Is TSA Pre-screen helpful or worth the cost?

[High Cs]

Does having this make getting through security with wheelchair, etc. easier?

[RuthC]

Oh, yes! :) Whenever I get TSA pre-check randomly I rank it right up there with winning the TSA lottery! I recently paid the $85 to be certified as a trusted traveler.

 

No taking shoes off. No pulling the little plastic bag out of the carry-on. No unpacking my tote bag to pull the CPAP out of the bottom, then repacking the thing when done. Fewer things to try to keep my eyes on as I go one way, and my valuables go another.

 

Depending on the airport, sometimes I don't have to get out of the wheelchair. I am pushed through another place, wanded and patted down, and off I go. Sometimes (and I can do this), I walk through the detector using a wooden cane that's provided by TSA.

 

Best $85 I have spent all year.

[chengkp75]

Since it's good for 5 years, that's only $17/year.

[Host Walt]

About the only advantage I've seen is at LAX where the Pre-check lines are usually much shorter.

 

However smaller airports it's no big deal. We were returning from a regional airport after a short trip and used the Pre-check. Turns out there were two lines; one Pre-Check and one regular. The bag scanner suddenly stopped working in the Pre-Check line so we were moved over to the regular line.

 

One hitch. We had to wait until the lane was cleared out before we could go through and we had to do the standard stuff; remove shoes and belt, etc., etc.

 

Bottom line, Pre-Check can be a good deal but not always. In other words, it can't hurt.

[xxoocruiser]

Other things to consider :

 

The TSA Pre-check approval application fee is non-refundable should you not be approved.

 

Having your boarding pass marked as pre-checked approved isn't a 100% guarantee that you still won't have to be fully inspected by TSA as it's also depends on the alerts for that day .

Edited May 23, 2016 by xxoocruiser

[anchorman]

I have MS and use a scooter. My wife has knee and back problems and uses airport wheelchairs. Just not having to take off shoes and belts is worth getting TSA pre-check. We also have Global Entry, but haven't yet had the opportunity to try it going through customs.

[SargassoPirate]

If you travel internationally, pay $15.00 more and go for the Global Entry pass. It will get you through the TSA pre-check as well as the short line when re-entering the U.S.

[ZellaLamb]

This is an interesting question. My husband and I seem to get TSApre assigned to us most times we fly. My experience is random. I don't get out of my scooter or wheelchair as I can't walk through the scanner. With Pre, some airports skip the pat down process and just do an explosives swipe. I don't have to take off my shoes or jacket. Sometimes I still get the pat down but don't have to take off my shoes. My home airport, EWR, (Newark) frequently closes down the Pre line and makes you go through with everyone else. In all cases, I am directed to a different lane that bypasses the long line before the ID check. If I am having bad luck, I am then sent to a line that has strollers and children. They take FOREVER.

 

As for Global Entry, if you ask for wheelchair escort, (which you should always do) you are almost always taken to the front of the line anyway so I'm not sure what the point is.

[SargassoPirate]

"As for Global Entry, if you ask for wheelchair escort, (which you should always do) you are almost always taken to the front of the line anyway so I'm not sure what the point is. "

 

Not every disability or medical condition automatically means wheelchair. Some travelers have issues with prolonged standing. The Global Entry program is well worth it if your international airport has long lines for customs and immigration. I signed up after waiting in line at the international terminal at Dulles for over an hour one time. Too many PAX and too few agents. Now I breeze through the short line. Ahhhhhh.

[GeezerCouple]

"As for Global Entry, if you ask for wheelchair escort, (which you should always do) you are almost always taken to the front of the line anyway so I'm not sure what the point is. "

 

Not every disability or medical condition automatically means wheelchair. Some travelers have issues with prolonged standing. The Global Entry program is well worth it if your international airport has long lines for customs and immigration. I signed up after waiting in line at the international terminal at Dulles for over an hour one time. Too many PAX and too few agents. Now I breeze through the short line. Ahhhhhh.

 

Re-entering the USA from Europe in 2014, with wheelchair assistance, we waited in the longest "wheelchair line" we have ever seen.

It took more than an hour!

But it wasn't quite as long as the "regular" lines.

 

Meanwhile, there were 2 or 3 "Global Entry" desks that remained EMPTY.

Almost no one was using them.

 

We signed up for Global entry right after that!

 

And the next time, on the same flights from Europe to the USA (same airport), again with wheelchair assistance, we were whisked past that same long wheelchair line (and longer regular lines), to a Global Entry line with about 5 people in it.

 

HUGE difference.

 

As for going through TSA pre-departure, even with a wheelchair, with Global Entry (or Pre-Check), there was no need to remove computers or the 3-1-1 bags, my screening was so much faster, and DH didn't need to bother removing his shoes either.

It's MUCH easier!

(Or at least it is at the airports we've used.)

[blondietink]

FWIW, the 4 of us always fly with our passports for our ID, even on domestic flights. We have always received TSA pre-check and use the wheelchair line. Easy as pie. Never had to pay the fee, either.

 

The only international flight we had trouble with was coming back from Mexico through Charlotte. We could not find an electronic monitor that was made for someone sitting in a wheelchair and ended up taking my son's picture for the reentry into the US with him sitting in his chair, which made the picture blank. When we got up to the actual customs agent checking the documents, she commented on the blank picture and all I said is that the monitor was not wheelchair accessible and they let us through.

[sadiecat]

I am in a wheelchair and have not paid for TSA precheck. However when we go to security they always put us in the precheck line and we go right through without having to remove shoes or anything. They just wheel me through and then check out the wheelchair and we are done and on our merry way to the gate.

[Grandma Petania]

Glad to read about these different experiences. My daughter got the Global one when her boyfriend had to go to Paris for his government job, and took her along. I just got the TSA Pre-check last week. I don't intend to travel overseas, but will be flying to Ft. Lauderdale and back to Richmond, VA once a year for a cruise. Because of my age (76), I haven't had to remove my shoes in recent years (though they are Birkenstocks and easy to slip on & off). However, having to take off my jacket and drag out my CPAP and my bag of liquids was a nuisance. (I will probably still get their attention because of my mastectomy, leaving one side of my chest flat, and a very saggy breast filling up the other side.)

 

When I cruised with my daughter in February 2016, I took along a rented transport chair. Although I could walk short distances on the ship (the Oasis), just going through the airports, and from one end of that large ship to the other, it was such a relief to have her push me in it.

 

A couple months ago my legs were getting wobbly, and I took a hard fall that really messed up my back for a while. I'm getting around much better now, but still using a rolling walker or a cane to be sure I don't lose my balance.

 

My daughter and I are booked on the Harmony for February 2017, and have decided to take some sort of wheelchair - even if I don't need it all the time. After the annoyances we encountered with the transport chair on our last cruise, I opted to have a manual wheelchair from now on, so I can move myself around in a shop, etc., and she shouldn't have so much difficulty pushing me over some of the entrances between different areas of the ship.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find what appears to be a quite adequate manual wheelchair for $115 on Amazon. Even though we're still 7 months away from our cruise, I went ahead and bought it, so I could be sure it didn't arrive with any broken parts, and so I can try to devise ways to pad and protect it when it gets loaded into the cargo hold on the planes.

 

With the $85 for the TSA pre-check and $115 for the wheelchair, I think I'll definitely get my money's worth in the next five years.

[Sequim88]

I have TSAPre and my wife who uses wheelchair most of the time does not. Experience has been if she tries to go in regular line she will get detoured to either precheck or another bypass for wanding or sometimes the wooden cane through the magnetic arch. She can't do full body scan because one arm can't be raised up. I am expecting that next time we fly together we will go to the Pre line and I will show my boarding pass and we will go together that route. So for her no need to pay for precheck. We both use our US Passports and that seems to help too.

 

Last time I flew was with a group from work. I was only one with precheck. I went through literally almost with out stopping. Only momentary show of passport and boarding pass to agent. Put backpack (with laptop in side) on the belt without stopping, went through the arch, picked up bag as it came out and straight into terminal. Less than one minute altogether for security. The other guys caught up with me 45 minutes later. Fantastic! :cool: