cwcarlson

I have had the Global Entry card for over a year now. I have used it 4 times. The last 2 times I have been denied using the line. The airline has my card number so why is this happening? I don't understand why we have to jump through hoops and pay for a service that doesn't work all the time. The TSA people told me it was random. Now I am hearing they are allowing people through that didn't go through the application process. It doesn't make me have a lot of faith in security.

mymaestro

Did you change your FF profile with all the airlines to include your GE card number? If your boarding pass doesn't say "TSA precheck" on it they don't let you through.

cwcarlson

Yes - the profile has my info in it.

emcampbe

First, pre-check is not guaranteed to work all of the time for everyone, even trusted travelers, though using your trusted traveler Pass ID most get pre-check most of the time. Being denied twice may mean you just happened to get unlucky on these back to back trips.

However, that said, when one consistently gets denied pre-check when using trusted traveler information, it usually means the name you use in your secure flight information doesn't match exactly with the name you use for GE. Is this possible? I.e., if you gave your full name as John Michael Smith when applying for GE, but the name being submitted with your secure flight information is "John Smith" or "John M Smith", the name mismatch is enough to not get pre-check.

If this matches, all 4 times you tried to use it, were you flying the same airline (and which airline(s))? And did you make sure that you entered your Pass ID correctly into the airline's site?

CDKing

You paid for Global Entry for expedited entry back into the US. Pre is just a side perk, you didn't pay for pre-check. It must be a mismatch in the secure flight data submitted by the airline to TSA.

GUWonder

Some people paid for GE to get PreCheck. Not everyone travels internationally so frequently that it makes sense to get GE just for international arrival into the US.

emcampbe

Let me repeat: Precheck is not guaranteed to work all of the time for everyone. No matter how you gain eligibility for it. It tends to work more often for GE members when their secure flight information matches, but still, not always.

Some people may have paid for GE as a means to become precheck eligible. However, in reality, these people still paid for expedited clearance to enter the US, even if they don't use that as the primary program benefit. The closest anyone will be able to get to paying "to get precheck" is to sign up in the for the future $85 precheck membership that the TSA will be offering. But even that, AFAIK, will not guarantee you get it every time.

SWDan

Remember, just because you have a Global Entry Card and a Known Traveler Number does not mean you are automatically "approved" by TSA for the pre-check program. You are only eligible to be "considered" for the program by TSA. Many GE members will never be approved by the TSA for Pre-Check. Same with some elites invited by virtue of their past travel patterns. And you may be approved for 100% of the time, 75%, 50%, 25% or never, depending on the algorithm they use for authorization, which is constantly changing.
Of course as mentioned above, you do need to have your housekeeping details in good order.

PCTraveler

For the first couple months I had TT, I only had about 50% access to PreCheck. This is also back when most airlines did not show PC access on the boarding pass, so it was a crap shoot when approaching TSA.

Since then it's been 100% access, maybe you're access will also get more consistent.

Anyone know if I don't get PC access on my boarding pass when issued, whether there's anything I can do to correct?

GUWonder

All but the second to last sentence is completely accurate. That said, people have already paid for PreCheck and done so by paying for GE as not everyone has intentions/plans for international travel even at the time of applying for GE.