Hacker News Reader

Comment by browningstreet | Hacker News Reader

Boarded a plane today. Me and my son both have pre check. His digital boarding pass didn’t have pre check on it. They sent him to regular security. I walked through with his paper boarding pass (we got when checking luggage), so he had to go get another one. His second boarding pass had pre check on it. Whatever this system is, this is ridiculous. These tickets were bought together, and our numbers were entered correctly.

I half wondered if there was a technical glitch when generating his boarding pass. Like, an unavailable API endpoint.

My latest “check in” story. If you don’t have pre check on your digital or paper boarding pass, request another. And remember to check.

View on HN

And that may not be all that's needed. I recently went through the TSA Precheck line (my ticket had the little Pre heck logo on it) but the check-in dude did not give me the laminated poster board that said "Precheck" on it. I don't fly often enough to have noticed, so when I got to the security apparatus 15 feet further I was treated as non-Precheck. It did not matter that I could show my ticket had the appropriate logo on it. No card, no Precheck. One more slap in the face from the Security Theater.

What is the precheck card?

From my anecdotal experience, your boarding pass may have TSA precheck mark. This has been sufficient for me to go into the TSA precheck line (vs regular default line).

Also, I usually see a person at the precheck line entrance screening people for boarding passes with the precheck mark. Otherwise they will direct you to the regular line.

Some of the smaller airports that I've been through give you a laminated PreCheck card after they've checked your ID and ticket. You hold onto that for a few seconds until you're called up for the next stage of the process. The officer takes the card, places a PreCheck indicator on the belt alongside your luggage, then un-ropes the metal detector and waves you through. Large airports have dedicated lines for PreCheck and don't require all this.

For some airports with low amounts of traffic, there isn't a separate precheck line, so you're just given some sort of marker that tells the workers to treat you as a precheck member in the standard line.

What is most ridiculous about all the rules of security theater is that its toothless. I have seen multiple people jump the security line, just walk up around it and throw their stuff on the conveyer ahead of people, then they walk immediately into the scanner cutting off whoever was about to get in next. Some people in line say something out loud but most people just stand there stunned. TSA agents didn't even flinch. I think they are trained not to confront people who line jump, and the line jumpers are taking advantage of that big time, at least at the big busy airports.

I was that person once, but it was because my BP wouldn’t scan. (Bad print). Dude told me where to reprint and when I got back a few minutes later and barged my way to the front, he had already vanished. Ugh, but nobody really questioned.

Then again, they probably wouldn’t remember who it was.

Expedited screening (the PreCheck line) is not a guarantee, even if you have PreCheck.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/frequently-asked-questions/if-i-a...

Conversely, I've talked with people that travel often or are older/a certain demographic that often receive PreCheck, even though they haven't paid for it etc.

I think just having PreCheck doesn’t guarantee you get PreCheck but I’m pretty sure you do always get PreCheck if you have Global Entry.

If the ticket doesn’t have the pre check number on it, it’s guaranteed you’re going through security.

Tickets themselves don't have your PreCheck number on them, but the number is provided when purchasing the ticket (possibly can be provided later as well.) OP indicated "our numbers were entered correctly" so I assume they provided their PreCheck numbers at some point in the process.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com