TSA PreCheck offers expedited airport screening. You don’t take off your shoes, you leave your liquids and laptop in your bag, your light jackets stays on.
You get PreCheck if you’re approved for Global Entry (expedited immigration), Sentri (expedited US-Mexico land crossings), and Nexus (expedited immigration for Canada). Or you can sign up for it on its own. Some people do that especially who aren’t eligible for one of the other programs.
47 airlines participate in PreCheck. Here are all the ways to lose your PreCheck privileges. And here’s how to get the signup fees for Global Entry or PreCheck covered.
Back in December I wrote that PreCheck would become easier to sign up for this year. And that’s about to happen: you’re going to be able to sign up at Staples office supply stores.
Staples and the TSA: Perfect Match
Staples will “bring enrollment centers to 50 stores this summer, and more locations in the future” through a partnership with IDEMIA. They’ll begin with stores in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Seattle.
These stories will also offer “passport photos and certified birth certificates.”
So now we can get 5X on our ink cards when paying the PSA pre-check signup fee at Staples?
At MIA at 2pm yesterday, in terminal D, precheck line had about 50 people in it, Priority Lane right next to it, 6.
So I dealt with the electronics and liquids and saved myself 15 minutes.
When I asked why the PreCheck lane was so long, they blamed it on American not allowing a second lane. Does the terminal/airline have any say in how many PreCheckk lanes there are?
I don’t understand why they can’t have a priority lane that will dump you either in Pre-Check or Non-Pre-Check.
The non-PreCheck priority lines have become the best at many airports because the vast majority of elite flyers have PreCheck.
Oh the office supply store staff checking security makes me feel way better about flying. Wow.
I’m waiting until I can do it at Starbucks; enjoy a coffee and a treat while the tedious paperwork is settled.
Props on finding the most shady looking Staples in the country for your picture.
this sounds like a joke to me
As is frequently mentioned here and like blogs, the PreCheck lines grow ever longer while the regular non-elite lines continue to shrink. So bring on Ezy PreCheck, for all those who think they’re getting something exclusive at the expense of their fellow traveller, and paying $$ for it to boot! Was once a good idea, but jumping on the bandwagon now is for idiots. (Bit like the beards trend I suppose.)
Agreed, Pre-Check line length at SEA is consistently terrible now. It’ not the airlines, it’s TSA that is the problem.
TSA has always been a bad joke. I will -nerver- forget an inexcusable fiasco about 5 years ago. Prior to that, Pre-Check was still a good thing for early-Monday departures from United terminal 1 @ O’Hare. Then one day some (insert profanity) thought hey, let’s allow anyone to –>QUALIFY<– (uh-huh, yeah, I'm sure they did) for pre-check by paying small $ at their local McDonalds. Well, maybe it wasn't McDonalds but that's close enough. My next Monday morning "pre-check" was beyond stupid; starting from the end: 4 TSA stations combine to a single-file line that does 4 back-and-forth line flips (about 12 yds each for 48 so far). Line then turns left for 3 more flips (about 8 yds each for 72 so far). The line spills onto the main concourse about 7 yds before a hard left which then goes 14 yds down the concourse before doing -another- line flip.
I've not seen pre-check like that before or since; it was quickly "fixed" after the fiasco. Guess what just got un-fixed?
To those who are saying they dont feel safe a lot Staples employees doing this should research before they speak. The Staples associate has 2 background checks to pass before even being able to do it. One check is done by Identogo and other is done by the actual TSA. You have to be fingerprinted and pass both checks to be eligible to enrol people. Staples associates go through the same background check the agents at airports and other Pre Check enrollment office do, so they are exactly the same people except they worked for Staples to start out.