petaluma1

He hit the nail on the head.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/9...eck-best-money

Boggie Dog

I don't fully agree with the article but "arbitrary rules" is a key message and a red flag on how TSA operates. No one should have to buy access to more efficient travel security. Security the unwashed are subjected too has been proven to not be more effective security.

catocony

Excellent article, and from a comedian, which makes the 100% truth of it even better.

nachtnebel

Loved the line

travelingdrsuz

It literally costs $17 a year, which is $1.42 a day. How is that expensive to someone who can afford plane tickets? I mean, you're paying for a background check and some time. I am okay with that. I don't mind being PRE-checked so people know I am not a high-risk traveler and I can save time. Most people get approved, from what I understand. Perhaps my take is controversial, but for $17 a month, pretty much everyone can have it. Probably he gave up his privacy to Facebook and Instagram anyway. We have so little privacy. It's an illusion.

rawh

If you can afford to buy a ticket, you can afford pre-check.

KayVeeBee

Which is besides the point.

The TSA pre check program proves that the current level of security screening most people are subjected to is unnecessary. One more argument to go back to how it was before 9/11.

Boggie Dog

I'm no math whiz but think you should recheck your numbers. $85/5=$17 per year. $17/365=? Not going to do all the work here.

Let us assume that a family of 4 fly once a year to go visit family during the summer. That $85 just jumped up to $340. Not so cheap any longer, and is it really a good value if only used a few times over the life of the clearance? Especially seeing as how TSA can at any time, for no reason, decide someone isn't going to get Pre Check today?

Not everyone has extra cash lying around to use for travel. For many people buying a ticket to fly is a heavy burden on their budget. Granted these aren't frequent flyers so is Pre Check really marketed to them?

I don't think there should be different screening standards for travelers. Either the screening method in place is effective or it is not. A background check is only good on the day it was completed.

jfunk138

I've done travel with my whole family of four 2 times in the past 4 years. None of us are enrolled in pre-check. Of these 4 flight segments, twice we received Pre-Check through managed inclusion, 1 time we got dog screened (everyone gets pre-check), and only once did we go through "regular" screening (which since we had kids under 12 meant WTMD and not WBI). Using your numbers it would have been $340 for literally a single trip through a checkpoint.

tomj888

TSA precheck is a service that makes my travel life easier. There I said it. TSA precheck is also a service that varies from airport to airport. What's passable at LAX and seldom scrutinized is an egregious sin in SLC or DEN or ORD.
Next is the quality of TSA employee. Some airports have the TSA barker. You know the person yelling to remove all items from your pockets, yada yada. They are serious and look at you cross if you don't get the message. On top of that person is the one who just doesn't want to be there. They've been berated, harassed and generally don't care anymore. That person is super scary. Will he really look at the scanner when an idiot tries to take a gun thru????.
At the end of the day, its a system that has the right intents in mind, but like most government sponsored agencies, it seldom works well. And for me at the end of the day, if I can avoid taking off my shoes and take out my laptop and most of all avoid the huge lines, I'm glad I have it. In fact, I'm so glad that I re-upped with Clear, which now moves me to the front of the Precheck line. How cool is that and best of all it was free to re-enroll.

Freckles68

The last few times I've flown, I have been put through the unpacking/repacking, searching, shoes off, body scanner, everything in separate baskets routine, despite having Pre-check.

MSPeconomist

I think you mean $1.42 per MONTH, not per DAY.

BTW the linked article talked about paying $160 for two which is also wrong. TSA doesn't give a couple/family discount on PreCheck application fees.

jfunk138

I think there is a significant cost that is being left out of this equation: the cost of having whatever private data and biometrics TSA collects to give you Pre-Check on TSA's no doubt poorly secured computing infrastructure. With the level of incompetence the TSA has on display in public view, you have to imagine the level of incompetence behind closed doors is much greater. The Pre-Check database being breached is a question of WHEN, not IF. How much time and money will it cost you to fix your identity theft problem when the database is eventually breached? It's all fun and games until you look at the Equifax class action settlement. The majority of that money is set aside for people who incurred very large, verifiable losses. If you think TSA will accept responsibility like that, good luck.

flatlined

TSA Pre is the best $85 I've spent on air travel. If you measure the time saved using a TSA-Pre line versus standing in a regular security line, it clearly pays for itself many times over.

rickg523

I thought the article's point about precheck was spurious and a rather transparent extension of the "Harrison Bergeron" (cite - Kurt Vonnegut) theory of social equity in which those with advantages must be artificially handicapped to maintain an appearance of fairness.