Known Traveler, Clear and Global Entry.......is it worth it to have all three?

[chloemonkey]

We already have the first two.....but are scheduled to fly to Rome to board a cruise in August.....flight via London/Heathrow.  Return trip involves departing from Istanbul via Heathrow once again.....back to Los Angeles.

So....we have only traveled through Europe three times and it has been a few years.  Just wondering if we should go the extra "mile" to have Global Entry?  And would it make our airport treks/experiences any shorter or more enjoyable? 

We DO fly First Class......so that may serve to hasten some of the bottlenecks?  Please chime in....as I understand that for Global Entry we will have to get on it and make appointments for this service.

[Charles4515]

8 minutes ago, chloemonkey said:

We already have the first two.....but are scheduled to fly to Rome to board a cruise in August.....flight via London/Heathrow.  Return trip involves departing from Istanbul via Heathrow once again.....back to Los Angeles.

So....we have only traveled through Europe three times and it has been a few years.  Just wondering if we should go the extra "mile" to have Global Entry?  And would it make our airport treks/experiences any shorter or more enjoyable? 

We DO fly First Class......so that may serve to hasten some of the bottlenecks?  Please chime in....as I understand that for Global Entry we will have to get on it and make appointments for this service.

I have had Global Entry for years. It included TSA. The TSA has came in handy many times. Global Entry never had seemed to make much difference but since it included TSA pre check and American Express paid the fee it was a no brainer to get it. I have Clear, also paid for by American Express. This is recent and I have had no opportunity to use it. If I had to pay for the programs I probably would only have gotten TSA pre check YMMV

Edited April 30, 2022 by Charles4515

[CruiserBruce]

I think it has to do with how much you travel. We fly 6-10 roundtrips a year (off course recently reduced by Covid) and have Global Entry (with Pre, automatically). We fly most of the time out of SFO, and find Pre gets us through TSA pretty quickly...rarely more than 10 minutes, so CLEAR isn't worth it, although I have several options to get it cheaper or with costs replaced. But we love GE and Pre.

[iancal]

Ditto to the above.   Global entry only.

 

Most of our flights are to destinations outside of NA or connecting to destinations outside of NA.  Never an issue...where there is provision for them.

 

Also pre covid  they were good for vehicle border US/Canada border crossings.  

Edited April 30, 2022 by iancal

[chloemonkey]

Guess I should have been more clear.....we started with TSA as I believe that was the first option.....love CLEAR as it is right at the top of the stairs in Las Vegas (and we are there a LOT!!!).....so can you all who have the experience with Global Entry enlighten me as to when we would use this in our next particular cruise itinerary?  Once again....Los Angeles flight to London/Heathrow - connect to flight to Rome.....Return is Istanbul to London/Heahtrow then connect to flight to Los Angeles.

 

As I recall, Global Entry has NO use in cruise terminals with  Immigration and Customs?  Sorry to be so dense....just have not had the opportunity to travel abroad very much.....so thanks for your patience....

[Charles4515]

1 hour ago, chloemonkey said:

Just wondering if we should go the extra "mile" to have Global Entry? 

 

If your travel is in August you might not get Global Entry in time for that trip. You have to schedule an interview. Since I was living in the DC area that was relatively easy but still not immediate. I was able to go their main office. I recall it took a few months. You possibly have to apply at an airport. Also if you have any premium credit cards they might cover the fees. AMEX Platinum, Chase Reserve and a few others do.

[Charles4515]

3 minutes ago, chloemonkey said:

Return is Istanbul to London/Heahtrow then connect to flight to Los Angeles.

 

As I recall, Global Entry has NO use in cruise terminals with  Immigration and Customs?  Sorry to be so dense....just have not had the opportunity to travel abroad very much.....so thanks for your patience....

You would use it on return to LA. On that trip it would be no use elsewhere. There have been Global Entry lines at the Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal but I never saw any agents at them. Now with Face Recognition at the east coast ports I don't know if they still do. Face recognition is really fast. If immigration and customs are going to use Face Recognition which I believe they will then GE probably won't make much difference. 

[klfrodo]

Just my experience.

I have Global Entry (which includes TSA Pre-Check) and I have Clear.

 

These days, since everyone and their brother has TSA Pre-Check, I enter security area thru the Clear line. They (Clear) then escorts me to the front of the Pre-Check line, The TSA person verifies I have Pre-Check on my boarding pass, and waves me thru.

I get thru the line so much faster by going thru Clear. This is usually at the Seattle airport but has made travel easier and faster at others.

 

Global Entry. I'm not so sure it speeds anything up anymore. It sure used to. But at the same time while I may have been thru Immigrations faster, I still had to wait with the entire plane for luggage so we could clear Customs.

And with most airports and cruise terminals now using facial recognition (If you had a passport when checking into the cruise), speeding through Immigrations is now a breeze.

[Essiesmom]

I just renewed my Global Entry.  It has given me pre check a ton of times, but the only time I really used it for entry was last July.  We did a cruise round trip from Nassau.  Flying from Nassau back to the US we cleared US immigration in Nassau. The lines were long, and we had already stood in line forever to check in.  Next stop was another long line, but I spied a couple of Global Entry kiosks, and no one using them.  We slid in our passports, did the prints, and off we went.  EM

[Joebucks]

Pre-Check is a no-brainer with how cheap it is for how long it lasts. For I believe $15 more, buying Global Entry gets you both, so why not? I rarely get to use it for cruises. From coming back from Aruba, it was great.

 

I think CLEAR is a giant ripoff. Precheck is more popular, but nothing too bad. At $180 a year, that's a lot of money. I guess if you have it included in a product like American Express, why not? 

 

When the wait at the airport is 30 minutes for no known entry, 3 for precheck, and under 1 for CLEAR, I will be just fine with precheck.

[CruiserBruce]

3 hours ago, Joebucks said:

Pre-Check is a no-brainer with how cheap it is for how long it lasts. For I believe $15 more, buying Global Entry gets you both, so why not? I rarely get to use it for cruises. From coming back from Aruba, it was great.

 

I think CLEAR is a giant ripoff. Precheck is more popular, but nothing too bad. At $180 a year, that's a lot of money. I guess if you have it included in a product like American Express, why not? 

 

When the wait at the airport is 30 minutes for no known entry, 3 for precheck, and under 1 for CLEAR, I will be just fine with precheck.

Hit the nails on the head...agree totally!

[Z'Loth]

See this article from NerdWallet: TSA PreCheck vs. Global Entry: Which Is Right for You? Both programs have you go through a background check to ensure you are trusted traveler. TSA-Precheck is just $85 for five years, while Global Entry is $100 for five years and includes TSA-Check. However, TSA-Precheck is the easier of the two to get because of the interview process of Global Entry. My mother and I didn't have TSA Pre-check when we lived in Sacramento, but when we moved to DFW, we expected to travel more and went through the process of Global Entry as the nearest interview center was at DFW international instead of San Francisco International. Needless to say, Covid messed our travel plans up.

 

CLEAR is expen$ive at $179 per year, and is only available at around 50 airports in the United States. Unless you are a very frequent traveler, it's not worth it. 

 

 

[Charles4515]

50 minutes ago, Z'Loth said:

CLEAR is expen$ive at $179 per year, and is only available at around 50 airports in the United States. Unless you are a very frequent traveler, it's not worth it. 

 

 

I would never have signed up for Clear if my AMEX Platinium card had not added it as a perk. It is available at DFW and Dallas Love according to their list. I recently moved to the DFW area. I have not used an airport to try it since I signed up about two months ago to try it out. I was trying to put my vaccine card into it but kept getting errors. There are also Clear lines at all the arenas and stadiums in DFW are and at some events but since my family and friends don't have Clear i probably won't  be an=ble use it at those events or areas. . 

[Z'Loth]

8 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

I would never have signed up for Clear if my AMEX Platinium card had not added it as a perk. It is available at DFW and Dallas Love according to their list. I recently moved to the DFW area. I have not used an airport to try it since I signed up about two months ago to try it out. 

 

Welcome to DFW. I moved here three years ago, and love it! 

 

It should be noted that some airline programs and credit cards have the Global Entry fee as a benefit as well, and some allow you to apply it to a family member. 

[Nidwaldner]

We have Nexus.  Few people know it gives you TSA precheck and global entry included. $50 for 5 years.  It’s saved us so much time with our frequent Canada border crossings too.  The other features are awesome when we fly. Though, there is a serous backlog with applications from Covid.

[lynncarol]

I hate long lines so Global Entry upon returning to the USA has been a godsend.  In fact, when we took two of our adult grandkids to South Africa, my husband and I insisted on buying them Global Entry too.  Returning to Newark, while mobs of folks were waiting in immigration lines, the four of us breezed right through using our Global Entry. The grandkids (who had originally balked at requirements for getting the pass) were thrilled.

[Ashland]

We have Global Entry which includes TSA and fly business/first class. The problem is I sail through quickly but DH on the other hand because of his knee replacement (hardware) that slows him down.