MSP Airport is starting to replace the terrazzo floors in the TSA South Checkpoint area. This work is happening in sections and will continue through the end of the year.

Beginning on Monday, August 19, there will be changes to who can use each checkpoint:

• NORTH CHECKPOINT: All standard travelers
• SOUTH CHECKPOINT: All travelers with TSA Pre-Check and Clear Pre-Check, airport employees, and volunteers

It is my understanding that standard passengers who have CLEAR and/or SkyPriority (plus other airline elite status and First or Business tickets) but NOT PreCheck will have to use the North Checkpoint. Basically it’s South for PreCheck and airport staff, North for everyone else.

Will CLEAR still operate at North for those without PreCheck? Or will they be stuck waiting in the regular lines?

I’ve heard that there will be a CLEAR line at North. I’ll confirm Monday, when I plan to do a volunteer shift. But I’d say that anyone flying out on Monday morning should allow extra time just because there will be a certain amount of confusion and angry passengers.

Correct.

Right. You may use the North Checkpoint but you will relinquish PreCheck. People traveling together, only some of whom have PreCheck, might make that choice in order to stay together, especially now that they would have to use different checkpoints.

Please verify this as apparently local TV news has said that there will be no CLEAR at North, meaning that CLEAR is useless for someone without PreCheck.

Also, what's happening to the elite lanes? Will there still be the nonPreCheck SkyPriority at South and the all airlines elite lane at North?

I've given up on trying to use the "parking garage" (or light rail) checkpoint as it always seems to be closed, even when it's supposed to be open. I've also had bad experiences there with lots of airline and airport employees cutting the line. No PreCheck either and obviously no CLEAR.

It wouldn't surprise me if the hotel checkpoint has the same problems, plus there's absolutely no apparent way to use it with checked bags (unlike the parking/light rail one, where you can check a bag, see bad lines, and then walk or take the little underground train to the checkpoint). BTW, the hotel to terminal one shuttle is only a couple times an hour and is *NOT* reliable.

IIRC the hotel (non valet) parking is considerably more expensive than the airport general ramp. However, if you can find the hotel (really not so obvious), it could be a good dropoff place in early morning.

There will not be a nonPreCheck SkyPriority line at South. Passengers must have PreCheck to use South.

This is interesting because it contradicts information I just got from someone working at the airport who said he had new info from this morning. His info said that there was no CLEAR at North. The info in the link above makes more sense. I don’t see why they wouldn’t still have a CLEAR line for nonPreCheck pax.

I will be doing a volunteer shift at MSP on Sunday and again on Monday and will report back with any new details I can glean. There will be extra airport staff and volunteers working on Monday morning.

I personally would NOT count on local news getting it right.

Well, I just saw a news report and written at the bottom was the announcement that ONLY ONE CHECKPOINT would be open at MSP starting Monday. That doesn't seem accurate to me.

This morning's local TV news is saying that anyone who has "signed up for PreCheck" should go South and all others North. Never mind that it's not at all the same as getting PreCheck on the boarding pass for a particular flight. Yikes.

They're apparently telling people that no extra time will be needed as the max wait will remain at thirty minutes. I'll believe that after we have some reports from the wild, but in the meantime I know of some bridges that need new owners. Not that long ago it took me an hour to get through at MSP in South PreCheck.

Also on Monday (tomorrow) morning at MSP (OT but I don't want to start a new threat): A new Prince store in T1 is having its grand opening. Prince souvenirs and tickets for the Paisley Park tours will be sold here.

IMPORTANT IMFORMATION: I just got an email from CLEAR clarifying that CLEAR will be available at both North and South. It also suggests that the elite lane at North will remain open, but unfortunately fails to mention anything about whether capacity there will be expanded since all of the nonPreCheck SkyPriority passengers will be forced now to use North rather than South.

I can confirm that there will be an SkyPriority elite line at North for elites without PreCheck. I was not able to ascertain whether there would be a SkyPriority PreCheck line at South, but all indications are a no on that.

The South all-PreCheck checkpoint will be open from 3:45AM to 7:30PM.

I was at the airport from 3:30-8pm today, in ticketing for part of that time. The Delta bag drop line for those with boarding passes was consistently long in the 5:30-7pm time span. The line for checkin and self tag/bag drop was also long but often shorter than the bag drop line. The security lines weren’t bad.

Currently there's no SkyPriority PreCheck line at South: you can pick either PreCheck or SkyPriority but not both, and this has been the case since the North and South checkpoints were created with the SkyPriority check in area moving from the center of the terminal to the far South end, near the South checkpoint. Before that, IIRC checkpoint #4 just to the left of the SkyPriority counters was the wonderful one that at one time was exclusively for people with *both* SkyPriority and PreCheck, and then it was reconfigured to include PreCheck without SkyPriority too and was a mess forever after.

Right. I have wondered if these temporary (but several months) changes might include a return to a combine PreCheck and SkyPriority line, but it looks unlikely.

Coincidentally, today is the day for the monthly MAC commission meeting. I’m sure the lines will be discussed, and we’ll hear if there’s anything that can be done.

Two hour waits are being reported, with some advice to arrive at the airport four hours early. The airport spokesperson came on TV to say that waits are down to "about" thirty minutes with people not needing to arrive at MSP T1 earlier than usual, two hours in advance of a domestic flight (but if you travel regularly, who can afford the time to do that?). Andrew Zimmern described it as a "Lord of the Flies" experience.

BTW I've never been able to make any sense of the standard advice for USA airports to arrive two hours early for a domestic flight and three hours for international. The domestic and international check in and security lines are exactly the same, and at most the check in (if not OLCI) and bag drop deadlines are thirty minutes earlier for international. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to check the passport unless there's some major problem (and if you've forgotten the passport or it's expired, an hour certainly isn't enough time to fix that). The requirement (which varies slightly across carriers) to be at the gate thirty minutes in advance for international and fifteen for domestic is taken care of by the difference in check in and bag drop deadlines. So any reasonable calculation would suggest arriving thirty-five to forty minutes earlier for international.

https://twitter.com/nickmundt/status/1163410178840125446

Someone on TV news is saying that even with both CLEAR and PreCheck, an additional two hours should be allowed for TSA security at MSP. I don't understand how/why CLEAR doesn't seem to be working unless hundreds of people have decided to sign up for CLEAR this morning as a way to pay them $179 or whatever to avoid missing a flight, but I wouldn't think that so many people would even be aware of CLEAR.