3 On Your Side: TSA Pre-Check Takes Off With Regular Airline Passengers
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Tired of waiting on those long airport security lines when traveling by plane? There could be a solution for you, it called TSA Pre-Check.
As 3 On Your Side consumer reporter Jim Donovan shows us, one program is really taking off with airline passengers.
At least twice a month, photographer Steve Raddock travels by plane for work.
"I usually walk into the airport sweating from carrying all my gear and it didn't help to be trudging around in those lines," said Raddock.
So he made his way to a TSA enrollment center to become part of the pre-check program
Passengers who pass a background check are allowed to skip regular security and go through the shorter and faster TSA pre line.
You don't have to take of your shoes, remove your laptop from your bag, or take off your belt when you're screened.
The TSA says more than 40 percent of domestic travelers have pre-check status on their tickets.
"More and more people are signing up for expedited screening. So at this point, we're signing up in the somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 people a day," said TSA spokesperson, Lisa Farbstein.
Right now it costs $85 to enroll in the pre-check program for a five year period.
The program started with one enrollment center in December, eight months later there are 300 nationwide.
"You have to go through a personal interview and you also have to have to provide fingerprints," said Farbstein.
Based on the numbers passengers with pre-check may soon outnumber travelers without it.
Again, you need to apply in person for the TSA Pre-Check program. In our area there are a handful of locations to do that.
For more information, visit: http://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck/what-tsa-precheck
