TSA PreCheck has been available since October 2011 and saved countless travelers countless hours of standing in security lines at the airport. If you’re a frequent flier who has gone through the screening process and paid the $85 fee (good for five years) to obtain your known traveler number, you might be surprised to learn that there are still airlines that do not accept it.
With 37 domestic and international airlines and 200 US airports currently participating in the program, the odds of not being able to use PreCheck only increase if you are flying domestically from a smaller airport or you’re flying internationally on one of the following airlines.
If you’e a PreCheck member, you won’t be able to use the following airlines: Aer Lingus, Air France, British Airways, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, EasyJet, EgyptAir, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Nippon Airways, Norwegian Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Ryanair.
That means, if you want to fly one of those airlines but still use PreCheck, you need to fly with one of their codesharing partners. For example, if you wanted to fly to The Netherlands, which is normally a KLM flight, you can still book your ticket through Delta, since they’re codesharing partners. And even if your plane is a KLM aircraft, you have a Delta ticket, which means you can go through TSA Precheck when you depart the U.S. Of course, returning from Schiphol Airport means you won’t be able to use it, but at least you can benefit on one leg of the trip.
Don’t forget, if you use certain corporate or personal credit cards, you can possibly get your PreCheck application fee reimbursed.
But if you do fly internationally, you may want to consider the Global Entry program instead. It costs $100 instead of $85, but lets you bypass security in many countries as you return to the U.S. (So your trip to and from The Netherlands is covered in both directions.)
For more information about which airlines and airports accept TSA PreCheck, go to their PreCheck map.
Are you a PreCheck or Global Entry user? How does it help with your travels? Any times it has come in handy? Share some stories with us in the comments below, on our Facebook page, orin our Twitter stream.
Photo credit: Grant Wickes (Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0)