I consider myself a seasoned traveler. Before kids, I averaged more than 100,000 miles/year over 25 years. So when something isn’t right, I usually pick up on it. That’s what happened when I was catching a flight once 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. RELATED: The Trick to Getting TSA PreCheck Fast And 4 Other Tips You Need to Know
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 information. Once the agent had corrected the error, she reprinted my ticket. And sure enough, my TSA PreCheck stamp was on the new boarding pass. 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.
This post, originally published in August, 2019, has been updated.
KEEP READING
–How To Make Sure the TSA PreCheck Checkmark is On Your Boarding Pass
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–Mom Shares Hilarious Reason She’s Not Getting TSA PreCheck Anytime Soon
–How to Get a Full Bottle of Water Through Airport Security
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Clear isn’t at Terminal 3 at O’Hare. AA doesn’t support it. Unless you meant 2 instead of 3.
I was on SYD-LAX-MSP flight.
Arrived at LAX after a 14+ hour flight. No pre check was showing on my boarding pass. I had been flagged with the dreaded SSSS on my Sydney to LA flight but not in the LAX-MSP flight. 7 AM in a packed LAX domestic terminal on little to no sleep and no PreCheck
Had the check in agent see what the problem was. They had changed my birthdate by a day. But were completely unable to fix the problem and had to go through regular security. It took about 45 minutes more than my husband that went through Precheck. And the TSA agents are complete a holes about the whole situation.
?? “Since O’Hare doesn’t have CLEAR”… yes it does. Maybe not in every terminal. I know Clear is in terminals 1, 3, and 5.
Sorry! I know it has CLEAR as I used it two weeks ago. Just updated this old article.
How does one get on the TSA Pre-check list to begin with?
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.
@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.
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.
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.
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!
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.