http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...ning/80815518/

Passed in the House, waiting on the Senate.

Another outstanding example of "if it ain't broke, let's fix it" by our elected "representatives."

Considering how infrequently available many PreCheck lanes are, I find it interesting that one goal is to reduce the number of FF people in the line cause they're too many people in the line.

Maybe I'll be able to retire before this gets going.

All of these bills are a knee - jerk reaction to when the TSA accidentally let one person use PreCheck who happened to have served time on a domestic terrorism charge.

http://thehill.com/policy/transporta...ited-screening

Since then the pundits on the hill have been trying to shut down PreCheck except those who pay for it. And many people who pay for it are asking for the same. There are several existing threads on this subject.

TSA can't exclude people who haven't paid for it or they will never get all the enrollees they claim they need to make the program work "efficiently". The number they say they need is 25 million - they claim to have 5 million now.

I know they sucked me in through getting PreCheck pretty much 100% of the time as an advanced status flyer on AA. Two years ago the company I was working for got a contract for work mostly in the south and all of a sudden I was flying DL with no status and very infrequent PreCheck. Didn't take but a couple of trips and I was looking for PreCheck enrollment and settled on getting it through GE.

Once the desired level of "efficiency" is reached, they can finish the raising of screening level in PreCheck to the current level in the non-PreCheck lines, and then make the screening level in the regular lines much, much more intrusive for those who won't/can't get PreCheck approval.

Good.

I'm not sure the on-going 'consistent inconsistency' in the availability and nature of the experience is a great incentive for the average infrequent leisure traveler.

If you are a once-a-year leisure traveler and your home airport is, for example, PHX, you are already facing the strong likelihood that for 50% of your checkpoint experiences (leaving home), Pre will either not be available or will only be available in a very limited form (the same leeway given to <12's and >75's). That effectively doubles the cost of the program before you even start thinking about Pre availability on return trips.

If you regularly return from abroad and have to connect, you will likely enjoy a Pre-like experience on your foreign departure, but have to go through a non-Pre experience when you connect here in the US - further reducing the value of Pre.

The bill is not reference by number nor is it linked. What bill is it and what proof is there of the "tighten enrollment" for precheck?

Several bills have been proposed to rein in "TSA ... handing out PreCheck status like Halloween candy" (Assistant Federal Security Director Rebecca Reoring). The DHS Inspector has requested that Congress pass these types of bills. These bills would end "Managed Inclusion" programs.

Yet despite the concerns of many, TSA continues to hand the candy. TSA continues managed inclusion, and shows no signs of ended it.

Dont hold your breath.

Much ado about nothing.

TSA announced a long time ago that it was phasing out the freebie pilot program and that program is now gone. We're now on our third iteration of Managed Inclusion and that isn't even based on FF status.

Thousands of bills are filed every year as knee jerk reactions to some perceived issue. Pre-Check isn't going anywhere, Congress isn't requiring tougher standards and the fee isn't being raised.

The effort out there, quite successful as I hear, is to encourage more major employers to pick up the tab for their employees who travel a good deal. TSA won't meet its goal $85 at a time.

No airline status, not a paid Pre Check but had Pre Check on a flight yesterday. The free program, pilot or not, has not ended.

HQ's announcements are for the general public (including non-flyers).

FSDs and lower levels decide whether or not to actually offer Pre, not HQ.

I've often wondered exactly how Pre Check is awarded on a non-paid basis. When the airline submits a name to TSA does it sometimes come back with an Ok flag allowing the airline to give Pre if they want, by quota, or a regular but non-status customer? I know there is a mechanism and would be interested in how it works.

I wouldn't be surprised if being a vet improves one's chances for a thumb's up from TSA.