COSPILOT

From a man power standpoint, in other words the quantity of agents, I suspect you are correct. What I would be curious of is the quantity of people served by each line. Given the reduced screening, my assumption is that the PreCheck lane serves more pre hour. PreCheck, Global Entry, or Nexus, all are incredibly cheap if you ask me. Worst case is GE, which is $100 for 5 years. If $20/year is over the top for some, so be it. I also pay for CLEAR, but that is what 100 plus flights/year do to a person, as my time is valuable and I prefer to spend as little as possible in the airport or more importantly standing in line for security. Hard to get any work done in line.

If I were traveling just a few times per year probably no need for any of the above.

petaluma1

You're correct. PreCheck was not conceived as a security protocol, but rather as a way to save money by not having to hire more screeners.

Recall the huge lines in the Spring of 2016. Those happened because TSA either let screeners go or did not hire replacements for screeners who left the agency. TSA was certain that tens of thousands of travelers would sign up for Pre; that never materialized and TSA was caught short.

Boggie Dog

You stated that you are GE so you really didn't pay for Pre Check.

Here is an issue for me. I live outside of the Dallas area. If I enrolled in Pre I would need to attend an interview for the background check. Now you might think a city the size of Dallas would have multiple places for those interviews but that just isn't the case. In all of Dallas proper there is ONE location for the interview. It's almost outside of the Dallas city limits and fairly close to the airport. From my house it's a 40 mile trip, one way, through the busiest part of Dallas. The next closer location is at DFW airport. There are some others scattered around the area but none are convenient for such a large area.

TSA Pre Check Enrollment Centers

The link shows the TSA's Pre Check enrollment centers from Oklahoma City, OK to Austin TX. Pretty pathetic in my opinion. I would say that if TSA wants a better enrollment rate they will need to find a better way to get it done than this.

COSPILOT

I did pay for PreCheck, as its part of Global Entry. The only reason not to get GE is if you don't have a passport. It's only $15 dollars more, but if you don't have a passport but travel enough to see the benefits, it's worth it. Only you can decide what your time is worth, but I fly enough I'd travel to to another city without blinking for the interview. Short of interview locations opening up in your local grocery store, what are you hoping for, them coming to your door, subsidized by the taxpayer?

If you don't fly enough, don't do it. If a 40 mile trip into Dallas is too much to ask, don't do it. That is your choice. Calling it Extortion Check when you have no clue what you are talking about is laughable at best. If you want to argue that TSA sucks at marketing, I will agree with that though.

ashill

Empirically, it clearly is over the top because people aren't paying for it. (Note: I have paid for it; in fact, both Global Entry and NEXUS were paid for me for sequencing reasons [the first paid for by my credit card company].) If TSA wants to save money by reducing staffing by having a less-ridiculously-onerous screening procedure, they need to get enough people into those lines to make it efficient. If not charging for the background checks is what they need to do and it still saves them money (which strikes me as plausible), then not charging for background checks makes financial sense.

That said, even if it were free, I don't know if people would submit to the background checks and the hassle of an interview anyway. My partner refuses out of principle.

Boggie Dog

If I'm not mistaken GE was around well before TSA's Pre Check. Don't know when you first signed up for GE but if it was before Pre Check were you paying for Pre then? I know that Pre was extended to GE members but I don't recall the price changing prior to GE including Pre.

TSA came up with Pre Check to lessen the complaints about the Whole Body Imaging systems before Congress mandated privacy filters. With Pre TSA could use the WTMD's again without losing additional public confidence like they did when they pulled the Explosive Trace Portals. If you recall the noise level about the full imaging Whole Body Imagers was getting pretty loud.

I admit I'm not in the airport every week and I also have a full time job like most people so taking a day of leave to go for a 10 minute interview is not real high on my priority list even though my credit card will reimburse me for Pre if I decide to go through the process. The point is if TSA wants to sell this product they need to do more to provide reasonable access to the product and that includes the enrollment process.

WillCAD

I don't have PreCheck, and I've never been one of the lucky few to be shunted into the PreCheck lane as part of a Managed Inclusion scheme. But I am fine with the idea of eliminating Managed Inclusion. PreCheck is a paid service, and it's not fair to devalue that service by dumping large numbers of people who haven't paid for it into the lanes.

On the other hand, I also see no reason whatsoever why people who have already been vetted by the federal or state government to the same or greater degree as PreCheck customers, shouldn't be given the same level of screening (Pre-equivalent screening as the default for all passengers is another issue). If you hold a security clearance, or you're a contractor holding a CAC card, or you're a federal law enforcement officer, or hold certain classes of SIDA credentials, then you've had a background check that was at least as in-depth as those given to PreCheck applicants.

Military? Retired military? No. Not unless they've been vetted to the same or greater degree as the PreCheck background check.

TSA screwed up PreCheck from the get-go (as they do with almost everything they've ever done from the moment the agency was created). Instead of making it a paid perk first, it should have been a separate lane for any of the vetted personnel I mentioned above, and only later ADDED the ability for frequent fliers and trusted travelers to enter that lane after paying for the background check. Simple marketing would have accomplished their goals - to reduce the number of people in the regular lanes and to invade the privacy of millions of people - without any of the pushback they've been getting.

beachmouse

In my part of the swamp, there's a big difference between Pre enrollment availability- there's some sort of government contract that lets the same contractor that screens truckers and merchant marines that handle hazmat cargo do Pre enrollments and therefore you can sign up at the small international port an hour down the beach on a walk-in basis- and Global Entry, which is a 4+ hour drive to the nearest enrollment center, which is only open something like four days a week and commonly is booked out 4-5 months in advance for appointments.

Pre also does 'pop up' enrollment centers at local airports at least once a year. Global Entry enrollment, that's a big city thing, and more often than not, I'm passing through airline hubs after the GE enrollment center would be closed for the day.

ashill

Military and DoD civilians get PreCheck automatically. (DoD civilians have to opt in.) Members of the US Armed Forces enter the DOD ID number as their trusted traveler number.

Boggie Dog

So a member of the military or DoD civilan should get Pre even if they have not had a background check? Not everyone in the military has or needs a security clearance.

ashill

All I know is what's in that TSA FAQ. But many, many people get PreCheck every day without a background check. It sure as heck doesn't make me afraid to fly. In fact, as I say, I think everyone or nearly everyone should get PreCheck style screening.

COSPILOT

Boggie Dog

I believe I have a good understanding of TSA Pre, we just view it differently.

My last trip through DFW the Pre line extended well out of the checkpoint and I walked right up to the document checker and was finished while Pre Check people were standing still. So much for the speed of Pre.

ethernal

Wow. Full Orwellian doublethink insanity has been reached. The government is doing you a favor? By letting you skip a completely useless security screening... that they mandate you to go through to begin with... after going through an equally useless "vetting" process? I salute your ability to handle this level of cognitive dissonance.

COSPILOT