Motion Passed: Create a Trusted Traveler forum
 

Moved by SkiAdcock and seconded by Cholula:

The TalkBoard recommends creation of a Trusted Traveler forum under the Travel Safety Security category.

Title: Trusted Traveler Programs
Forum description: Discussion of practical (not policy) issues directly related to programs such as Global Entry, Privium, PreCheck, SmartGate, and others

This vote will close on November 1, 2013, at 3:35pm or after all TalkBoard members have registered their vote, whichever comes first.

Per the TalkBoard Guidelines:

A motion shall pass if at least two-thirds of the yes or no votes cast by TalkBoard members are ‘yes’ and a majority of the total TalkBoard membership votes 'yes.'

The purpose of posting voting topics in the public TalkBoard Topics forum is to solicit member feedback on any motions that are up for a vote and to allow for comments after a vote is made. It is at the sole discretion of the individual TalkBoard members whether they choose to post in the public discussion thread, there being no requirement to do so.

So while there is already a thread and discussion on this general topic and it is safe to assume that TalkBoard members have reviewed that thread, this thread is about this specific motion.

Please feel free to post questions, comments or any other sort of feedback in this thread, or in the other discussion thread. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...-security.html

Very good idea. In fact, I just came from my Global Entry in-person interview, which consisted of getting fingerprinted, watching a short video and answering some questions. I would definitely be interested in hearing from other participants about their experiences with Global Entry at other airports and the TSA PreCheck program.

Great idea. With all the different programs like GE, Sentri, Nexus and others, as well as Clear and the "Pre Check" concept/program, I would think detailed insight in a designated forum might be better than individual thresds within airline forums.

Is this a new proposal?

I like the idea but how does it fit with the country forums? For example, there is a recent ongoing discussion on a new British scheme for frequent foreign visitors in the UK forum -- would it be moved or linked or what?

I like this idea...there are a lot of threads spread around (for example, the Nexus thread on the AC subforum) which would be easier to keep track of in a central location.

Is that the same one as was in the BA forum or a different one?

If anything, the country-specific "fast-track" type of screening/immigration programs had more concentrated activity in the airline forums than anywhere else -- at least for non-US programs.

One issue we currently have is that the various the trusted traveler programs are very fragmented - some items exist in destination fora, others in airline fora, and yet others are scattered here and there (TSS, etc.) Some observations from my perspective alone:

E.g. TSA Pre✓™ / PreCheck was originally tied to status in a few airlines; it's now expanding to the point it's going to be more like USCBP GOES / Global Entry. You fill out your application online and pay the $85 fee, they vet you, you show up at a center where you are interviewed and fingerprinted, etc.

Although some destination fora will indicate where the specific entry points are, and some may be airline specific because of terminal design and layout, some bits and pieces will always exist within destination fora (e.g. airport master threads) or airline fora.

As a potentially germane aside, my niece informed me that with her GOES / Global Entry card she is not only eligible for SENTRI ad NEXUS, but would also have received expedited entry into New Zealand. But it may be best to discuss the entirety of these in a Trusted Traveler Forum for consistency and ease of information access.

TSA PreCheck is going to continue to be more commonly offered even to people who are neither airline FFP elites nor paid members in some DHS program(s). Welcome to "managed inclusion" which will make PreCheck LLL type screening available to those without background checks or program payment.

So non-"trusted traveler" PreCheck-related questions should be home in some place beside the proposed new forum? If the answer is that they should go into this new forum, why?

I'm not sure why a new forum needs to be created when the current forums are available and have worked to help get people answers for questions related to screening checkpoints and borders.

I think it would be a good idea to centralize the various trusted traveler programs in one forum.

Just a note of detail related to the first post. The vote close date is off by a year. It's 2013 ~!

Oops - will fix that. I must have been channeling jackal in a different thread :D

Cheers.

It's because those who have been participating in the Practical forum that the request was made to create the 3rd forum, as Trusted Traveler threads seem to be overwhelming the Practical forum (see the discussion in the link in post #1) & those who have questions or need additional information for something other than TT need to wade through the TT threads to find it.

The mods of TSS are ok with the change, and the majority of the FTers responding have been supportive. In fact, it's due to the input in the discussion thread by FTers that the forum description was adapted to not be so US-centric.

Cheers.

I have no doubt that there are some that like this proposed. change and are fine with it. But what is the problem with the current PTSS forum that needs to be solved, and how is that problem going to be solved by the creation of this new TSS forum? Are there questions that are going unanswered in the PTSS forum as it is? Is information-sharing being suppressed by the current structure? If so, how is this new forum going to solve those issues?

Sometimes the nature of a little power is that people feel compelled to use it even when it doesn't serve the subjects as well as some -- including some of the subjects -- may think. Whether that applies to this situation or not, who knows but it is something to consider.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

"If it's broke, beware of broken fixes."

"Not everything mentioned as being broken is actually what is broken."

There are active, for example, helpful, informative threads in virtually all the airline forums regarding PreCheck while flying that airline. There are also a variety of PreCheck threads in the relevant destination forums. These all evolved pretty quickly and they are doing their jobs -- particularly since many/most FTers tend to concentrate on one or two airlines.

Unless this proposed forum is exceedingly carefully defined to cover anything that is not currently covered in either the mentioned venues or TS/S, this will simply be one more opportunity (like with the creation of the budget airlines forums) for information to become more scattered, diffused, duplicated, and harder to find.

Indeed.

Even if this proposed forum is carefully defined, there is still risk that this will not improve things for FTers in the main. I'm rather skeptical too about creating new forums to "fix" something for FTers when it seems like FTers in the main are already served pretty well on these topics in the parts of FT that are natural destinations for FTers communicating about these issues.