Pesky says PreCheck enrollment is too low:

It is too low because they continue downgrading the GE experience, don't have Pre Check open all the time and continue to stonewall on many international carriers. Also, how the hell doesn't TBIT at LAX not have a Pre Check lane with so many international carriers having Pre Check now?

Agreed.

Tie pre-check and GE to the person, not the airline. Then, regardless of airline, pre-check gets zero risk passengers through security quickly.

Or conversely, open PC/GE to all airlines and force non-participating airlines to pay additional security fees.

No more Precheck 'lite' or cheating people who have paid for Precheck by pretending that waiting in long regular lines but being allowed to keep shoes on is not what people paid for.

At the very least, when there's no Precheck lane, Precheck pax should get front-of-line privileges and the full Pre experience.

If there are so many Precheck people in the regular line that it is a burden for TSOs to guide them through a full Precheck experience in the regular line, then there are clearly enough Precheck people to open a lane.

I don't really care how inconvenient it is for TSA. They sold a product and now they have an obligation to deliver. They regularly choose not to provide the service they sell.

100% agree: Precheck is about the pax, not the airline. Precheck pax get the background checks and the fingerprinting. What kind of security system says a 'trusted traveler' is only trusted if he/she flies certain airlines? "Trusted" is supposed to give me expedited access to the sterile area - while still screening me to the same standards as non-Precheck pax. It makes no difference what carrier I board once I am in the sterile area.

If the airline is untrustworthy, how does it become more trustworthy because Precheck pax are forced to undergo a more invasive form of screening? Particularly when TSA assures us that the physical screening is just as thorough for Precheck pax and their belongings as it is for non-Precheck pax.

99.9% of all passengers are as close to zero risk as you can get. However, just because one has gone through a background check does not mean one is zero risk and TSA admits that by their disclaimer that one is not guaranteed Pre on every single eligible flight.

Yes, Pre should be tied to the person, not the carrier. This is particularly true given that the TSA insists on doing ID/BP checks.

As for forcing non-participating airlines, that is pretty unfair to those carriers. Participation is largely TSA-driven, not airline driven.

All of these points are excellent. I get the use of "expedite" in small airports where there is only one checkpoint or the like, but there is zero reason for airports like LAX to see Pre Check lines close. Ever.

Cop out apologism.

Wrong, it's a fact.

My take on it is that a large number of people flying are not frequent flyers. They fly a few trips each year and that is it. Why would they take the time to apply for Pre, go to some inconvenient location for an interview, and spend dollars on something of limited value?

Currently in a city the size of Dallas Texas there are only 4 Pre Check application centers. Two are located at DFW, one near DAL, and one in North Dallas. One at DFW requires being a ticketed passenger. None are on the east side of the city.

So not only does TSA contract out the process but there is no effort to required making access to the IdentoGO centers convenient to most people living in this area. From my home the closest is about 40 miles through some of the nastiest traffic this side of Boston.

My solution is, and has been, that Pre type screening should be the default screening for everyone increasing the level as needed to resolve alarms. Of course that would require fewer TSA workers at the checkpoints, speed screening throughput, and make the public more accepting of TSA so none of this will ever happen.

I think my family's travel patterns are typical for a family whose members don't travel for work. Some of us travel a bit, others are more 'typical' in their travel patterns.

Case in point. Two elderly family members haven't flown in four years. They will never fly again except in an emergency (someone dying in a hospital) because of bad TSA experiences. If they did have to fly tomorrow, they wouldn't have a clue what to expect at the checkpoint. One of them has nitro pill and takes them regularly, so being forced to fly without knowing if their meds will be confiscated or not is a complete show-stopper.

I fly more frequently, but I never know what to expect at the checkpoint, either.

The majority of the family flies once a year or less, on average, so generally they never get the same experience twice. More than one lives in a small city where no form of Precheck is offered at the airport. That means that the effective price of Precheck for them automatically doubles, because they will never get expedited processing from their home airport (shoe removal is a problem for one).

So for the average traveler in my extended family who travels 2-3 times in a 5-year time frame, $85 per person ($340 for a family of four) for a CHANCE at Precheck isn't worth it. Because it is only a CHANCE, they still have to arrive at the airport a full two hours early. Precheck offers no benefits to breast-feeding mothers or wheelchair-bound pax.

When I buy a lottery ticket, I know I am only getting a CHANCE at winning - and I'm only willing to pay $1 for that chance. Why would I shell out $85 for nothing more than a CHANCE at an expedited screening that depends on the whim of the checkpoint screeners?

My point is allow all the airlines to participate in PC/GE. If you trust them to fly into the USA, then develop a plan to get them in the program. Or, as I suggested, make is passenger-specific, not airline specific.

Let's be fair here... the reason they close the lines has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with resources or perceived lack of resources. But, if you want more people to sign up, you have to make it 100% available in all airports and all airlines. And that is easy enough to do if TSA was properly motivated.

Global Entry has nothing to do with the operating airline. The GE kiosks scan the passports, compare passengers' details with the flight manifests which all airlines must submit on flights arriving at the US from abroad and verify identities by fingerprints.

As has been extensively discussed in the TSA Pre✓® ONLY with Participating Airlines [merged threads], most airlines are welcome to participate in the PreCheck program. In order to do so, they must first have the technical capability to submit the requisite passenger information, i.e., KTN, to the TSA and receive a response which is then encoded in the boarding pass with a digital signature.

Here's what I don't understand.

TSA gets ticket information from all airlines. This information is enough for TSA to grant one admission to Precheck to many pax who do not have a KTN. TSA may use the KTN for additional checking, but TSA does not require it to grant one-time Precheck.

TSA is choosing to make it about the airlines as well as the pax.

All airlines are not welcome to participate in PreCheck. To be welcomed into PreCheck, the airline and the airline's home country must first meet some USG conditions before the airline is welcome to participate in PreCheck.

I understand that, but I agree with the earlier poster. This should be about pax, not airlines.

Once TSA clears me into the sterile area, it shouldn't matter to them whose plane I board.

The system may have been designed this way, but it should not have been. It's probably just another way of DHS trying to get access to records and information that a foreign airline might not see a need to share.

If TSA has an issue with an airline/crew, then it should work to block that airline from flying in/over the US. But it shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not I am trusted enough to get 'expedited' but thorough screening of my person and my baggage.

If the system were designed otherwise, the TSA would need to have more robust and expensive systems in place at airports than being able to outsource the determination link to be done via airline and have the TSA rely upon ID matching name on boarding pass.

Also, beware of getting your wish, for it may come with what some may consider unwelcome developments. For example, if the determination for inclusion or not were made only at the TDC, if the TSA link to the TDC goes down, the outage may be worse than with a distributed system. I'm not praising the TSA's process planning and implementation, but I can see how the TSA could make things worse for those who already get PreCheck when flying PC-eligible carriers out of PC-enabled screening checkpoints/terminals/airports.