My experience getting TSA PreCheck and why it might be right for you

For those unaware, TSA PreCheck is a program that allows you to go through a significantly dressed-down version of airport security. Instead of having to take out your toiletries and laptop, and take off your shoes and belt, you leave all your clothes on and place your carry-on bags directly onto the X-ray machine. You also go through a metal detector instead of a full-body scanner.

These things are all great, but what makes PreCheck really great is that it is its own line at the airport. And nobody is ever in it. This is partly because very few people have PreCheck, but it is also because PreCheck is so fast that it’d be very difficult for a line to build up.

Beyond the convenience of an easier security process though is the time that PreCheck saves and the uncertainty it takes out of the security experience. Before PreCheck I would always show up at least an hour before my flight, and sometimes I’d barely make it if security lines were long. Now I can show up only 30 minutes before my flight and have no problem making it. Every time. There’s no variance in my wait time.

Applying for PreCheck

TSA PreCheck is part of a larger program run by the U.S. government called Global Entry. Global Entry allows you to bypass customs lines when returning from abroad. If you get Global Entry, you also get PreCheck. Normally Global Entry costs $100 for a five-year membership. Even if you only fly 2-3 times a year, this is a great deal in my opinion. But for me the fee was free because I have the Amex Platinum credit card. One of the benefits of this card is reimbursement of the Global Entry application fee.

In order to get Global Entry you go to the GOES site, click “Global Entry”, and apply. It takes a few weeks to hear back about your approval. Once you’ve received approval you have to schedule an in-person appointment to present your identification documents. There are enrollment centers all over the country, and you schedule an appointment online to visit one. I’ve read you can also just do a walk-in, but it doesn’t always work.  

Global Entry Interview

I went to the Ronald Reagan building in downtown DC to do my appointment because I live nearby and there were tons of appointment times available. I waited about 10 minutes and was called into an office by an officer. They asked me a couple questions about my recent international travel, took my picture, and I was done. From walking in to leaving the total time was maybe 18 minutes. A couple minutes after walking out I received an email that I had been fully approved. Also in the email was my Trusted Traveler number, the number you need to enter in your frequent flyer profile.

Turning Global Entry approval into PreCheck security lines

In order to be eligible for PreCheck, you need a few things to happen:

1. Your airport must be a PreCheck location (list of airports here)
2. Your airline must subscribe to PreCheck at that specific airport (click an individual airport in the list above to see what airlines have PreCheck there)
3. Your Trusted Traveler number must be attached to your flight booking at least 72 hours before you fly.

So how do you attach your Trusted Traveler number to your reservations? First, log in to all of your frequent flyer program websites and add the number to your profile. That should add the number to any future reservation you make using that airline’s frequent flyer number. Also, if you book your flight on your airline’s website, there will be a space to enter your number. I also direct message with airlines on Twitter if I’m not sure my trusted traveler number has been added to a specific reservation.

How to know if you’ve gotten PreCheck for your flight

In order to know before you get to the security line whether you’ll be able to go through PreCheck, make sure to check in for your flight and look at your boarding pass. For most airlines you can see “PreCheck” right on the boarding pass, even on your phone. If you don’t see PreCheck on there, it doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t get it, but you’re certainly not guaranteed it. 

Why I paid $20 for a seat on JetBlue this morning

I hate paying for extras when I travel. To avoid the wireless fee at certain airports I have a free 4G hotspot. To avoid baggage fees I have a credit card or status with every airline I fly. To avoid fees for airport lounges I have the Amex Platinum. But today, anathema to everything I stand for, I purchased a $20 Even More Space seat on JetBlue.

Here are some facts about JetBlue:

1. I can’t stand flying them
1. They’re in the bad terminal at DCA
2. They’re in the bad terminal at BOS
3. Their customer service quality varies way too much
4. They don’t have PreCheck anywhere (apparently that is changing in the future)
5. They don’t partner with any airlines I want to use their points on
6. They don’t fly anywhere besides Boston that I want to go
7. They are consistently more delayed on the routes I fly than their competitors

2. They board their elites first, and then they board the rest of the plane back to front

So why am I flying JetBlue in the first place? And why am I paying them even more money to get a different seat? Well, it turns out that JetBlue is consistently cheaper between Washington and Boston than US Airways. So that answers why I fly them. What about the seat thing though?

I’ve taken the 640am to Dulles or Reagan a number of times on Monday mornings. The flight is always pretty full, and by the time the back rows get boarded there is no more overhead space. Since my first JetBlue flight, when I discovered that sitting in the back gives you a way better chance of putting your bag overhead, I’ve always been careful to pick a seat towards the back, somewhere around row 15 on their Embraer planes. Not so far back that it'll take forever to get off the plane, but also not so far up that I won't get my bag overhead. Goldilocks.

Last night when I checked in, I was surprised to find that I had picked row 4. Not only that, but the rest of the plane was full and I couldn’t switch seats. I was definitely going to have to gate-check my bag.

If I was flying into Reagan and the flight was at 6 instead of 640, I might have been fine with this. Reagan is a small airport where you can quickly get your checked bags from the baggage claim, and landing at 730 or 8 I am just fine waiting 20 minutes before heading to the office. But flying into Dulles at 640 is another story. The flight lands at 820, meaning if I’m on time I have 40 minutes to make a 20-minute trip to the office. Add on the 10-15 minutes it takes to get out of the uncomprehensively massive monstrosity (albeit a beautiful monstrosity) that is Dulles airport, and you can see how close that is cutting it. Plus, this flight never seems to be on time when I’m on it. Plus plus, bags take forever to arrive at Dulles. I don't fault JetBlue for that. If the people have to travel a couple miles to get out, I can't imagine how far the bags have to go.

I decided since there were no open seats available in the back of the plane that I would purchase an Even More Space seat at the airport the next morning. These seats are the exit rows and the bulkhead row on the Embraer jets, meaning they’re a bit more spacious (as the name indicates) and I could more easily get an hour of sleep in on this very early flight. Just as importantly, it meant I could board before everyone else.

I got in a nice nap. My bag went overhead no problem. The front of the plane did have to check their bags. And my flight was 10 minutes late. Best $20 I ever spent on a seat.

The credit cards currently in my wallet

In the world of points and miles earning it is important to do a status check of your credit card situation every so often. This means literally looking in your wallet and seeing what you’ve got in there. I find that over time, with all the cards I’m signing up for, the number of cards in my wallet tends to grow, so I personally need to do some maintenance every couple months just to keep me walking upright!

Whenever I have a credit card with minimum spend that I need to meet, I always make that my first in wallet. Beyond that though is the regular group of cards I keep in there, the list of which, and the reasons why I keep them, is below in the order they are used:

1. Citi Forward for Students – 5 Thank You points per $1 at restaurants/bars (6.65 cents)

As a 20-something in the big city, most of my discretionary spend is going out to eat or drink. This Citi Forward card earns 5x at those places! Thank You points can be used to purchase airfare and other types of travel on Citi’s travel site where they have a value of 1 cent apiece.

I also have the Citi ThankYou Premier, which automatically makes each of my Thank You points worth 1.33 cents (this is about to change to 1.25 cents in October) if I spend them on air travel, even if I earned the Thank You points with another card. So the 5x I earn at restaurants on Citi Forward is really 6.65 points.

This card is technically only available for students, but I know multiple people who have signed up and chosen “Graduate” in the student box and have received this without issue.

No annual fee, so you can keep this card forever!

2. Capital One Spark Cash – 2% cash back on all purchases

For my non-category spend, this card simply cannot be beat. 2% cash back on everything, and it’s a Visa so it’s accepted everywhere. It’s technically a business card but I signed up using my personal social security number as the tax ID and had no problems.

No annual fee the first year, but $59 after that. It’s such a great card I’ll probably just pay it. It’s that awesome.

3. Amex Blue Cash – 3% cash back at grocery stores

The only time I ever use this card is at grocery stores, but it’s valuable there. There is an annual fee version that earns 6% cash back at grocery stores, but I don’t like annual fees.

No annual fee on this one.

4. Amex Platinum

The only spending I do on this card is on car rentals because Amex Platinum has fantastic insurance coverage. The reason I keep this in my wallet though is for the lounge access, which I can get at American, Delta, and US Airways lounges on the day I travel (regardless of who I’m flying).

No annual fee the first year via the Ameriprise link, but $450 thereafter.

I stand by United Airlines

It seems every other blogger out there just hates on United Airlines nonstop. They complain about bad delays, poor service, and old planes, among other things. Yes, you can have a bad experience on any airline, but it seems like everyone is always having bad experiences on United. And until recently I agreed with how the other bloggers felt and really have avoided United unless it makes clear sense ot fly it. But I’ve changed my mind.

I’d like to take a moment to defend what I believe is now a great airline. Now, United is not exactly the Bad News Bears needing saving from the mighty Yankees. Actually, as the largest airline in the world, they’re pretty much the Yankees in that story. But still, everyone could use a little love sometimes.

My most recent United experience

Ironically, it was my Labor Day weekend from hell that has brought me to my newfound love of United.  

8/30 – RIC-ORD

Friday night I was scheduled to leave Richmond at 6pm to O’Hare where I would meet up with my girlfriend and travel on to New Orleans with her. We boarded at the regular time but were immediately deplaned thanks to a ground stop at O’Hare due to thunderstorms. Why we boarded the plane in the first place when a ground stop was in effect, I’m unsure, but this ended up being the least of my concerns.

I had built in 3.5 hours to layover in Chicago, so even with two hours of delays I was still going to be fine. Even so, I brought my ticket to the United agent to see if they would get me a seat on a flight tomorrow just in case. It was a shot in the dark; no airline in my experience has been willing to do that unless you’re cancelled or actually going to miss your connection. Amazingly, the agent was more than happy to protect me on flights the next morning. Not only that, she protected my girlfriend too, despite her ticket not being affected by my delay. I was shocked but very happy.

We boarded a second time around 9pm but were held at the gate. The crew was upbeat and passed out water and snacks while answering questions from concerned passengers about their connections. The ground stop continued and we had to get off again. The agents had remained at the gate and began to process every remaining passenger’s flight changes, all the while maintaining fantastic attitudes.

When the flight was finally cancelled at 11pm, they were all very apologetic but obviously there was nothing they could do. They had put people on other airlines or other flights as best they could, and remained after the cancellation to continue doing so.

8/31 – RIC-ORD (Take 2)

The next morning I came back to the airport and the ticket agent recognized me from the night before and volunteered to put me and my girlfriend together on our ORD-MSY flight, as well as get me a far-up seat for my RIC-ORD flight so I could get off quickly. This time around we actually got off the ground!

After landing I got off the plane to wait for my gate-check bag. While I was waiting, the flight attendant came running up the jet bridge to hand me my Kindle that I had left in the seatback pocket. I was incredibly impressed at her hustle but also at the fact that she remembered I was reading a Kindle and knew who to give it to.

8/31 – ORD-MSY

For some reason my girlfriend had been unable to check in for her flight online, so I tweeted @United and they took care of it within minutes and sent her her boarding pass. Amazing. Especially since only a year ago United wasn’t even using Twitter to interact with customers.

After a great few hours in the brand new United club in terminal F (best plane views of any lounge I’ve been to yet), we went to the gate to board our New Orleans flight, only to discover that the plane had a mechanical issue and had to be taken out of service. Luckily there was another plane available that we were moved to, so we only ended up leaving about 30 minutes late.

9/2 – IAH-ORD/DCA

On the return, my girlfriend was again unable to check in for her flight, a problem quickly solved again by the United Twitter team. My flight had a mechanical issue discovered after we boarded, so for the third time in a weekend I had to deplane and wait. I was worried about not making it onto another flight that night so I tweeted @United and they protected me on the last flight of the night. Saved me a phone conversation (United’s phone reps are not nearly as helpful as their airport staff) and gave me peace of mind while I waited. We ended up departing about two hours late.

The staff on board, as had been the case with every previous flight that weekend, were courteous and threw a little fun into the delay announcements. They were also understanding of upset passengers and passed out water while we waited for info.

My conclusions

Operationally, United still leaves a good amount to be desired. The planes that had mechanical delays had been on the ground before the issues were discovered, so it annoyed me that in one case I had to board for basically no reason, and in the other that were in not for a stroke of luck our flight would have been cancelled with very little time for recourse. Additionally, the weather in Chicago and the ground stop were known about before boarding on Friday evening, and therefore I don’t think we ever should have boarded the plane. And given the severity of the storms, the fact that they took so long to cancel it really made no sense to me.

But what United lacks in operational excellence, it has gone above and beyond to make up for with incredible customer service. I am not an elite flyer on United but at all times I felt I was treated like one. Very rarely has an airline, even one I do have status with, gone the extra mile as United did for me at pretty much every point during the trip.

I was also very impressed with United’s airport product. I am used to their dingy old chairs, no outlets anywhere, and just generally gross-looking gate areas. But they have completely upgraded even their smaller airports like New Orleans to be outfitted beautifully. And their clubs all look brand new.

So in the end I don’t think United is as terrible as everyone says it is. I recommend giving the airline another shot.