A colleague and I departed a downtown Washington, DC, office about 5 minutes apart. I was the later one. I hailed a taxi (took a few minutes…maybe 5), and proceeded to Washington National Airport. This was in the noonish timeframe so traffic was not an issue. I walked inside the terminal, proceeded downstairs into one of the restrooms to swap out my suit and tie for casual clothing for the flight.
I walked upstairs to the Delta bag drop, checked my now very overstuffed bag, and proceeded to TSA PreCheck. After being delayed by a traveler who could not seem to remove enough metal for at least 2 minutes, I walked through the metal detector, collected my backpack and headed towards the terminal restaurant. I then emailed my colleague asking where everyone was. The answer – still in line at security. After a 5 minute or so wait, my colleague appeared on the secure side of the checkpoint. I just don’t know what else to say except that I can’t believe more of my traveling colleagues will not take the steps necessary to help assure they get to participate in PreCheck. That is all. Do it!
-MJ, October 31, 2013
Or spend $15 more for Global Entry and greatly increase your odds of getting TSA Pre✓™ (every time? I’m 19/19) even if you rarely travel internationally or at all.
http://www.globalentry.gov/