Precheck question

[holden]

My family has Precheck (me, DH and DD16...DD12 is allowed to come through with us without having Precheck herself). We are brining two of the girls' friends on our next trip (14 and 16yo). We will need to go through the regular line, correct? I'm assuming they cannot go through Precheck with us. Just want to double check.

 

[EACarlson]

You'll have to wait until you get boarding passes. If they are traveling on the same reservation there is a chance that they will get Pre on their boarding passes as well. It's not guaranteed, but not unheard of either. No way of knowing until boarding passes get printed.

 

[Spunky946]

I’d send one or two people through the precheck line with all the carry ons so the people who have to go through the regular line doesn’t have anything

 

[holden]

Both good pieces of advice! Thanks!

 

[goofy4tink]

It had been my experience that everyone listed on the reservation can use precheck. I have it, dh and dd do not. But when I book our flights, and we're all on the same reservation, we all get precheck. Of course there was the time we were flying to LAX, and dd's boyfriend decided to join us, after I had booked our flights. We got precheck, he didn't!!

 

[gharter]

As others have said, you will have to wait until the boarding passes are printed. If they don't have pre-chek printed, they can't go through the line.
We have TSA pre-chek, the last time I printed our tickets twice and reentered our numbers and they would print. Short of waiting at the desk, there was nothing we could do but go through the regular line.
Also agree with sending the carryons through with the TSA pre-chek if you have enough people.
It will save a little bit of time.

 

[bumbershoot]

It had been my experience that everyone listed on the reservation can use precheck. I have it, dh and dd do not. But when I book our flights, and we're all on the same reservation, we all get precheck.

Same.

 

[jec6613]

Even if you have TSA Pre there's no guarantee that you get to go through the line every time, you will randomly not get it on your boarding pass sometimes. You'll have to wait until you have the boarding passes to know for sure.

 

[pixiedustedme]

Even if you have TSA Pre there's no guarantee that you get to go through the line every time, you will randomly not get it on your boarding pass sometimes.

We have Pre-Check and have flown with it many, many times, and have never had this happen.

 

[jec6613]

We have Pre-Check and have flown with it many, many times, and have never had this happen.

It happens to me about 1-2 times per fifty or so flights, always when traveling alone on an open jaw booked within 60 days of the flight. And it definitely does happen - just because it doesn't happen to you just means you've gotten lucky and not met their profile.

 

[pixiedustedme]

It happens to me about 1-2 times per fifty or so flights, always when traveling alone on an open jaw booked within 60 days of the flight. And it definitely does happen - just because it doesn't happen to you just means you've gotten lucky and not met their profile.

Most vacation fliers to Orlando aren't doing open jaw flights or flying 50 times in the near future...

I didn't say it was impossible, just that is has never happened to either of us during our many trips. I don't think it's something the OP needs to worry about when planning the trip.

 

[jec6613]

Most vacation fliers to Orlando aren't doing open jaw flights or flying 50 times in the foreseeable future...

I didn't say it was impossible, just that is has never happened to either of us during our many trips. I don't think it's something the OP needs to worry about when planning the trip.

It is definitely something to be aware of that it can happen, MCO is the one airport where I've seen them do it to families, and I've sat next to one of them, both parents huge frequent fliers, vacation booked 6 months out with teenage kids. On an LAX-DCA flight, I've also sat behind a member of the US house of representatives complaining that they had to take their shoes off.

I wouldn't worry about it because there's nothing you can do to control it, but it's always good to remember that the Pre line isn't a guarantee to anybody.

 

[holden]

Thanks all!

 

[NotUrsula]

Even if you have TSA Pre there's no guarantee that you get to go through the line every time, you will randomly not get it on your boarding pass sometimes. You'll have to wait until you have the boarding passes to know for sure.

We have Pre-Check and have flown with it many, many times, and have never had this happen.

It happens to me about 1-2 times per fifty or so flights, always when traveling alone on an open jaw booked within 60 days of the flight. And it definitely does happen - just because it doesn't happen to you just means you've gotten lucky and not met their profile.

Most vacation fliers to Orlando aren't doing open jaw flights or flying 50 times in the near future...

I didn't say it was impossible, just that is has never happened to either of us during our many trips. I don't think it's something the OP needs to worry about when planning the trip.

It is definitely something to be aware of that it can happen, MCO is the one airport where I've seen them do it to families, and I've sat next to one of them, both parents huge frequent fliers, vacation booked 6 months out with teenage kids. On an LAX-DCA flight, I've also sat behind a member of the US House of Representatives complaining that they had to take their shoes off.

I wouldn't worry about it because there's nothing you can do to control it, but it's always good to remember that the Pre line isn't a guarantee to anybody.

I had it happen last week; traveling on a one-way ticket purchased about 90 days out with SWA RR points. I was with my family, but I was the only one on my itinerary (because it was a points purchase.) Anyway, something else odd & interesting happened...

The flight was a late one, and we went through MCO Security at 8:30 pm. The PreCheck lane at MCO is closed at that hour, so we had resigned ourselves to the regular line. I goofed on something when sorting bins, and remarked to the TSO that I was out of practice because we have PreCheck. He said, "You do? Hold on. Put your shoes back on, then get out your BP and ID, because he has to scan it." ("He" being the TSO manning the metal detector gate.)

All this time I hadn't noticed that the PreCheck designation on my BP was missing. I did as instructed and handed over my license and BP. The 2d TSO looked at the BP, did a double-take, and then re-scanned my license (he had another of the same scanners that are used when you enter the line.) After scanning the license, he initialed the BP and let me through, shoes and all. I couldn't see what was on the screen, so I have no idea whether TSA has managed to add my TT number to my Driver License record, but based on his reaction it sure looked that way.

 

[n2mm]

Last June everyone on my itinerary got precheck. 5 were precheck people and 2 were not. I was happy that everyone got it both ways on jetblue.

BUT this June it did not happen either way. The same itinerary and both times on Jetblue. People who had precheck got it and the ones who didn’t have it didn’t get it.

I could guess that maybe things are tighter in terms of security. I’m off again the end of next month, so will find out if my non-precheck people get it or not. Like before they are on my itinerary.

 

[tnolan]

Sorry to say, I read somewhere that the free Pre-Check privilege was coming to an end. From what I read, if you want it for sure, you have to pay for it, $85 each person for 5 yrs. Anyone else hear different, I sure would be glad to see it.

 

[NotUrsula]

Sorry to say, I read somewhere that the free Pre-Check privilege was coming to an end. From what I read, if you want it for sure, you have to pay for it, $85 each person for 5 yrs. Anyone else hear different, I sure would be glad to see it.

Just in case it isn't clear, those of us who are warning that Pre-Check is sometimes withheld for random people are speaking of PAID Pre-Check status. Even if you paid for it, TSA can still sometimes yank it out from under your feet at a whim.

 

[pixiedustedme]

Just in case it isn't clear, those of us who are warning that Pre-Check is sometimes withheld for random people are speaking of PAID Pre-Check status. Even if you paid for it, TSA can still sometimes yank it out from under your feet at a whim.

But there is debate on how likely this is to happen, though. I and multiple family members have used it lots of times and none of us have ever not had it on the boarding pass. I have also read these boards for a long time, and out of people who've discussed Pre-Check, I've never seen comments about it randomly not showing up on the pass when it was supposed to (before reading the comment of the frequent flyer on this thread who has unusual flying patterns: open jaw flights.)

Sometimes people who have Pre-Check forget to add it to the reservation, or there is an issue with a certain type of code-share flight that keeps it off the boarding pass.

Not saying it can't happen for typical vacation travelers who did everything properly, but I've never seen it or heard about it, so I suspect that would be very rare.

 

[jec6613]

Not saying it can't happen for typical vacation travelers who did everything properly, but I've never seen it or heard about it, so I suspect that would be very rare.

There's also a capacity issue. Airlines are given a certain number of TSA PRE slots by the TSA, and when they're gone, they take it away from the least frequent travelers first. I've only see it happen at MCO with any regularity, and also at ORD during peak Thanksgiving and Christmas travel.