Going through TSA Precheck Line?

[Jessirip]

Ok got our KTN's, added them to reservation for SW... now wonderful experienced DIS'ers, please help me know what to do so we don't clog up the precheck line? I know we don't have to take off our shoes or take items out of our carryons... right? We'll have our 3 and 6 year old going through with us. Do they walk through on their own at that age?

Help me not be the confused mom in front of you that holds you up. Thank you!

 

[FCDub]

Check here https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening

"As you know, standard screening requires that you remove all items and place them on the X-ray belt for screening. With TSA Pre✓®, you are able to speed through security and don’t need to remove your shoes, laptops, liquids, belts and light jackets. Learn about how you can receive expedited screening with TSA Pre✓®.

TSA uses unpredictable security measures throughout the airport and no individual is guaranteed expedited screening."

 

[Disflyer226]

Ok got our KTN's, added them to reservation for SW... now wonderful experienced DIS'ers, please help me know what to do so we don't clog up the precheck line? I know we don't have to take off our shoes or take items out of our carryons... right? We'll have our 3 and 6 year old going through with us. Do they walk through on their own at that age?

Help me not be the confused mom in front of you that holds you up. Thank you!

You leave everything in your carryon, shoes and belts are left on. Jacket is up to the agent whether they allow you to leave it on or not. Kids will go through the metal detector by themselves.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

X2 on the PP. Don’t take anything off, don’t take anything out of your bags. Just place your bags on the scanner belt and then go through the metal detectors as instructed.

Kids will do the same thing.

Will you have a stroller? Sometimes we’ve been asked to fold it up and send it through the scanner with our bags, sometimes they motion for us to use a seperate entrance where they take the stroller and search/swab it separately.

Note that while rare, it is possible to be enrolled in the Pre-Check program and NOT be granted Pre-Check on any given flight. It can randomly happen once in a blue moon. As long as it’s on your boarding pass, you’re good to go.

Hope that helps!

 

[foodiddiedoo]

Take your belt off if it has a metal buckle that will set off a metal detector. I set off the detector once in John Wayne and they made me go back and do the full body scan because of the belt buckle. I just take my belt off still to be safe.

 

[AngiTN]

Worth asking, what airport are you flying out of?
MCO is easy, it's just as folks above post.
Some regional airports are different. They are sort of PreCheck "lite" for lack of better words.
Ours is one of these. We leave on shoes but our 3-3-1 bag has to come out of our bag. Electronics may too, honestly can't remember. I don't bring my laptop and DH has one of those fancydancy TSA approved bags all you do is open flat, no removal needed even without PreCheck.

 

[Jessirip]

Thanks for all the advice! It helps to just have an idea, especially since I know we'll be a little distracted with the kids.

Will you have a stroller? Sometimes we’ve been asked to fold it up and send it through the scanner with our bags, sometimes they motion for us to use a seperate entrance where they take the stroller and search/swab it separately.

Note that while rare, it is possible to be enrolled in the Pre-Check program and NOT be granted Pre-Check on any given flight. It can randomly happen once in a blue moon. As long as it’s on your boarding pass, you’re good to go.

Hope that helps!

I think we are taking our super cheap umbrella stroller just to help get the 3 year old through the airport. We plan to gate check it and if gets destroyed, oh well. We are renting a double city-mini once there. Thanks for this tip. I'll have him out of it and ask the agent what they wish for me to do with it.

And thanks for the heads up, hopefully it's on our boarding pass with no issues.

Worth asking, what airport are you flying out of?
MCO is easy, it's just as folks above post.
Some regional airports are different. They are sort of PreCheck "lite" for lack of better words.
Ours is one of these. We leave on shoes but our 3-3-1 bag has to come out of our bag. Electronics may too, honestly can't remember. I don't bring my laptop and DH has one of those fancydancy TSA approved bags all you do is open flat, no removal needed even without PreCheck.

Midway in Chicago. We did fly last October to Orlando and were OK, but this can be random I know. We mainly got the Precheck for Orlando. That bag sounds cool! We will have a couple of kids Kindle Fires and headphones. DH and I usually just play on our phones.

Again thanks all. You are so helpful!

 

[arminnie]

I flew out of New Orleans 2 weeks ago and laptops and tablets had to come out. They didn't have to come out on the flight back.

 

[bumbershoot]

Get there early. Since you’ve got the two kids set everyone up for success. No stress that’s unnecessary.

Sometimes Dh hasn’t had pre on his boarding pass so I go back and manually enter his KTN into checkin and it appears. Some airlines don’t seem to pull it from the “your account” section, it seems.

Send one adult through, and once they are fine send the kids, then the second adult.

 

[JimMIA]

TSA uses unpredictable security measures throughout the airport and no individual is guaranteed expedited screening."

This is a key sentence. TSA is constantly changing things up so as not to have a totally predictable pattern -- so what you get on one particular security check may vary quite a bit from what you expect.

I typically throw everything electronic, keys, cellphone, watch, etc into the outer pockets of my carryon before I enter the TSA Precheck queue. That's a lot easier and more secure than putting them in bins. The laptop/iPad protocols seem to vary more than anything else, and I have been asked to take off shoes a few times. I've almost always been asked to remove sweaters, sweatshirts, etc.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thanks for all the advice! It helps to just have an idea, especially since I know we'll be a little distracted with the kids.



I think we are taking our super cheap umbrella stroller just to help get the 3 year old through the airport. We plan to gate check it and if gets destroyed, oh well. We are renting a double city-mini once there. Thanks for this tip. I'll have him out of it and ask the agent what they wish for me to do with it.

And thanks for the heads up, hopefully it's on our boarding pass with no issues.

Got it. Generally speaking, with our fold-up umbrella-style stroller they have made us fold it up and run it through the scanner. When we’ve had our much bigger Bob stroller, they usually wave us to do something else. Although once they tried to get us to JAM the folded up Bob through the scanner and that was a major PITA. It barely fit.

Good luck OP. Going through security with younger kids - with the scolding look of pre-check business travelers behind us - is always one of the not so fun parts of the trip. DS is well-behaved and does what he’s told. DD thinks it’s a playground. We just take a deep breath and smile.

 

[AngiTN]

Midway in Chicago. We did fly last October to Orlando and were OK, but this can be random I know. We mainly got the Precheck for Orlando. That bag sounds cool! We will have a couple of kids Kindle Fires and headphones. DH and I usually just play on our phones.

Again thanks all. You are so helpful!

I'd assume Midway is a major airport like MCO so you'd be ok

The bag he has is one of these
https://www.amazon.com/Travelpro-Executive-Choice-Checkpoint-Backpack/dp/B01LSWICRG

 

[supersnoop]

All that stuff in your pockets, the stuff you normally take out and place in a bin... put it in your carryon. There’s no good reason to put anything in a bin.

 

[Jimsig]

Note that while rare, it is possible to be enrolled in the Pre-Check program and NOT be granted Pre-Check on any given flight. It can randomly happen once in a blue moon. As long as it’s on your boarding pass, you’re good to go.

Hope that helps!

And even if it's on your boarding pass you can still get pulled out for extra screening. Going down to MCO from BOS there were 10 of us and none of us had an issue at Pre-Check. Coming back it was myself, DW, DD and my mom. Mom got pulled for extra screening and had her stuff swabbed etc. Took a few extra min's.

 

[Jimsig]

I flew out of New Orleans 2 weeks ago and laptops and tablets had to come out. They didn't have to come out on the flight back.

That was about the time they had a heightened security alert IIRC. Saw it while we were at Disney and wondered if we would have an issue going home. No issue as we and everyone around us at MCO were able to keep laptops and tablets in our bags. Only issue is what I mentioned above but I think they told my mom she had been randomly selected etc.