I just went through security for the first time at Albany International Airport (it’s not exactly an international airport; I only saw domestic flights on the departures board but I believe some flights used to fly into Canada.) The security line had about a dozen people in it and as I made my way to the TSA PreCheck lane, an airport worker (not the TSA), yelled at me and said I was going the wrong way, as there’s only one security line. “Even for passengers with TSA PreCheck?” I asked. He answered yes, but said I would still get the benefits PreCheck affords passengers. I was thinking to myself, ‘isn’t one of the benefits to get a shorter line?’ but I wasn’t in the mood for arguing and I wasn’t in a hurry.
In the regular line, I noticed the TSA agent handing nine out of 10 of the passengers a laminated TSA PreCheck card that stated that passengers did not have to “take off your shoes, belt, headwear or lighter outer garment.” But the next paragraph read that you must “divest your laptop computer and 3-1-1 compliant bag of liquids and must place them in a divesting bin.”
Divest? Really? Do you think most passengers know what divest means? I had to look it up. And worse yet, all the passengers around me had no idea what TSA PreCheck was. Now, I’m not even sure what the point of having TSA PreCheck is. Aren’t you supposed to be “pre-checked” with an interview? According to the TSA website, the PreCheck program “allows low-risk travelers to experience expedited, more efficient security screening at participating U.S. airport checkpoints for domestic and international travel.” But in order to receive this privilege, you must apply, undergo a background check, provide fingerprints, have an interview, etc. Only once approved and granted a Known Traveler Number, should you then be able to use the TSA PreCheck line.
So – what gives if TSA agents are randomly handing out TSA PreCheck cards and what does this mean for the safety of passengers and the security process as a whole?
Have been through the TSA Pre-check process and have it printed on my tickets. Does not seem to stop TSA from “specially selecting” me for “extra screening” on several occasions after clearing the “x-ray” machine and baggage being screened. Have no idea why. Just kind of figured it is part of “the go along to get along process.”
I have never applied for TSA PreCheck, yet I seem to get it on my boarding pass quite often. Sometimes it is a blessing, sometimes not. Inconsistency is exactly right. Some airports the PreCk line closes at certain times… and lately it seems the PreCk line is longer than the regular line. No real convenience there. And if you are a female business traveler like myself, almost all quality dress shoes have a steel shank in them so must be removed anyway. Very confused about what is going on. It obviously has convinced me that applying for PreCk would certainly NOT be worth it at this point!
SWA @ BWI sends almost everyone through TSA PreChk at terminal A.
TSA is offering up to $15,000 with the best idea that makes the lines move quicker.
https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933343
How about sticking to the process and reasoning behind offering PreCheck in the first place for people who paid for the privilege?
Great column Johnny! First, at Christmas I qualified for pre-check by filling out a form for my daughter on the SWA website. I recieved an email from TSA saying we had qualified. When I checked in at our home airport, SDF, “PRE-CHECK” was printed on our tickets. We went through a very short marked line with no trouble. The story was different at our connecting airport, MSP, when we attempted to go through the unattended pre-check line. Before we reached the tables a BOOMING voice behind me said I was in the wrong line and I needed to enter the non pre-check line where Mr. BOOMING voice patted me down, “wanded” me, and had me go through the scanner/ imager/x-ray machine. If I were by myself it would just be an inconvenience but by then my daughter was pretty shaken up so I asked to speak with a supervisor. Bad move! He WAS the supervisor and he told me I was trying to sneak through the line!
In any case it does appear each person or airport has its own interpretation of pre-check and it is”divested”of logic.
Bob
Tsa hasn’t “wanded” anybody in YEARS. Also, why would you try to go through a line that was obviously unattended?
Elizabeth’s comment about the Swiss Army Knife reminds me of my favorite story of TSA inconsistency: I was sternly and unkindly (“What are you, an idiot? Flip flops are SHOES”) warned to remove my flip flops by the agent in San Francisco only to have the agent in the Maui airport laugh at me and tell me that “Flip flops don’t count. Leave them on.”
Homeland “security” with its’ BS TSA is the biggest, useless waste of time and money ever conceived by man. I love all the safety all this BS brings. Twice young people got to the top of the world’s most secure building, the new world trade center. Someone, even with cops and cameras all over got to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge and put up white flags. People in boats regularly get to the restricted areas around JFK airport. The list of f ups by our moron run government is endless.
The last time I flew, I was prechecked, and I didn’t have to take my laptop out of my bag, or any of that stuff. Then on the way home, I got stopped and they had to swab my shoes.
I was handed a Precheck tag last winter when my husband and I were travelling. He didn’t get one and I had no clue why I got one, they just plain out handed it to me! And a few other random passengers in the same line we were. I don’t get it.
Same thing has happened to my wife and me on several occasions when departing from MSY…She or I have been told “you’re Precheck” and then directed into different lines….one line no shoes off and the other line requiring disrobing and the walk-through Zapomatic whole-body microwave.. Neither of us has applied for Precheck.
Many small airport don’t have space/money to do a PreCheck line so they do the Card thing.
The letting many people go thru PreCheck is go get them to see how nice it is and give our Government $100 to do it. It’s all about $
The 2″ Swiss Army knife is because the Crybaby Stewardess’ Union whined about letting us have them but you can bring on 24″ sewing needles and sharpened dinner kniives and plastic knives. American’s are ruled by the whiny minority!
I went to Hawaii in June and I had TSA Pre-Check on my boarding pass. I have never applied for it or had an interview with TSA. How did I get the pre-check?
Same thing happened to me at a different airport. I got one but not my husband.
I’ll take the consistent approach at small airports (which, by design, tend to have shorter lines) over what can happen at large ones when PreCheck is closed for the day (or afternoon, or whatever). Recently at ATL, for example, I was told that I had to follow all of the same procedures as everyone else because PreCheck closes at 9 pm daily. But I at least don’t have to take off shoes or be expected to go through the AIT full-body scanner, right? Wrong. Since I don’t do those machines (my main reason for buying PreCheck), I had to wait for a pat-down. And wait. And wait. I’m glad I arrived earlier than planned! The guy who did the personal screening did apologize for the inconsistent policy, but the women on the pre-screening side were quite the opposite: how DARE I ask questions! Yet when I’d been in this same situation (same 10 pm flight) the prior month, all of the PreCheck policies applied for me in the regular lane: shoes on, laptop in bag, passed through metal detector, etc. Quick and easy.
Two weeks ago in ATL, while waiting for my backpack to emerge from x-ray, I was told that they couldn’t scan it because it contained a laptop, like I’d broken the rules and would have to start all over. Yes, I’m in the PreCheck lane, so that doesn’t apply, I said. It doesn’t matter, I was told. Huh? At least they didn’t make me personally go back through, but they had to put my laptop in a separate bin and rerun it and the bag. This is the same bag and laptop as always. No explanation. Just inconsistency across the board.
Don’t even get me started on the PHX terminal(s) where PreCheck closes every day at 2 pm!