I consider myself a seasoned traveler, having averaged more than 100,000 miles/year over the last 25 years. So when something isn’t right, I usually pick up on it. That’s what happened when I was catching a recent flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Chicago (ORD). Since I wasn’t traveling with my family, I was traveling carry-on only, and I’d checked in online, so I had my boarding pass ready to go. I remember looking at the regular TSA security line and thinking, “Those poor people.” The wait had to be well over 30 minutes, and even the TSA PreCheck line was 15 people deep.
Feeling grateful, I cruised up to the three CLEAR kiosks, which were each in use but had no line. CLEAR costs $179/year (though there are ways to get it cheaper). One thing I love about CLEAR is that I don’t need to show my ID to use it, which means I can leave my wallet in my bag. I simply scan my fingerprints and my boarding pass and a representative walks me to the front of the TSA PreCheck line. That’s how it always works.
On this day, though, the representative walked me to the other side to the regular security line. I asked her if CLEAR had changed things up in the last few days, and she asked me, “Do you normally have TSA PreCheck?” I told that I always do. “It’s not on your boarding pass,” she said—and she was absolutely right! I’m so used to having it on there that I hadn’t double-checked.
TSA claims that PreCheck members don’t always get PreCheck privileges for safety reasons, so I figured that this was one of those times. The representative asked if I wanted to return to ticketing to clear things up, but I saw no need. I sucked it up, took my laptop out and shoes off (I wish I’d worn socks…), and that was that. But then…
Two days later when I checked in online for my next flight, I looked to see if TSA PreCheck was on my boarding pass. And guess what? It wasn’t, once again. I knew something was wrong. So when I arrived at Chicago O’Hare, I went straight to the check-in desk. I then asked the agent if my known traveler number was in the system. She told me that it was and then asked if my birthdate was January 1, 1990. “Thanks for the compliment,” I said, “but no.” That was the problem.
You see, a client had booked my ticket and apparently entered a random birthdate with my info. Once the agent had corrected the error, she reprinted my ticket. And sure enough, my TSA PreCheck stamp was on the new boarding pass. Since O’Hare doesn’t have CLEAR, this saved me a good 15 minutes in security. There wasn’t one person in the TSA PreCheck line while regular security was about 20 people deep and moving slowly.
What to do if TSA PreCheck isn’t printed on your boarding pass
Moral of the story: If you have TSA PreCheck and the checkmark isn’t printed on your boarding pass, check with an airline agent at the check-in desk. And make sure to double-check that your known traveler number, your birthdate, and the spelling of your name are inputted correctly.
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That happened to me as well. I called the airline 800# from the terminal, ( the ticket counter line was too long) and they corrected and added over the phone. I went back to the kiosk and reprinted my pass with the TSA PreCheck on it. * full disclosure this was a few years ago, but could be worth a try if the line is too long at the ticket counter.
Great tip! Also, my daughter was recently on a flight and when she checked in onlineand got her boarding pass the day before, it had TSA pre-check on it and she took a screenshot.
However, when she got to the airport the next day, the airline app was showing her boarding pass without TSA pre-check. So she gratefully used her picture of the boarding pass to go through the pre-check line. I will always in the future take a picture of that TSA pre-check boarding pass just in case for some weird reason it gets removed!
In addition, if you see it missing and you are still a day away from departure, send a tweet to the airline. I find that they are way faster than calling them.
Johnny – I’m sure with the amount of travel you do, you receive pre-check 99.9% of the time. However, if you read the small print on the TSA website, pre-check is never ‘guaranteed’. The airline decides who gets pre-check on a flight by flight basis. As a corporate travel coordinator, i do sometimes come across some of my travelers who complain to me that they didn’t get pre-check and that’s the reason I give. However, from your experience, I’ll double check that their names etc. are inputted correctly. Thanks.
@Gill Bray makes a great point. Azores Airlines apparently does not pay Boston airport for TSA pre-check and so you will never have it on your Azores Airlines boarding pass there.
I never paid for pre-check, but a few years back it started showing up on boarding passes. I am a 70+ female and thought perhaps it was one of the “perks” of aging. On a recent flight it wasn’t on my boarding pass, but I thought nothing of it since I had done nothing extra for the privilege to begin with.
How does one get on the TSA Pre-check list to begin with?