Boggie Dog

You are absolutely correct, I got the wrong column. No Nexus enrollment centers in my state. Are they only in states that border Canada?

chollie

Interestingly enough, someone (not me) just asked about this on TSA's twitter.

TSA's response:

Randyk47

Yes. There's a number on the back of their Common Access Card (CAC) that they can use as their KTN. Can't remember when that went into effect for sure but it's been like that for two to three years maybe longer. It does not apply to retired DoD members.

wrp96

I have two numbers. I got Pre first (No GE location near me, not a lot of international flights at that time) and then last year when my travel profile changed I went ahead and got GE. Both KTNs are active.

FliesWay2Much

I think this humiliation of a disabled vet is what triggered the TSA to give ExtortionCheck to the active duty military (July 2013):

Of course, the TSA sees things differently when they finally rolled this out six months later:

I don't know when or why they extended this to civilians. Perhaps a general went through ExtortionCheck and his civilian exec went through the Cancer Box? Who knows...

Randyk47

I had retired from DoD.....actually the US Army as a civilian.....and had lost my DoD provided KTN. Decided I liked PreCheck but at the time the closest PreCheck enrollment office was 100 miles from my house. There was a GE enrollment office at the airport some 9 miles away so I figured it would cost me more in gas (it was like $3.60/gallon back then) than the $15 extra for GE so I enrolled in GE. Mrs K had PreCheck through DoD but not GE and the more she read the more she wanted GE for our then upcoming foreign travel. Six overseas trips and re-entries later and she is one happy camper we both have GE. It really was a toss up about whether she used the DoD KTN or the GE PassID for PreCheck purposes though at some level it made sense to keep GE and her KTN lined up. Really makes no difference but as I recall even the CBP recommended using the PassID though I don't remember what or if he had a reason. Funny thing is she just last week discovered she hadn't changed to the PassID number in her Delta profile but had flown with them several times and had always gotten PreCheck.

As for having more than one qualifying KTN/PassID number it's actually the way the government has it set up. For example, a TSA issued KTN can only be used for PreCheck and is not shared with/exported to Global Entry yet a Global Entry PassID is not only your GE number but can and is shared with TSA for PreCheck. Make sense? Not to me but that is the way it works. Obviously there's no reason to do it but in my wife's case she could have actually had three qualifying numbers at one time. She could have enrolled in TSA PreCheck, then gotten a separate KTN through DoD, and finally enrolled in GE for her third qualifying number. Apparently there's nothing to prohibit and control this. Oh well......it is the Federal government.

Rare

Actually, NEXUS does allow one to use SENTRI lanes at land crossings from Mexico into the US (as does Global Entry). If crossing in a vehicle, the vehicle must be registered to your account in GOES and approved, but vehicle inspection is no longer required. NEXUS members can use the SENTRI pedestrian lanes where available without any additional registration (potentially saving hours of time!).

I don't think there is an equivalent expedited entry into Mexico at land crossings. However, Mexico has a trusted traveler program called Viajero Confiable that works similarly to GE in a few of their airports; US and Canadian citizens who are members of NEXUS or GE are eligible to apply.

NEXUS is indeed the most comprehensive of the trusted traveler programs even though it costs the least.

WilcoRoger

I'm quite confused - there are FOUR different trusted traveller programs? Most other countries do without any.

KDS

Perhaps not so surprising. This is the US government of which we speak -- which always has multiple programs to "control" any one thing. When one doesn't work, create another and let both fail; rinse, repeat, etc. This is how we end up with so many welfare programs that all fail.

gobluetwo

The reason there are so many is because they serve different purposes and partnerships with other countries.

PreCheck is the lame TSA-sponsored program for domestic security expedited screening privileges.

Global Entry is the CBP program for expedited immigration/customs for re-entry to the United States.

Nexus is the joint program for expedited immigrations/customs with Canada.

Sentri is the joint program with Mexico.

Also, it's the DHS which is pushing ALL of its programs, not TSA pushing PreCheck. The more they increase membership in all the programs, the more revenue they get.

As for GE not being "entitled" to PreCheck and "check the forums" for horror stories, most of the ones out there are people who misunderstand the program and think they can just show up to the PreCheck line, flash their GE ID, and get in without having entered their KTN number on their FF profile or their reservation. And yes, the blue moon no precheck thing is reported every now and again, but I'd say it's rare. YEs, there was a period of about 4 flights in a row I did not get PreCheck, but that was probably 3.5-4 years ago. I can't recall not having received PreCheck in the hundreds of domestic flights since.