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TSA PreCheck membership is exploding- rate your experience

TSA PreCheck now has 355 sign-up centers. (Image: TSA)

TSA PreCheck now has 355 sign-up centers. (Image: TSA)

On my way back from New York to San Francisco last week, I was the ONLY traveler in the PreCheck line at JFK on a Monday morning at around 10 am. Granted, it’s not really rush hour, but still… it felt like a ghost town.

It was little more than nine months ago that the Transportation Security Administration announced that membership in its trusted traveler program — which entitles members to expedited screening procedures — had passed the 1 million mark. And now that membership number has doubled.

TSA said this week that PreCheck now has more than 2 million travelers enrolled. And member applications are continuing to increase.

The agency has also continued to expand the option to more U.S. airports. TSA said that during 2015, it added 48 more airports to the program, so it now offers a total of 450 special screening lanes at 167 U.S. airports. 

Over the past year or so, the agency embarked on a huge expansion of enrollment centers for the PreCheck program, using an outside vendor called MorphoTrust, a subsidiary of the French identity firm Safran.

The firm has boosted the number of enrollment offices, which it calls IdentoGO Centers, to more than 355 locations nationwide. And even though that expansion has resulted in a doubling of PreCheck membership since last March, “IdentoGO Centers are now processing nearly 50 percent more applications every day, compared to earlier in 2015,” the company said.

Besides opening hundreds of new enrollment centers, the company has also started a mobile enrollment program for businesses and has used a partnership with H&R Block to create more retail options for walk-in sign-ups.

PreCheck membership costs $85 for five years. Expedited screening is also open to members of U.S. Customs and Border Protection trusted traveler programs like Global Entry.

A few months ago, TSA said that it had started to scale back on the practice of steering non-members of PreCheck into the PreCheck screening lanes in order to more equitably balance the loads on its inspectors.

Readers: Is it taking you longer to get through PreCheck lines recently? Overall, how would you rate your opinion of PreCheck these days?

Despite a lot of the bellyaching I hear, I’d still say it’s pretty excellent! I know there are plenty of folks who may not agree, but to me PreCheck is one of the best things to happen to air travel since the introduction of seatback TV 🙂

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Comments

  1. I am amazed by the people in front of me in PSA precheck who have enrolled in the program but are standing in front of me taking off their shoes and digging in their bags for their computers. Please get a clue people.

  4. At JFK pre-check is always faster than the general line, but Sky Priority is often much shorter plus the pre-check line opens later than needed. And if one elects to go through the Priority lane, if you don’t pull your laptop out, you will get “special” treatment of your carry on. At LGA, pre-check can be a joke with so many obvious occasional travelers in line, one wonders the rationale of the selection process.

  5. Southwest Airlines. I have been on the phone with both them and TSA, both blaming the other. TSA said there was no reason I shouldn’t get it every time. I have no clue what the reason is but pre-check is a must for me time wise so I did what I had to do and that was go with the 100% airline even if it cost a bit more sometimes.

  8. Thanks, D. Based on what I’m hearing from readers, ATL seems to have the longest PreCheck lines. This probably has something to do with the single entrypoint (main terminal) vs multiple entrypoints seen at other airports. Denver probably falls into a similar category.

  9. PreCheck is a mixed bag for me. Atlanta is the place I have the most difficulty and longest lines. Seems to work much better in other cities for me. Many times Sky Priority line seems to move faster.

  10. Thanks, R. TSA will not reveal who or how random folks are selected. The only anecdotal info I have is that senior citizens seem to be chosen more often, so age could be a factor.

  11. I got directed to Pre security line last time I flew although I have not joined the program. Is it possible that frequent fliers are being processed this way based only on frequent flier program and flight history?

  12. I fly out of ATL. I fly on Sunday late afternoons and TSA is miserable. I don’t get it. I do this every week and it is always the same. There are only two baggage scanning machines and only one is ever in use. I’m sure it isn’t like that on a Monday morning but ATL doesn’t get it during the week

  13. I have Global Entry which also gives me precheck. It is wonderful! Even if lines are long they go pretty fast. Flying is so much easier now. Unfortunately one airline only gives me the precheck option about 20% of the time and says it is TSA’s fault. While I understand there is random pull outs, that is way too often. I have stopped flying with them. I get 100% precheck on the other airline I fly with.

  14. I haven’t noticed longer lines. There are a few airports thst suck at having open lanes during legit travel periods (looking at you, PHX and BUR). I still maintain OAK is the hallmark of how an airport should process it’s screening lanes. Pre Check and otherwise. That Southwest portal for the 6a flight pier is terrifying but waits are never that awful.

  15. The last four times I’ve traveled domestically, United Domestic at SFO at 9:30 am on weekdays has had about 40 – 50 people in the PRE line, but it usually goes pretty quickly because travelers don’t have to unpack or undress. Early Sunday am PRE lines at ABQ have been short and fast.

    However, my wife had a badly printed boarding pass which wouldn’t scan, so she had to go through the regular line once at ABQ. I had the same problem at PHL last year. These were good lessons to get your boarding passes e-mailed to your smartphone.

    Alas, PRE hasn’t been available for Trans-Atlantic flights.

  16. Yes, that’s what kept me in the pre-check lane. It was a big change, though, from the usual of a “lineup” of 2 or 3 people. 😉

  17. I sometimes see the PreCheck line looking pretty long, but since the screening process is so much faster the actual wait time is usually significantly less.

  18. Eric if you have Global Entry, you should get your “Known Traveler Number” off the back of your your card and put it on your airline FF program profile or enter it in the “Known Traveler” field when booking your ticket. If you have Global Entry, you are automatically in PreCheck.

  19. I’ve had it at BUF that the pre-check lane was long enough for me to consider using the regular lanes.

  20. My small local airport used to only have “psuedo-PRE” (no separate line, still had to pull computer and liquids out, but got to keep your shoes on), but now that have a full-PRE during peak periods, so it’s getting even better. Only allowing people who are in the programs through also had ended the grief of people not knowing what to do and slowing things down. It’s made security a lot quicker and more predictable.

  21. TSA precheck is the only nice thing that we have gotten out of flying in the last decade. I can’t image having to go through the old way at all, in the two years that it’s been in effect I have used it probably 50 times without a bad experience. My wife travels a bit also and she has had the same experience, all good.
    Even at some airports that don’t have full TSA precheck like Columbia, South Carolina they go out of their way to get you to the front of the line and don’t have you go through the scanner that checks your body, let’s you not have to stripe down from coats and belts and lets you leaving computer and Ipad in the bag.

    Yes I love TSA and have found no problems with long lines, I have never had to wait longer than 7 minutes and my base is Washington, Dulles.

  22. I originally signed up for the Global Entry program and usually got PRE when I printed my domestic travel boarding passes until last week. If I am a Global Entry member do I also need to sign up for TSA PRE to get PRE all the time or was that one time just an exception?

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