TSA PreCheck "Random" Extra Screening?
 

My wife just got her GE and we wanted to test the PreCheck for the first time today; she got the three beeps (approved) but was randomly selected for further screening. We understood that getting expedited screening is not guaranteed at PreCheck as the TSA reserves the right to randomly select the PreCheckers for further screening. It just so happens that my wife got selected on the very first time she used it. Was she just unlucky or the odds are better than 50/50 you get selected for full screening? :eek:

Never been randomly selected (PreCheck or otherwise) for further screening in the last several years. In my experience, at least, the odds seem way less than 50/50 to get the full monty when qualifying for PreCheck, or at all, for that matter. Maybe she just got REALLY lucky...

Right after 9/11, I did get "randomly" selected practically every time I flew. My record is 4 "random" selections in one trip involving 2 non-stop flights. I was "randomly" selected at the checkpoint AND the gate on both the outbound and return flights. I was dating my now-wife long distance at the time, and she laughed when she would drop me off at the airport because I would get selected at the checkpoint almost every time.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A525 Safari/8536.25)

I occasionally get my hands swabbed at a PreCheck lane. Twice at LAX, once at PDX.

The PreCheck lane was broken one trip through LAX so everyone had to go through the regular screening.

I think in my 50+ trips through PreCheck, I've been sent to have my hands swabbed at the ETD machine twice, both times in ATL. Took all of 15-20 seconds.

My PreCheck success rate is 25%.

Not much better here. About 30%

On my last trip through the US (don't remember which airport...) the TDC was filtering between PreCheck and Premium and handing out PreCheck advertising cards to the people who didn't clear PreCheck. He was saying that people cleared for PreCheck had a 10% chance on each trip to be selected for normal screening.

Of course, he also didn't believe me when I said that I wasn't able to get PreCheck (not having a FF membership of a US airline in the program or being eligible for Global Entry).

Agreed, mine is in that range, too. But the OP is asking, on those 25% of times where you actually got to use pre-check, were you ever pulled aside for additional screening?

For me, the answer is no.

Double checked Secure Flight data
 

I was able to use PreCheck two out of two on my recent weekend trip, but my wife went 0 for 2. I double checked four times over our secure flight data and our GOES profile data to make sure the data matched exactly. I wish the TSA and/or scanner would return a code as to why PreCheck was rejected so we can fix the secure flight data for future flights. We will try it again on the trip to LAS this weekend. Frustrating when I can breeze through security in two minutes, but wait another 20 minutes for my wife. :mad:

You should be even more frustrated that your government is determining trustworthiness of lowly citizens based on how much money they give to private businesses (the airlines).

Of course, after talking about how I've never been selected for a random screening after precheck, I get the long beep as I was walking through theWTMD just a little while ago at ORD. Quick and painless, though, as it was just a hand swab. Finished before my bags even came out the other end of the conveyor belt.

At DFW, the TSA three-striper told me that if you got cleared to use PreCheck 30% of the time, you were doing well.

Exactly the same for me, but change ATL to ORD (my home airport).

I had never had a "fail"...but the last 3 times I've flown I had to go thru the full search after going thru the precheck line. Oh well, at least the lines were shorter.

What was this full search? Was your bag pulled from the belt for inspection?

Went thru Precheck at SFO earlier today and the WTMD beeped where I won a random hand swab

"Full" search may have been the wrong term: "normal" search? After having my boarding pass and ID checked, I was sent to the normal line, where I had to remove my shoes, my liquids, and to all the normal security search things that you don't have to do in the precheck line.

Same for me.

It sounds as though you have had multiple PreCheck fails. Based on your original post, I thought that you had received a normal search in the PreCheck line.

So far, I'm 12 for 12 in getting the magic three beeps.

That includes at airports with no precheck but my boarding pass is encoded for the three beeps. That's one of the annoying things - getting a pre-check approved BP at an airport where it does no good...

I've done Pre ~two dozen times. Not yet yanked for full screening. Random hand swabs
are done a few times while waiting in the queue for Pre.

Hand swaps are common now at EWR after the WTMD. Fun note, the line for Pre was longer than the standard and elite lines.

Wow, these numbers are not encouraging.
I've used PreCheck five times so far. Four times I cleared. The most recent time I was denied and sent to the front of the elite line. The agent stated because my onward connecting flight was international PreCheck doesn't work.

I've had 100% success with zero hand swabs or other enhanced screening when attempting to use PreCheck..which is every time I fly if at all possible. Used it at SEA (several times), LAS, LAX, DEN, SFO, ORD, PDX, IAH.

Self-quote woo!

Just an update since I posted in early December. Since then, I've attempted and cleared PreCheck with no secondary 9 of 9 times (ORDx6 on UA, ORDx1 on US, SEAx1 on UA, LGAx1 on AA). Flown out of LGA several times on US and UA and gotten 3 beeps every time, but no PreCheck available for those carriers (yet?).

Getting into the precheck lane doesn't mean anything unless you got the three beeps prior to entering.

It's reassuring to know that my pre-check success rate is somewhere in the middle based on the data in this thread. I'm 2 of 4. I don't have GE.

First time eligible (SFO): success, but got the hand swab
Second time (LAX): fail, sent to regular screening
Third time (SFO): fail, blue shirt guy questioned if I was even eligible for pre-check and I silently wondered whether I was too, based on 2 failures in a row.
Fourth time (ORD): success, no additional hoops. My first, complete, success.

If you used to have success with Pre-Check and now are no longer getting it, if you are with Delta, it is almost certainly because they have screwed up the link with TSA since their web re-design.

Last week, my whole itinerary was invalid from the TSA precheck perspective- on both
the outbound and return.

Yesterday, I was happy to hear beep-beep-beep-beep.

You got 4 beeps? Fancy, I usually just get 3. ;)

If one learns that one does not qualify for pre-check, is it still possible to use a different security lane? For example, there are some airports at which a passenger rejected from pre-check is sent to a NOS, while there is another lane in another terminal (with the secure areas of the terminals connected beyond security) where one has a decent chance of using a lane with a metal detector. The concern is that once one learns that one does not get the pre-check beeps, he or she might not have the ability to use the other terminal's security.

Keep in mind that these guys simply make things up half the time, whether about their own agency's SOP or something like PreCheck.

I commuted from PDX to DFW for eight weeks for a project, and got to use PreCheck every time in both airports.

My overall success rate is in the 80-90% range.

To me it sounds like success rates vary widely for some reason.

Bolding mine: Oh, I would say it's much much more than half the time ;)

Have GE, KTN, FF #, Get PreCheck, 50% Random Screening
 

After a very nice period of getting PreCheck due to my GE-enabled KTN and having FF status with two airlines, all of a sudden, 50% of the time when I go through the Precheck line's WTMD, it beeps and a TSA officer says "Random Check," and directs me to a hand swab. After it shows that I am not associated with explosives, they send me on my way.

What gives? Why all of a sudden does "random" = 50%?

"50%" equals how many occasions? That's the crucial piece of information. ;-)

"50% of the time" can be anything from zero to infinity...

On 3 of my last 6 flights. Admittedly, not a large sample size, but quite noticeable when the previous 60-something flights were 0 for 60. I guess one could say that "on average," it was not 50% but 5%. :)

Random hand swab meter has been turned way up even before Pre began. Id rather that be the random security measure vs being sent to the standard screening line.

Its not tied to ones trusted traveler status

Random related to a sample of (say) 10 is not too meaningful--1000 would be a better base.
If you buy a Zurich card, one of the (free) perks is visiting the flight deck. You have to pass through an "airport security" system...I'm nearly always selected for extra security, the explanation is "random check"--I've visited the FD 6 times in the last 3 years.:)

I got the "random" beep earlier this week for the first time. No wanding but an unappreciated trip through the nude-o-scope.

It can't be zero or infinity, but could be anything in between. ;)

Yes, that now seems to be the norm. I got the long beep at ORD a couple weeks ago and said, "Darn, hand swab!" and the screener said they actually stopped doing that and are making people go through the L3 MMW unit. I asked if I could opt out and she said that would result in full pat down and swab. I went through the MMW. A couple of things showed up (wallet and earbuds around my neck) and they did a VERY cursory patdown.