TSA, Part 3

Check out Laura Flippin's latest blog post:

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted that TSA is trying to increase enrollments in the PreCheck program but that not all consumers are eager to sign up.  For one thing, as the article points out:

Lots of travelers complain they enrolled in PreCheck but rarely get through airport checkpoints more quickly. At the same time, huge numbers of travelers who never signed up get routed into PreCheck lanes. At peak business-travel hours, the PreCheck lines can back up longer than the regular screening lines.

This is certainly my experience.  I’m often screened out of TSA PreCheck even though I now have my PreCheck/Global Entry pass.   And when I am granted PreCheck, only in Washington DC and at very small airports – like Birmingham, Alabama – does the PreCheck line seem to move quickly and more efficiently than regular screening.

As for Global Entry . . . well, the truth is I’ve had trouble with almost all the terminals and despite several efforts with the TSA to figure out why my passport or other information (including the Global Entry card issued by the TSA!) won’t work when I try to use them at customs/immigration on re-entry into the USA, no one seems to be able to figure it out.  According to TSA, there is nothing wrong with my card or my status.  As one very nice TSA officer put it when clearing me through regular process after my Global Entry still didn’t work on the last return to the USA, “it’s a weird system; and we don’t really understand it.”

Hardly comforting as a diagnosis from the federal agency charged with security and protection at the border.  But perhaps at least honest.  I still think Global Entry/PreCheck is a great program, and can work very efficiently for travelers.  But there is a lot of work required.  Even with my defective fingers.

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