Is there away to get this for free? Looks like it's an 85 dollar fee.

No. It's a $85 fee. Most employers seem to reimburse for it, so check yours. The old freebie is shut down and those in it are having their % of selection slowly cut.

The surest way to get Pre is to have a Known Traveler Number. You can get that by applying for Pre or Global Entry. Keep in mind that the $85 is for 5 years. Also, if you travel internationally at all you might want to think about Global Entry instead. It is $100 for 5 years, and it includes Pre. Makes a huge difference in clearing immigration when returning to the US.

If you travel to Canada regularly then you can also look into NEXUS. It, as I understand it, is $50 and includes GE and Pre.

Also, please keep in mind that the fees are actually paying for the background check. Paying the fee does not guarantee you acceptance.

Not "free" per se, but a couple of credit cards include Global Entry fee reimbursement as one of their benefits. IIRC Amex Platinum and Citi Prestige are two, and there may be more that I'm not recalling offhand. I wouldn't get one of those cards just for the reimbursement but if one of those cards is a useful product for you it might be part of your value calculation.

If you happen to be a US military member or DoD civil service employee, you're already eligible for Pre and just have to use the number from the back of your CAC card as your known traveler number.

Delta Platinum and Diamond elite statuses include Global Entry application vouchers a benefit.

I specifically got GE so I could skip the immigration lines and use TSA pre-check. Unfortunately on my last two international trips I have been denied TSA pre-check in LAX since there is no indication on my boarding pass that I should get TSA pre-check. Evidently boarding passes printed outside the US don't show TSA precheck. Showing my GE ID made no difference. I have now been told twice by the TSA personnel in LAX that GE has no impact on TSA pre-check. It appears the only way I can take advantage of TSA precheck is to stop at an airline counter in LAX and get a new boarding pass printed.
Is this the same experience others have had?

thanks

I've printed lots of bps from zrh to jfk which showed pre-check, though not too useful in Switzerland.
I'm flying on 6/1/15 nrt-ord-lga, both segments bps show pre-check.
There could a "glitch" with how you are set-up with your airline--check with them. [Does your KTN number show in each itn.?]

Was this when you were departing LAX, or when you were making a domestic connection after returning from overseas?

The only time I did not get Pre since I enrolled in GE and they approved Pre on international itineraries was when I flew SYD-SFO in 2013. Did not get Pre for the domestic flight connection. Since that one time, however, I have always been able to get Pre for the domestic connection by refreshing the BP after clearing customs. I have gotten Pre on every domestic departure since GE.

You have to have your Known Traveler Number in your reservation for this to work, though. Have you double-checked on that? Some folks have even reported the KTN disappearing from reservations, so you might want to check on it just before you check in for the flight.

Which airline were you flying internationally?

air berlin booked through AA the last time, previously KLM booked through Delta.

I have received Pre on all domestic flights I have taken except the ones connected to international arrivals in the US. Yes, I have my KTN in my profiles for AA, UA and Delta. It appears the issue is that when boarding passes are printed outside the US they have no use for the KTN and do not print TSA Pre on the boarding pass. This does not surprise me. What does surprise me is that I cannot show my GE id and receive TSA Pre at LAX when I arrive back in the US.
I have been told twice now by TSA at LAX that GE has nothing to do with TSA Pre and travelers are given TSA Pre on a random basis. This seems to contradict what is indicated on the CBP site when I applied for GE. If I have to stand in line at the airline counter to get my boarding reprinted after an international flight this detracts from the purpose of getting GE. This is particularly true since most major international airports in the US appear to be installing kiosks that all US residents can use when arriving in the US.

I got a normal (non-TSA Pre) BP on DL before, and was told by a DL agent that non-TSA Pre BPs are randomly generated. It only happened to me once.

Non-US carriers (except AC) do not belong to Pre-Check and do not process KTNs so you won't get Pre-Check on a BP from them. The only solution I know of is to reprint your BP at your US gateway, where you have to go land side anyway.

I don't know what actually happens but I would hope that if you have a KTN you will always get Pre-Check on a US airline BP but may get selected at security for a more thorough examination.

A couple of things:

You can, and normally do, get PreCheck overseas when checking in with a participating airline. Case, actually cases, in point. Flew back from Italy on US from Rome. All boarding passes had PreCheck. Worthless in Rome but worked in CLT. Flew back from London on BA and no PreCheck for any of the domestic legs in the U.S. This was an AA booked and issued ticket but BA is not a participating airline.

You twice had an uninformed TSA person tell you PreCheck and GE were not connected. Maybe they were splitting hairs because the purposes aren't the same or maybe they were just clueless. However, clearly PreCheck is an added benefit of GE. Once approved for GE and the associated KTN entered into your airline profile there's no reason to get PreCheck any less often than any other trusted traveler program that includes PreCheck.

On my last trip back (VS LHR-JFK, connecting to DL domestic flight) I was able to download the mobile BP for the domestic leg as we were taxing at JFK and it had Pre on it.

Perhaps that is the solution. I have never used a boarding pass on my mobile but it would keep me from getting a new paper one.
thx