COU

I was Precheck through AA status for a couple years. With that being phased out, I signed up for Global Entry and as part of that process re-enrolled in TSA Precheck. I am getting PRECHECK on my boarding passes only about 50% of the time. Previously, I would get PRECHECK almost every time. I see infrequent travelers getting PRECHECK. I don't begrudge them the PRECHECK, but I did submit to specific ID scrutiny and fingerprinting and log more than 100 flights per year. Has something else changed in the program?

CJKatl

I thought under 12 automatically gets to go through the Pre-Check line. My nephew has been able to go through with me twice, but I don't remember if it was on his BP or he was just able to go through because of his age.

Carl Johnson

But until then (and even after it happens) they should run the lanes at capacity, and managed inclusion is a movement in that direction. It's still faster because the screening process itself is faster. There shouldn't be any special lane for Übermenschen, and "Untermenschen" do not "clog" the lanes. They have just as much right to be there as I do, and my observation has been that they go through the process the same as the so-called "Übermenschen" and - mirable dictu! manage to figure out how to keep their shoes on.

The myth about clueless n00bs in the Übermenschen lanes is something made up by people who must have very little going on in their lives if all they have to make them feel special is a special dedicated TSA lane.

Carl Johnson

No it shouldn't.

Even if true:

So?

Carl Johnson

First:

No they don't

Second:

Arrests of TSA clerks don't count.

Beckles

I would make sure you have your Trusted Traveler number entered correctly, 50% for someone with GE is awfully low, unless you're not really very Trusted.

KDCAflyer

I've never been denied PreCheck before, and it has always been printed on my BP. You might want to contact TSA or CBP and try to figure out what the deal is.

In regards to the the rest of the topic, only those with a trusted traveler number should be allowed to use PreCheck. We paid for the benefit, went through extensive background checks, and took time out of our busy schedules to interview with a CBP or TSA officer. The TSA should be completely reformed and a risk-based screening system should be adopted for all travelers, but until that happens, stop reducing the utility of PreCheck by allowing every kettle with a little kid, or old person filled with metal to go through.

I'm to the point that if I see a clueless person slowing down the line, I just cut in front of them. No matter how many signs and yelling officers the TSA has, infrequent travelers are still going to remove their shoes, belts, and computers.

Rant over.

chollie

(bolding mine)

That 'clueless person' is probably wearing a blue uniform.

Here's something that happened to me at SEA. You tell me who was responsible for slowing things down.

I have some non-visible limitations. I always remove my shoes before I get in line for the TDC. No one explained what was going on (normal procedure), but apparently I was chosen to get 'free Pre' - except no one told me. I just went where I was directed.

I've loaded my things on the belt, walking to the WTMD and...the belt stops, belt monitor points to the bin with shoes and asks whose they are.

She keeps the belt stopped, lectures me that in this line light footwear is permitted, and then makes everyone wait while I struggle to get my shoes back on.

Now I am going to continue taking my shoes off before I reach the TDC, regardless of which lane I am directed to. If my shoes alarm the WTMD, some checkpoints will require a resolution NoS scan. I am physically incapable of assuming and holding the position for the scan, so it means that my bags float around out of my sight while I wait for a grope.

This may not happen at all airports, but as long as it is SOP at any of them, I won't take a chance. I will take my shoes and outwear off before the TDC and reassemble myself in a space out of the way of other travellers leaving the checkpoint.

I like predictable, efficient routines. I have enough on my mind when I go to the airport, even when it's not for a trip to a loved one's hospital bed. I don't like having to fuss around trying to decide what is or is not allowed at a particular checkpoint on a particular day.

Note: I have been through checkpoints where a pro-active TSO was walking along and explaining to pax who didn't know what Pre was how to prepare. In a normal tone of voice! Stop barking and talk to people and they'll be more prepared.

Of course, that required a TSO to put down his/her cellphone and start engaging with pax instead of fellow TSOs and/or his/her cellphone.

Signs? Some are woefully outdated; others are worded by HQ but don't reflect 'they way we do it here'.

CJKatl

Good for you if you have never experienced this, but just yesterday, I wasted a good fifteen minutes because of the clueless folk in line.

There was an elderly woman who reminded me of the character Gilda Radner used to play who was the totally unaware child. This woman stood in front of the scanner emptying her suitcase because she did not want her meds to go through the scanner. The line shut down while all the agents dealt with her. Once they got her reloaded, she paced back and forth in front of the metal detector seemingly clueless. The man behind her thought that meds had to be taken out of bags because of what happened with her, so he did the bag unload thing, too, shutting down the line again. Meantime, the woman's bag had liquids over 3 oz and had to be rerun, slowing us down even more.

People like me can be through the line in seconds. We are prepared to be at the airport, having no coins in pockets, water in bags, etc. I show my ID, plop my bags on the belt, walk through, grab my bags and go. People like this should be given their own line, both to keep things moving and so as to not waste our time.

Carl Johnson

Your experience sounds like a one-off, not anything to do with letting Untermenschen into the Übermenschen lane. In any large gathering, there will be people who do things at varying rates of speed. What the Übermenschen lanes are supposed to do is provide a less intrusive experience to low-risk travelers, and that lady was a low-risk traveler because everybody is a low-risk traveler.

Jane42

I am not enrolled in TSA precheck. I only travel a few times a year.

The first time I was sent through, I was one of the clueless ones. I didn't even realize, when I was waved towards a different line, that it WAS precheck! Luckily, I travel light, and as soon as I started to remove my shoes, I heard the precheck rules being yelled out. YIKES! Anyway, it went smoothly from there, but I can understand the frustration of travelers that have had screenings, etc done for this privilege to resent those who have not clogging up the line.

The last few years that I have traveled, I have received precheck - either on my boarding pass or at the last minute. This past October, I was flying with liquid medicine over the 3 oz limit. I notified them as soon as I entered the line and all three flights I was sent to the precheck and told not to worry about taking the meds out of my bag. Also, the only times I was sent through precheck without it on my boarding pass was if that line was much shorter than the regular line, so it appeared that they were trying to keep things moving along.

chollie

Apparently your checkpoint was staffed by TSOs who were even more 'clueless' than the elderly lady and the gentleman behind her.

Intelligent and alert TSOs would have recognized the situation and would have stepped up to assist - in an 'inside' voice!

mikeef

No resentment here. No reason you should be cognitive of all the rules and frankly, it would take longer to read all the signs than just take your shoes off. Everyone should be "pre-check" until proven otherwise.

I do, however, resent the people shouting instructions in my ear and who have decided to prioritize expediency at the checkpoint over the safety (This latter point, of course, assumes that the people in pre-check are "safer" than the others, which we all know isn't true. But we're playing by their rules.). I also resent the fact that we are treated like criminals at the airport and subject to the whims of untrained people with a plastic badge.

No resentment here, though.

Mike

xSTRIKEx6864

There are times at BOS and JFK where they send people through the expedited screening at random because there is no wait there, but there is a wait at the regular line. It's not delaying any people who paid for Precheck or Global Entry.

chrisl137

I already had to have more of a background check from the USG as a gov't contractor than you get for pre (and probably more than most TSA employees get), why should I have to pay extra and go through a bunch of hassle to get precheck?

But I agree with many of the other posters here, that what's now called "pre" should be the norm (without the background check). There's no evidence that the imaging systems are more effective (and some evidence that they're less effective) than magnetometers. The shoe and liquid things are just silly and also add nothing to security- they're overreactions to specific incidents that were of arguable risk in the first place.