Keep Your Shoes On, Please: TSA Rolling Out Speedy Security Pre-Screening Program

Maybe you’ll be taking your shoes off, but instead of placing them in a bin on a conveyor belt, you’ll be sitting around at home on the computer before heading to the airport. A test program the Transportation Security Administration has been working on called the PreCheck, which will allow passengers to speed through security is now expanding to 28 more airports.

The L.A. Times says the program allows passengers who sign up for the program and voluntarily offer background information to speed through security lines at the airport, while keeping on shoes, belts and coats.

A few airports have been testing the PreCheck system on 336,000 travelers over the last nine months, and it seems it performed well.

“We are pleased to expand this important effort, in collaboration with our airline and airport partners, as we move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more intelligence-driven, risk-based transportation security system,” said TSA Administrator John S. Pistole.

Here’s how it works: Passengers submit info at the TSA’s website and in turn, get an identification number. Then when booking a ticket online with airlines who are part of the program, you enter the ID number in its specified box on the screen. You won’t know if you’ve been approved until you reach the airport and a TSA officer scans your boarding pass. If you get the go-ahead, you’re off to the faster security line with all clothing accessories intact.

Major airports including John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, Washington Dulles International, San Francisco and O’Hare International will start hosting the program this year. Let us know if you come across it and decide to try it out, or if you’ve already participated in it and have feedback to share.

As nice as this sounds in theory, I’m pretty sure I’d still get stuck behind the lady who is baffled that she can’t bring a gigantic bottle of hairspray through security and makes a big stink about demanding it be mailed to her destination. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

TSA expands program to speed travelers through airport screening [L.A. Times]

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