TSA preCheck

[OKW Lover]

Scott, over on FlyerTalk there are lots of folks who have difficulty on Alaska when booking through Delta. I suspect there is some incompatibility in their two systems, which is combined with a different customer relations attitude making strange bedfellows.

Hopefully you'll have better luck in October. Val & I look forward to seeing you and Liz again (both there and here).

 

[helenk]

I generally get the TSA precheck on my flights with Southwest. It does come up on my boarding pass. I just went to Disney World this past week with my 6 year old grand daughter, and she was allowed to go through the preCheck as well. It really worked out nicely.

 

[francie57]

My DH and I both have paid for the TSA Pre-check. When DH flew to Washington DC it didn't come up on his boarding pass. He called US Air and they added the number and we reprinted the boarding pass. On his return flight it printed without any problem but the man in front of him was having a fit since it didn't print on his boarding pass and he insisted on being in that line. As the TSA agent said, even though you paid it is not a guarantee. We just returned from Disney and flew SW both ways. When I printed our boarding passed for the trip to Disney DH's pre-check didn't print out, so I called SW (expected to be told its not guaranteed) but they said his number wasn't in his account (I did add it when we got them but who knows what happened) so they added it and I reprinted his boarding pass. Yesterday at the RAC desk at the BW mine printed out without the pre-check. I called SW again and they fixed it and we reprinted the boarding pass. So it may depend on the airline as to how much they will do to add it to the boarding pass.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

For the last two trips, both of my children (6&8) always got pre-check, but not me. I thought that was strange because I'm obviously not going to send them on their own. None of the four adults traveling, including myself got pre-check.

They'll let an adult accompany a young child who has PreCheck on their boarding pass through the PreCheck line. That happened to us on TG last year. Both kids had BPs with Pre, neither my husband's nor mine did (I had forgotten to enter my TT number into my SWA profile..it was the first time flying them since I'd gotten Global Entry), but the TSA directed all four of us to the PreCheck line.


As for the OP...I have Global Entry, my husband does not. I normally take the kids and all the carryons though the PreCheck line with me, and he goes through the regular line without carryons or kids. We still get through faster than he does, but he just meets us at the gate.

 

[DCALove]

It's still really important for everyone to understand that the individual airlines (and, to a moderate extent, the TSA) have very limited control over who gets selected for PreCheck. It's controlled by an algorithm written by an underpaid intern, I'm sure. The Secure Flight database that the TSA administers relies solely on the information provided during booking (first name, FULL middle name, last name, and gender) to determine if you're going to get PreCheck. Applying for a KTN through a Universal Enroll center increases your chances of more consistent PreCheck selection, but only provides PreCheck access for a "random" selection of flights.

If you have a redress number or assigned KTN (this includes you, Global Entry people!) and you still don't receive PreCheck clearance, you can contact your airline and have them reenter your information to ping the Safe Flight database again-- you're more likely to get PreCheck upon the second check of the database.

 

[bumbershoot]

Since we booked through Alaska Air and actually flew Delta outbound and American Airlines inbound I called all 3 airlines prior to our trip to make sure they had our Known Traveler Number.

Scott, over on FlyerTalk there are lots of folks who have difficulty on Alaska when booking through Delta.

And...like I just posted, EVERY single time we check DH in through Alaska, we have to manually enter it into the page. It does not pull from the account info.

This might be made even worse if you're going through to another airline.

They'll let an adult accompany a young child who has PreCheck on their boarding pass through the PreCheck line.

Not at Seatac! Not just a couple months ago... (after people started reporting that it would happen if DS got pre and I didn't)

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Not at Seatac! Not just a couple months ago... (after people started reporting that it would happen if DS got pre and I didn't)

Wow, that sucks. I didn't think we could go through PreCheck because only the kids had the designation, so we went to the regular line, but the TSA officer checking BPs at the regular line told us to go to the PreCheck line, and as we approached the PreCheck line, the TSA officer there said, "Let's see the kids' boarding passes who got you over here." LOL. It was nice since it was TG and the regular line was pretty awful. There was literally no one in front of us at PreCheck and Southwest had just started participating (this was November 2013), so maybe they insisted we go through PreCheck since the regular lines were so bad and no one was using the PreCheck line? We did hear one of the officers say to another, "Southwest is sending all their kids through with PreCheck" (all of us, including the kids, are Rapid Rewards members) but we haven't had it happen since, so maybe it was because the program was new to Southwest, or because it was TG, or both. Who knows. All I know is that it benefitted us, but it's never happened again.

 

[laughinplace199]

This precheck thing is new to me. We just flew RT from BOS to LAX. I had heard about precheck, but didn't apply for it.

When we got to security in BOS, they stamped my boarding pass, DD15's, & DS7's and sent us to the precheck line. DH and DS13 did not get it. I was thrilled because DD has allergies and asthma, so we travel with Epi Pens, inhalers, and other liquid meds that usually have to be declared to TSA. This time, we didn't have to do anything!

At LAX, our whole family was given precheck status for our flight back to Boston.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If a child has TSA Pre on his boarding pass and adult/s traveling with him do not, the adults are not allowed through the TSA Pre line. Some agents apparently make exceptions, but don't count on it.

I don't understand paying $75 for TSA Pre when for $100 you can get Global Entry, which is much more useful.

If you randomly get TSA Pre and aren't familiar with it, please review the rules before you get to the airport, so you don't hold up the line removing shoes, liquids, laptops, etc.

 

[wilkeliza]

If a child has TSA Pre on his boarding pass and adult/s traveling with him do not, the adults are not allowed through the TSA Pre line. Some agents apparently make exceptions, but don't count on it.

I don't understand paying $75 for TSA Pre when for $100 you can get Global Entry, which is much more useful.

If you randomly get TSA Pre and aren't familiar with it, please review the rules before you get to the airport, so you don't hold up the line removing shoes, liquids, laptops, etc.

I've been looking into it and we aren't considering Global Entry because we don't fly internationally that often. I think we have done an international flight once in the last five years. Howver we fly domestically 20+ times a year.

 

[Best Aunt]

If you randomly get TSA Pre and aren't familiar with it, please review the rules before you get to the airport, so you don't hold up the line removing shoes, liquids, laptops, etc.

If you didn't pay for it and don't realize that you can randomly be assigned to it, you might not realize that you have it until you get to the security line at the airport. And you won't know what the rules are, hence slowing down the line. (There was an article about this in the paper.)

Also, sometimes it does not show on the boarding pass printed at home, so even if you are observant you wouldn't know that you have it.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

.....
Also, sometimes it does not show on the boarding pass printed at home, so even if you are observant you wouldn't know that you have it.

This doesn't make any sense. If TSA Pre isn't printed on your boarding pass, then you don't have it.

 

[wilkeliza]

This doesn't make any sense. If TSA Pre isn't printed on your boarding pass, then you don't have it.

Some airports do random draws for people to use the precheck line. Both JFK and MCO have done this while I was flying out of them.

 

[Best Aunt]

This doesn't make any sense. If TSA Pre isn't printed on your boarding pass, then you don't have it.

Printed the boarding pass at home. It did not say precheck. Had the boarding pass scanned at security; it told her that I did have precheck. I was confused. She was confused. Her coworker told her to put me in the precheck line. Asked about it at the gate. Airline employee printed boarding pass again; this time it did show precheck.

 

[DVC-Don]

Printed the boarding pass at home. It did not say precheck. Had the boarding pass scanned at security; it told her that I did have precheck. I was confused. She was confused. Her coworker told her to put me in the precheck line. Asked about it at the gate. Airline employee printed boarding pass again; this time it did show precheck.

Happened to me. I was told that if I had booked the flight prior to getting my trusted flyer code the precheck would not show up on the boarding pass when printed from home. I called SW and they were able to enter the trusted flyer info into the booking and then I could print printed a pass with the precheck on the pass.