The really galling thing is that I lived in Phoenix for 8 years before moving to San Diego, so I have no real desire to go back there! :eek:

Remove your middle name from everything. From your AA profile and your work travel agency profile. Remove any suffixes like Jr or III. Everything should have first and last only.

This advice was given to me by a higher up pre-check expert at AA after our case was escalated up the food chain due to repeated pre-check missing incidents.

No problems since stripping names down to bare minimum

Been hit or miss for me too. Aa just blames the tsa. Tried reprinting at the machine and w ticket agent without luck.
I have no middle name nor initial.

This seems to be a TSA issue, and not AA. I'll move this thread over to the Travel Safety/Security forum-->Trusted Travelers forum.

Thanks.


aztimm

I can attest to that there is some randomness. I had my KTN from GE for years. There was one time I got TSA Pre on my outbound but didn't get TSA Pre on my return. (CBP also does random custom checks for GE passengers. I was picked once. The officer simply said they did that once a while to ensure GE passengers were following rules.)

It's a name mismatch. Your name on your reservations has to match the name associated with the KTN exactly. This is a known issue (some would say it's a feature, not a bug, in the sense that it helps prevent misuse of the KTN). There was a thread recently about this in the Southwest forum. When I first got GE, I had to have Southwest change the name associated with my Rapid Rewards account to match the name associated with GE (middle initial vs full middle name). Otherwise, anytime I made a booking while signed in to my RR account, I would not get PreCheck.

It's possible that you need to have AA change your name associated with your AAdvantage profile to match. The way to approach this is to start by finding your TSA PreCheck paperwork and find the name associated with that. Then call AA and have them look up your AAdvantage account and all your reservations and change your name to match. Finally, add your KTN after the names have been corrected.

I have had GE for years and have never missed PreCheck except when there was a name mismatch.

Very interesting, Vicki.
When you signed up for KTN, did you use your middle name there? I assumed that if TSA knew me as First Middle Last, and the ticket was issued to First Last, then that would cause a discrepancy.

Data point
 

On both DL/AA, I had no trouble getting precheck when it was just a variation of my first name (i.e. Alex vs Alexa/ Tom vs Thomas/ Jeff vs Jeffrey/ Tiff vs Tiffany and so on).

For a while, my passport name didn't match my drivers license name, and I used to use different name (but all with same First Initial & Last name) for domestic flights vs international flights, and no once, was I denied access to TSA PreCheck.

I've had this happen. It has something to do with the boarding pass printing. I checked in via my phone and saved my boarding pass to my phone with a TSA PreCheck marker. I reprinted my boarding pass at the airport and the TSA PreCheck marker was missing.

Luckily I still had my boarding pass via my phone and used it. I think it is a programming issue with the boarding pass being printed at the AA's kiosk and nothing to do with TSA.

My Delta account uses my middle initial, while my GE card has full middle name, and I haven't had a problem in that regard. I have gotten PreCheck with Alaska, with no middle name nor initial.

My DW and I just received our new GE cards, and want to confirm how to best ensure our names match for PreCheck.

GE Card = John Joseph Smith
Drivers License = John J. Smith

Should we match our FF accounts with the GE card to ensure a name match (i.e. John Joseph Smith)??? I don't mind carrying my GE card everytime I fly in case they give me a hard time because my boarding pass wouldn't then match my DL.

I have also heard it said to remove middle initials from my FF name, but I am concerned this will have the wrong effect.

I went in reverse:

I sent an email to GE, and then actually followed up and CALLED GE in D.C. (pretty sure it's there) a few weeks later, since a name change can take several weeks.

I explained that I screwed up and should have used an initial instead of my full middle (to match my passport, which has initial only). They said that it was in process, made no guarantees, and were relatively friendly about the whole thing.

A few weeks later I received a new GE card with initial only :)

I am in the same boat where my GE card has my full middle name but my passport only has my middle initial. What number did you call to get the change processed in DC?

Edit - I called the Charlotte enrollment office this morning and finally got through to an officer and explained why I was calling. She asked for my KTN and looked up my information. She said that the agent who did my interview "screwed up" and she made the name change to just a middle initial to match my passport and she was ordering a new card for me no charge. I will update once I get the new card but it really was painless after I got someone to answer the phone.

I wouldn't mind getting pre-check but I don't want to travel domestically with a passport. My DL name is different than my passport. DL FI, Middle name, Last name Passport First name, Middle name, Last name. When I inquired at a TSA pre-check site they told me I would have to use the passport name.

There's no such requirement. Most people don't have a passport even, only a DL. Passport name would only matter if you got PreCheck via Global Entry. Also the name on the reservation isn't what matters, it's the name in the Secure Flight Data fields. This can be slightly different in order to match the name on file for PreCheck/GE.