Getting up to speed on programs to expedite airport security
November 11, 2024 9:02 AM Subscribe
After many years of no air travel, I'm hoping to take at least two international trips, one as early as spring of 2025. There might be more trips to come before I age out of wanting to travel. I know there are some new-fangled programs that claim to make the airport experience better, but I'm not even sure what they are, or what criteria will help me evaluate their value/utility to me. Questions abound:
If you use any of these programs, which ones and why? Were they worth the effort and cost?
If you don't, why not?
What factors would you recommend using to evaluate/determine whether to jump through the hoops to get one or more of them?
Any tips and best practices in applying to make the process smoother?
Would I be able to have them in time for the first trip (spring 2025, international)?
Anything else you think might be useful for me to be aware of, since I probably don't even realize what I'd be asking if I knew more.
In case it matters:
One international trip will be to a country Halfway 'Round the World in spring 2025.
One international trip will be within North America (my home continent) later in 2025.
Future trips are undecided, probably a mix of international (mostly Europe / Europe adjacent or more trips to the HRW country) and national.
If you use any of these programs, which ones and why? Were they worth the effort and cost?
If you don't, why not?
What factors would you recommend using to evaluate/determine whether to jump through the hoops to get one or more of them?
Any tips and best practices in applying to make the process smoother?
Would I be able to have them in time for the first trip (spring 2025, international)?
Anything else you think might be useful for me to be aware of, since I probably don't even realize what I'd be asking if I knew more.
In case it matters:
One international trip will be to a country Halfway 'Round the World in spring 2025.
One international trip will be within North America (my home continent) later in 2025.
Future trips are undecided, probably a mix of international (mostly Europe / Europe adjacent or more trips to the HRW country) and national.
I haven't used it for international travel (and I'm not sure if you can), but for my travel needs (1-2 trips a year, within the US), TSA PreCheck has been fantastic. Having PreCheck means I don't have to take off my shoes or belt in the security line, and it means at most airports, I go through a MUCH shorter line. It makes the security theater experience much less annoying. It takes some time to get PreCheck, as I recall - I had to apply and there was a several week wait, then I had to go to an office for the final application interview, which was pretty short.
If I remember right, Global Entry is the international travel version of PreCheck; I do not know what the application differences are, but honestly, if the travel day experience is similar, I would highly recommend it, for the time savings and convenience of it all.
As I understand it, Clear is a private company that requires you give them your biometric data, which I would not necessarily trust, but I have also never investigated it that deeply, so others may know more than I, but for my light travel needs, PreCheck has been fantastic.
posted by pdb at 9:21 AM on November 11
If I remember right, Global Entry is the international travel version of PreCheck; I do not know what the application differences are, but honestly, if the travel day experience is similar, I would highly recommend it, for the time savings and convenience of it all.
As I understand it, Clear is a private company that requires you give them your biometric data, which I would not necessarily trust, but I have also never investigated it that deeply, so others may know more than I, but for my light travel needs, PreCheck has been fantastic.
posted by pdb at 9:21 AM on November 11
For the United States: pre-check is extremely worth it, primarily because it makes going through airport security much less stressful (so much less shouting). However, the various "trusted traveler" programs get you pre-check. The breakdown is (as I understand it):
posted by hoyland at 9:25 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]
- pre-check -- less faffing about at airport security, shorter lines and less being shouted at. There is an interview, as I recall, but I may be confusing that with Global Entry (I've had both)
- Global Entry -- expedited entry into the United States at airports (I've honestly not found this advantageous); gives you access to pre-check; much higher level of scrutiny than pre-check -- you'll need to present yourself in-person at an international airport (you can do this on arrival if you're not a US citizen/resident). If you're a dual citizen, you're supposed to list all passports on your application and they need to not be expired (guess who can't renew Global Entry right now because they need to renew a passport first)
- NEXUS -- expedited crossing of the US/Canada border (in both directions); gives you access to Global Entry and pre-check. NEXUS requires travelling to the Canadian border to enroll and scrutiny from both governments (my mom had a difficult time as they scan your retina and she couldn't see well enough to put her eye in the right place!).
posted by hoyland at 9:25 AM on November 11 [1 favorite]
If you are an American re-entering the US after an international trip the free Customs and Border Patrol app is a great way to breeze through customs. Typically there is a line specifically for folks using this app and no one seems to use it. I usually get through customs even faster than the folks in the Global Entry line.
https://www.cbp.gov/about/mobile-apps-directory/cbpone
posted by forkisbetter at 9:35 AM on November 11 [7 favorites]
https://www.cbp.gov/about/mobile-apps-directory/cbpone
posted by forkisbetter at 9:35 AM on November 11 [7 favorites]
You definitely want Global Entry. PreCheck alone is $70 for 5 years; Global Entry is $120 for 5 years, and includes PreCheck. You will have to visit a CBP location at an airport to enroll, but I believe the backlogs are gone, and there is also an option to do enrollment on your entry into the US on an international trip.
You will fly through immigration with Global Entry. You will have to be absolutely scrupulous about declaring things: have a bag of peanuts? declare it. They won't care, but if you are caught in a lie you lose your privileges.
If you are crossing from CA->US, the benefits are somewhat reduced. If you fly in that direction, you will clear customs in CA, not the US. You will be able to use GE at that point, but since it's at the origin of your journey and occurs right after the airline security checkpoint, you're not really saving anything. Same goes for flights from Ireland to the US, the Caribbean, and Doha (I believe).
As Hoyland mentions, if you are doing a ton of CA travel, Nexus is best because it's bidirectional. The Mexico equivalent is SENTRI.
[grabbing at the edit window: I forgot to add that you should check if you credit card reimburses for the GE fee - many do]
posted by scolbath at 9:36 AM on November 11
You will fly through immigration with Global Entry. You will have to be absolutely scrupulous about declaring things: have a bag of peanuts? declare it. They won't care, but if you are caught in a lie you lose your privileges.
If you are crossing from CA->US, the benefits are somewhat reduced. If you fly in that direction, you will clear customs in CA, not the US. You will be able to use GE at that point, but since it's at the origin of your journey and occurs right after the airline security checkpoint, you're not really saving anything. Same goes for flights from Ireland to the US, the Caribbean, and Doha (I believe).
As Hoyland mentions, if you are doing a ton of CA travel, Nexus is best because it's bidirectional. The Mexico equivalent is SENTRI.
[grabbing at the edit window: I forgot to add that you should check if you credit card reimburses for the GE fee - many do]
posted by scolbath at 9:36 AM on November 11
expedited entry into the United States at airports (I've honestly not found this advantageous)
Obviously individual experiences will vary, even day to day, airport to airport, but everyone I know who has GE has been grateful for it. On an international arrival, you're often jetlagged and exhausted from the trip, and standing in a line in some grimy room in JFK for half an hour or more feels like a dip into hell. Getting that wait down to five minutes, or even ten, is glorious.
you'll need to present yourself in-person at an international airport
A list of the enrollment centers is here. There is also, as mentioned, enrollment on arrival at some airports in the U.S. and abroad. So it's not all airports, but how convenient an interview might be for you will naturally depend on your own location. My "interview" was very short, maybe five minutes.
NEXUS is nice to have (in my experience, the NEXUS:regular traveler ratio is far lower than the GE:regular traveler ratio, meaning really short lines), but hard to obtain if you're not in Canada to begin with, or at the very least in a border state. It's really aimed at Canadian residents, to the point that an immigration official once assumed I was Canadian because I had it.
posted by praemunire at 9:38 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]
Obviously individual experiences will vary, even day to day, airport to airport, but everyone I know who has GE has been grateful for it. On an international arrival, you're often jetlagged and exhausted from the trip, and standing in a line in some grimy room in JFK for half an hour or more feels like a dip into hell. Getting that wait down to five minutes, or even ten, is glorious.
you'll need to present yourself in-person at an international airport
A list of the enrollment centers is here. There is also, as mentioned, enrollment on arrival at some airports in the U.S. and abroad. So it's not all airports, but how convenient an interview might be for you will naturally depend on your own location. My "interview" was very short, maybe five minutes.
NEXUS is nice to have (in my experience, the NEXUS:regular traveler ratio is far lower than the GE:regular traveler ratio, meaning really short lines), but hard to obtain if you're not in Canada to begin with, or at the very least in a border state. It's really aimed at Canadian residents, to the point that an immigration official once assumed I was Canadian because I had it.
posted by praemunire at 9:38 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]
If you fly in that direction, you will clear customs in CA, not the US. You will be able to use GE at that point, but since it's at the origin of your journey and occurs right after the airline security checkpoint, you're not really saving anything.
This really depends on the airport, but at least some Canadian airports now have separate security lines for "verified travellers," which includes GE and Nexus but not PreCheck, and I still find a shorter immigration experience helpful when trying to catch a flight.
(Note that you will only clear customs in Canada if you are flying from an eligible airport at eligible times. This is probably the bulk of Canada->U.S. travel now, but certainly not all of it. E.g., for a red-eye, you might depart too late and have to clear in the U.S. on arrival.)
posted by praemunire at 9:44 AM on November 11
This really depends on the airport, but at least some Canadian airports now have separate security lines for "verified travellers," which includes GE and Nexus but not PreCheck, and I still find a shorter immigration experience helpful when trying to catch a flight.
(Note that you will only clear customs in Canada if you are flying from an eligible airport at eligible times. This is probably the bulk of Canada->U.S. travel now, but certainly not all of it. E.g., for a red-eye, you might depart too late and have to clear in the U.S. on arrival.)
posted by praemunire at 9:44 AM on November 11
If I remember right, Global Entry is the international travel version of PreCheck
Not exactly - Global Entry is used when coming back into the US from abroad, while PreCheck is about getting into a shorter line when going through a TSA checkpoint. Both save you time and are run by the TSA, but they are used on different ends of the trip. You get Pre-Check when you get Global Entry. Your airline also has to participate in PreCheck for you to be able to use it, while your airline shouldn't matter for Global Entry. PreCheck only works at US airports, too. You can use Global Entry at a foreign airport only if you are preclearing US customs, like in Dublin or Shannon, for example.
You get both of them when you get a Nexus Card as a US citizen or permanent resident and as a Canadian citizen. Nexus is the same price as Global Entry but has a few more hoops to jump through. It used to last longer or be cheaper (can't remember which), so it made sense to do the hoops if you were near a place with Nexus interviews and retinal scans. It also lets you drive over the Canadian border without a passport. Now they're both $120 for 5 years, so it isn't worth it for everyone. You also have to update your driver's license/state id and passport info on your Nexus account when they get renewed.
I had a trial of Clear for one international trip and it did seem to speed up security even more than PreCheck. It was a really busy day and the PreCheck lines were also long. It seemed really expensive to me for someone who only plans to fly out of a US airport twice in one year.
posted by soelo at 10:15 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]
Not exactly - Global Entry is used when coming back into the US from abroad, while PreCheck is about getting into a shorter line when going through a TSA checkpoint. Both save you time and are run by the TSA, but they are used on different ends of the trip. You get Pre-Check when you get Global Entry. Your airline also has to participate in PreCheck for you to be able to use it, while your airline shouldn't matter for Global Entry. PreCheck only works at US airports, too. You can use Global Entry at a foreign airport only if you are preclearing US customs, like in Dublin or Shannon, for example.
You get both of them when you get a Nexus Card as a US citizen or permanent resident and as a Canadian citizen. Nexus is the same price as Global Entry but has a few more hoops to jump through. It used to last longer or be cheaper (can't remember which), so it made sense to do the hoops if you were near a place with Nexus interviews and retinal scans. It also lets you drive over the Canadian border without a passport. Now they're both $120 for 5 years, so it isn't worth it for everyone. You also have to update your driver's license/state id and passport info on your Nexus account when they get renewed.
I had a trial of Clear for one international trip and it did seem to speed up security even more than PreCheck. It was a really busy day and the PreCheck lines were also long. It seemed really expensive to me for someone who only plans to fly out of a US airport twice in one year.
posted by soelo at 10:15 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]
I have had PreCheck for years, and it's very worthwhile. I recently upgraded to Global Entry because I expected more business travel; also very worthwhile. It took me a month or so to go through the Global Entry process, including an interview at my local airport, which took about five minutes.
posted by Bryant at 10:18 AM on November 11
posted by Bryant at 10:18 AM on November 11
You and I are in the same pair of shoes. My wife and I have started traveling internationally and have investigated this.
I traveled to India with friends earlier this year and while passing through Heathrow, I was introduced to the miracle of The Airport Lounge. They. Have. Showers. SHOWERS! And free food and a nice place to sit and a concierge who found socks for me. Getting into one of these lounges requires either that you be flying at a certain level of comfort and/or have a high end credit card. We went the credit card route because it included enough other benefits that the high yearly cost was almost covered by those benefits. Included in those benefits was a refund for the Global Entry fee, which includes TSA Precheck. GE/TSA Precheck made airport security and our re-entry into the US very smooth.
posted by donpardo at 10:20 AM on November 11 [3 favorites]
I traveled to India with friends earlier this year and while passing through Heathrow, I was introduced to the miracle of The Airport Lounge. They. Have. Showers. SHOWERS! And free food and a nice place to sit and a concierge who found socks for me. Getting into one of these lounges requires either that you be flying at a certain level of comfort and/or have a high end credit card. We went the credit card route because it included enough other benefits that the high yearly cost was almost covered by those benefits. Included in those benefits was a refund for the Global Entry fee, which includes TSA Precheck. GE/TSA Precheck made airport security and our re-entry into the US very smooth.
posted by donpardo at 10:20 AM on November 11 [3 favorites]
Many of the fancier credit cards include a refund of Global Entry fees as a perk. I highly recommend taking advantage of it if you do have one of those cards.
posted by A Blue Moon at 10:28 AM on November 11
posted by A Blue Moon at 10:28 AM on November 11
Be aware that there's a background check before you go for your Global Entry interview, and that can take an arbitrarily long time. In my wife's case, I think it was about a week. In mine, it was months (we applied at the same time).
I noticed at the Lisbon airport that they had different lines for people who had chipped passports vs old-school ones, the chipped line being much faster. So that might be a consideration at some airports.
The airport in my town recently consolidated all the Pre-check lines into a single checkpoint, so the line to get through is much longer, somewhat negating the advantages.
posted by adamrice at 12:20 PM on November 11
I noticed at the Lisbon airport that they had different lines for people who had chipped passports vs old-school ones, the chipped line being much faster. So that might be a consideration at some airports.
The airport in my town recently consolidated all the Pre-check lines into a single checkpoint, so the line to get through is much longer, somewhat negating the advantages.
posted by adamrice at 12:20 PM on November 11
I do think Global Entry makes a difference. At the very least it just makes it much more pleasant to go through customs, as it never takes more than a few minutes. I got it after missing a connection in Fort Lauderdale that I other wise would have made, after waiting in line at customs for an hour. Since then I've made at least two connections in Houston that I otherwise would have missed. It's worth it just for the peace of mind, for me.
posted by CheeseLouise at 2:17 PM on November 11 [1 favorite]
posted by CheeseLouise at 2:17 PM on November 11 [1 favorite]
If there is one thing I hate, it's standing in line at the airport. So, I have Global Entry and Clear. Because I travel quite a bit to SEA, via Global Entry I applied for, and received, an APEC Business entry card, which, again, puts you in the short line (APEC/diplomats) at immigration arrival in a few asian countries. Having dual citizenship also helps in getting into the short(er) line either in the US or EU.
posted by alchemist at 5:38 PM on November 11
posted by alchemist at 5:38 PM on November 11
If there's a line at Customs, Global Entry will let you skip it.
More recently, the Global Entry process has been upgraded with facial recognition. Go to the kiosk, stand in front of the camera, confirm all your personal info, CBP officer waves you through. Spooky fast. Fast enough, though, that you might arrive super early at the baggage claim, and the time you just saved gets used up waiting for your checked bag. Still probably better than waiting in line.
I renewed Global Entry this year, didn't have to do the interview again, was able to do the renewal online.
posted by gimonca at 7:07 PM on November 11
More recently, the Global Entry process has been upgraded with facial recognition. Go to the kiosk, stand in front of the camera, confirm all your personal info, CBP officer waves you through. Spooky fast. Fast enough, though, that you might arrive super early at the baggage claim, and the time you just saved gets used up waiting for your checked bag. Still probably better than waiting in line.
I renewed Global Entry this year, didn't have to do the interview again, was able to do the renewal online.
posted by gimonca at 7:07 PM on November 11
The Mobile Passport Control app from the US Gov can significantly shorten the immigration line coming back into the US. Some airports have a specific line, some airports it's shared with Global Entry. Either way it's free and faster than the standard line.
posted by fiercekitten at 9:21 PM on November 12
posted by fiercekitten at 9:21 PM on November 12
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posted by mr_roboto at 9:06 AM on November 11