nrr

I fly out of JFK T8 (AA) a lot, I'm in PreCheck from my GE status. Very often, I encounter "large" families (probably, husband, wife, lots of children, aunts uncles) on the P-C line. They have no idea of how to pass through security: shoes on/off, what goes on the belt (or in carry-on) etc. But the worst part is they have LOTS of carry-ons clogging up the conveyor belt so that the clearance process comes to a halt for several minutes.

Boggie Dog

Didn't know the amount of carry on was a Pre Check consideration.

chollie

TSA is 'word-smithing' again - changing the Pre-Check displays.

The newer, abbreviated version just says you may get to keep your shoes/belts/jackets on - no mention of LGAs or laptops.

Perhaps this is to accommodate FSDs who don't want to support the program. There will be one line, one TDC, and the only difference for Pre pax will be that they don't have to disrobe.

This is in line with PHX's practices this year. Real efficient - not. Pre pax join regular pax in one line, but after everything is loaded onto the belt, pax have to rescan their BP/show ID to see if they are eligible to keep shoes/belts/jackets on.

If a Pre pax forgot to keep his BP/ID out, he'll be forced to do a last-minute disrobing before submitting to the scan. On the other side, Pre folks (particularly women without pockets) slow the line down because they want to re-secure their BP/ID before grabbing their things off the belt and exiting.

Bait-and-switch. Illegal in the private sector, completely legal with TSA.

Brighton Line

LGA Terminal A (Marine Air Terminal) that just has Delta flights to/from IAD and ORD has two xray machines, one AIT and one metal detector.
No pre-check of documents you walk right up to the TSO for document check. While there is one sign for Pre with a single rope line division, I've never seen it used and there is only one document checker.

Every time thru there I'm told that there is no TSA Pre "today" but I can keep my shoes one but the xray is not "setup" for me to have my laptop in the bag.

Is that true?
The xray has a different setting for TSA Pre?

It's 50/50 on the use of the AIT, I've seen them switch to it when there is a line but half the time it's not used for everyone.

Boggie Dog

Is TSA suggesting that the x-ray used for regular lines is less capable of peering inside of baggage than the one used on the Pre lines?

If that is true then why wouldn't TSA use the more capable x-ray on non-Pre lines since that is where the greatest threat lies?

I think you have seen an example of TSA dishonesty in work.

TWA884

If both PreCheck and non-PreCheck passengers use the same line, how is the x-ray operator supposed to tell which bags belong to PreCheck passengers and which ones don't?

televisor

It's more likely that they need to reconfigure the software side of things. I think they're running automatic image processing to find "suspicious" items, and you'd presumably need to turn down the sensitivity for Pre since laptops are allowed there and/or reconfigure it to not flag laptops combined with other items.

And in that case, you really do want a different configuration for each line, and ideally you'd make it hard to switch to avoid accidentally running the pre-configuration on a non-pre line.

petaluma1

Complaints about PreCheck abound at both @TSA and @AskTSA and seem to be growing.

GUWonder

I booked a bunch of mileage award ticket trips for a bunch of visiting foreign friends this month, and all of them got PreCheck on their boarding passes when we checked them in. I am talking about foreign nationals adults, aged 18-45 years old, visiting the US under the US VWP; and there was nothing entered into the KTN field on the PNRs and no history of elite status in any airline loyalty program.

petaluma1

Direct from TSA's PreCheck requirements website:

Did they get Pre due to your booking via mileage awards?

televisor

Those requirements only concern joining the Pre program by registering for it with TSA, but not the use of Pre itself which can be granted on a flight by flight basis. (Further: in addition to such random selections, GE membership grants precheck privileges without Pre membership to many non-US persons.)

GUWonder

About the visiting foreign friends of whom I was talking as getting Pre on boarding passes this month, they aren't GE members, don't have KTNs and are not members of any trusted traveler program.

It's almost certain that there is nothing random about it when across so many domestic flights with each flight having each passenger on separately-ticketed itineraries that they all got PreCheck when we checked them in online.

If this happens for the third month in a row this year .....

I don't know for sure why they all got it. Some of their names are so unique that I can pretty much rule out identity confusion as a factor.

petaluma1

So TSA is giving away Pre to those who don't qualify to apply? I thought the purpose of giving away Pre was to entice people to enroll.

GUWonder

Yes. Giving it to people who can't enroll seems to be something they are doing too, although I'm not sure how that entices or turns off people from enrolling.

TheLifeOfA_NKCM

Because they'll get it often. Before enrolling, I kept a tally of how many times I got precheck for free last year.. 60% of the time, I'd get it. Which made it all the more harder to justify actually paying for it when I'd often get it for free.