data showing that 100,000-mile-per-year road warriors are less of a risk than the woman who flies twice a year at the holidays to visit her parents and has been doing so for the past ten years.

Right?

Should drivers who buy a new luxury sports car every year be entitled to a higher speed limit, with their own special lanes? Should road warriors who drive 100,000 miles a year be entitled to their own special fast lane?