DFW - "Everyone is PreCheck" Nov 19, 18 [TSA using passenger screening dogs]
 

Something odd was going on at one of the security checkpoints in DFW terminal D today.

I was connecting from Europe with my onward travel in first class and had TSA Precheck due to having global entry. I was expecting either the first class boarding card, the tsa prechk or the bright orange express connection pass to cause me to be in a separate line from the normal one but that didn't happen.

The staff were announcing "everyone is precheck today" and they just had one long (15 minute) line. After snaking back and forth there was a pen set up with a dog where they were letting groups of people walk through. Everything else seemed to be run like precheck - no liquids out the bags, shoes on, metal detector scanner. It worked reasonably well but still too longer than precheck because everyone was using it.

Similar screening procedures have been reported in Denver and Philadelphia:

Just to be clear, status and class of service are irrelevant to TSA. Pre-Check is relevant.

Expect this over the holidays. This is the busiest travel week of the year for the US and while it is annoying for those of us with Pre-Check, the average wait time is vastly decreased by running everybody past a dog and then using the Pre-Check methodology.

Congress considered addressing the issue in the FAA authorization, but none of the TSA changes which most would care about, made it. The push had been to require that Pre-Check lines would be available to those holding Pre-Check only (+ the standard exemptions for DOD CAC and the like). In that scenario, everybody could still have the Pre-Check experience, but those holding Pre-Check would have the additional advantage of a "special" line.

If the DFW wait was only 15 minutes on this particular week, it seems to have had its effect.