TSA PreCheck is meant to speed up airport security. But if you don't know the etiquette, you may hold up the line and your summer travel.
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TSA PreCheck can save you so much time in airports, especially during the summer — the TSA reports that 2024 will see the busiest summer travel season yet.
The season will kick off Memorial Day weekend, when the TSA predicts that upwards of 18 million people will travel through airports around the US between May 23 and May 29. TSA checkpoints will likely screen more than 3 million people per day later in the season, according to the agency — breaking current records on summer travel.
In the TSA PreCheck line, pre-screened travelers can go through security quickly without taking off their shoes or removing electronics or liquids from their carry-on bags. It costs $78 to enroll for five years, but you can get the service essentially for free through credit cards such as Capital One Venture, Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Delta SkyMiles, and American Express.
In November 2023, the TSA reported that more than 17 million Americans have TSA PreCheck.
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Gilbert Ott, who says he flies more than 200,000 miles a year and has been blogging about flying for the past decade, told Business Insider that the express airport-security lane makes his life easier. Ott's blog, called God Save the Points, covers everything from airline news and flight reviews to travel tips and money-saving hacks, such as how to best use credit-card points.
"I spend too much time in airports. As much as I may love them, sometimes the less time I spend in them, the happier I am," Ott said. "So the quicker I can get through and just be on a plane, the better."
While the TSA PreCheck line is often full of frequent fliers, those who are new to the program, which requires a background check, may not be as savvy when it comes to security etiquette, especially during the busy holiday rush. Ott said this can cause the line to move slower, but he shared his best tips for TSA PreCheck travelers.
Pre-stripping is removing everything you may need to take off at security, from big jackets to the contents of your pockets, before you get there.
"When I go to the airport, I take my belt off before I get there. I have it in my backpack, knowing I'll put it on as soon as I get through PreCheck," Ott told BI. "So keep the jewels and the watch in your bag. Then, when you get to the other side of security where you're not holding people up, you can do the glamour."
Ott said this process will make people move through the line quicker.
"My routine is somewhere along the lines of comfy jeans, a T-shirt or hoodie, and then a bomber jacket," he said. "Essentials like my phone and passport go in my bomber jacket pockets while I wait in the queue so that when I step up to the scanners, my jacket is off, pockets are empty, my bags go on the trays, and off we go."
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TSA PreCheck passengers aren't required to take off their shoes. But in Ott's experience, passengers who wear fancy loafers or shoes with buckles or studs often get stopped because they set off the scanner.
"The main thing is metal, either as part of the shoe or in the boot or heel of the shoe," Ott said. "Ceramic and rubber are usually fine. Basically, sneakers tend to always work."
When you first get in line, Ott recommends having your boarding pass and identification out before it's your turn to show them. That way, you won't spend time searching for these documents while others wait behind you.
If everyone followed Ott's advice, he said he thinks we'd all get through security faster.
"If you think of the 20 seconds it takes somebody to do this very basic thing, and you'd multiply that by 50,000 people going through an airport's screens a day, you could pretty much just walk through an airport without stopping," Ott told BI. "We can all have a better time."
