nmstough

I fly a lot between Europe and the US, so have Global Entry as a result and have my trusted traveler number uploaded to Lufthansa. Because when I arrive to the US, I must connect with a United Airlines flight, through Denver, Houston, etc., I have to go back through security always after customs. Whenever I am flying from Europe with Lufthansa it seems that I never get TSA pre check for the reentry through security. This has happened over and over and the last time I got stuck in line for an hour. If I take United from Europe I always get a united boarding pass for the US connection with TSA precheck on it. What is going on? Does Lufthansa not have a method for generating TSA precheck on their online (mobile) boarding passes?

Whodunit68

The following airlines offer TSA Pre✓®:

Air Canada
Hawaiian Airlines
United Airlines
Alaska Airlines
JetBlue Airways
Virgin America
Allegiant Airlines
OneJet
WestJet
American Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Delta Air Lines
Sun Country.

nmstough

I know that. The flight is on United, but because the first flight in the sequence is on Lufthansa, you have to get your online boarding pass from them and it never seems to provide precheck.

Whodunit68

You have no choice. Lufthansa can not issue bp with TSA, as per above.

You need a new boarding pass from United.

Randyk47

When returning from overseas on a non-participating airline the only way I know to get PreCheck for the US domestic legs is to ask for new boarding passes once we hit the US and switch to a participating airline. For us most of our travel outside the US is on AA or a OneWorld partner. If the return flight is AA metal from start to finish then we've had no problem getting PreCheck on our boarding passes from the get go. If it's say BA to the US then we've had to get the boarding passes reprinted. I've always assumed non-participating airlines, even ones who are partners with participating airlines, simply don't have access to te PreCheck system nor should they.

seawolf

As mentioned by Whodunit68, it does not matter if UA is operating carrier, LH simply does not have the technical infrastructure in place with DHS to issue a Pre✓ boarding pass.

To issue a Pre✓ BP, the airline generate private/public key to sign their boarding pass. The private key is kept secure by the airline. The public key is provided to DHS and then distributed to boarding pass scanners at TSA checkpoints.

When you check-in, the airline send your info to DHS, DHS then provides a response back to the airline whether this passenger can have Pre✓. The response (which is just a one character flag) is then included into the BP. The airline then "signs" this BP with it's private key and generates the barcode which contains the passenger/flight/PNR/ticket#, approved/denied for Pre✓ (collectively referred to as boarding details), and a signature. The signature changes depending on the contents of the boarding details and is generated off the private key.

When the boarding pass is scanned, the boarding details, and signature will be evaluated along with the public key to determine whether the BP has been tampered with and give you the three beeps if Pre✓ was approved and the BP is authentic.

So if I online check-in and then decide to change the boarding details to give myself Pre✓ and change the barcode to reflect that, the scanner will detect the BP is not authentic when it compares the altered boarding details, the original signature and the public key.

Airlines that don't participate in Pre✓ don't even sign their BPs to begin with (eg AB, CX to new a few).

KPOM

To the OP, can you book the Lufthansa flight as a United code share? If so, then since it's a United booking in the US perhaps it would add it when you check in using a United kiosk stateside.

nmstough

Yes you could, but the first reason I didn't want to do that is that I can only upgrade if its a Lufthansa flight #.

But even if its a code share, it doesn't help because the place you have to get your boarding passes from is the airline that is servicing your first flight and that's Lufthansa.

gobluetwo

When entering the US, since you have to go through immigrations and customs and then back through security anyway, your best options are to go to a kiosk before security and reprint your boarding passes, visit a ticket counter to have an agent print a new boarding pass, or to try refreshing the boarding pass in the United mobile app. There are rather straightforward options other than just resigning yourself to using the BP you may have initially received at the start of your journey.

nmstough

Actually I just tried this in the Frankfurt airport. I went to a gate where there was a United flight departing (lucky to find that) and they printed me out a boarding pass for my US flight with precheck on it. Of course they were totally clueless why I couldn't just do this at a Lufthansa desk and I had to plead for service from them even though I wasn't on the flight.

But that raises the issue what to do when the originating flight departing the US is on Lufthansa. How does one get precheck then, because it isn't a United flight?

Randyk47

If you're checking in at a Lufthansa desk you can't get PreCheck. Again, Lufthansa is not a participating airline and doesn't have access to the program. It doesn't seem to matter that it's a codeshare or not if your initial check in is with Lufthansa or any non-participating airline. The only way it has worked for us is if our initial check in is with say AA here at SAT even though we're flying BA from DFW to LHR. Again our first contact is with a participating airline not BA.

Now you might be able to show your Trusted Traveler card at security and talk a TSA agent into letting you through PreCheck. That's not part of the program and most have reported to hasn't worked but a few have reported success. Begs the question why can't PreCheck access be extended to members being able to show their qualifying Trusted Traveler program card at the security point regardless of the airline? We get PreCheck through our GE membership and it was our background, fingerprints, etc., etc., that were checked and had nothing to do with what airline we were or are flying on. ????

nmstough

Or why not simply require all airlines that fly in and out of the US to connect to the precheck servers and offer it to passengers who are approved? You would think it would be in Lufthansas interest to do so on their own.

seawolf

Building the technology infrastructure that only affects a minority number of flights system-wide may not make financial sense to a foreign carrier especially since Pre✓ doesn't gives a competitive advantage or disadvantage.

If a passenger was Pre✓ sensitive flying to Europe, they’ll pick UA to stay within the alliance and LH is not losing that business due to their transatlantic joint venture with UA and AC.

Essentially there is no incentive to participate in Pre✓ due to the joint venture.

Often1

OP - Can simply add his KTN to his UA profile and check in with United for his United domestic segment. He will still have his LH-issued BP and can simply toss that once he's got is UA-issued document.

Departing the US, OP cannot obtain Pre-Check if he originates with a non-participating carrier e.g, LH.

Not all US carriers choose to participate in Pre-Check and there are significant privacy issues which may create reasons for some non-US carriers not to participate.

The days when a very few people were able to talk themselves past a checkpoint with a GE card, but no Pre-Check selection are long gone and a waste of time.

Randyk47

Agree. We stay within the OneWorld family for 99% of our flights both domestic and International but that's not driven by PreCheck but more by the desire and need to get and maintain advanced frequent flyer status. Helps that the closest major hub is DFW and the major connector between SAT and DFW is AA. Obviously you could substitute a number of feeder airports like SAT and their corresponding major provider and get driven to another FF program like UA and Star Alliance. No doubt it would be nice if we were able to always get PreCheck preprinted on our homeward bound International flights on a OneWorld airline like BA but that's not a big issue. It really only impacts us the two or three times a year when we leave Immigration and Customs in the US and have to go through a TSA checkpoint. Even then we've taken the time occasionally to get our boarding passes reprinted to get PreCheck. Our last three International trips have all been on AA metal going and returning so we've gotten PreCheck 100% of the time so getting a reprinted BP has not been needed.