To PreCheck or not to PreCheck

[Ghoulish Delight]

So until now, I had an easy choice. 90% of my travel is with Southwest and Southwest wasn't participating in TSA Precheck, so there was no way it was worth it to me to pay $90 to skip the line the 2 or 3 times in a year I'm forced to fly a different airline.

Now Southwest is participating, which may make it worth paying to have my privacy violated. However, reducing the value of that choice is that as of yesterday I achieved A-list status on Southwest, meaning starting in January I get to go in the first-class line.

PreCheck would have the added benefit of keeping my shoes on and liquids in the bag. But that's a 30 second effort. Doesn't seem worth paying to avoid.

But then, A-list status only lasts as long as I keep flying at high volume. PreCheck is forever. And not limited to Southwest. If I change jobs mid-year and stop flying, I lose the benefit by the end of the year. And I wouldn't be surprised if by then, the price of the PreCheck goes up.

Decisions, decisions.

[RStar]

I rarely fly, but I must say that when I did last month, and had precheck, it sure was nice. It sounds like you have a lot more experience traveling so you would know what is best for you. But I would lean toward the precheck....

[Moonliner]

It's nice when it works, Is it still $100 for 5-Years?

For you, how many close shave flights would you have to make rather than miss due to Pre-check being faster to make it worth the money?

Also I would note that in my travels I've seen the PreCheck line closed at least as often as I've seen it open.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I thought I saw that it's $100 for lifetime, but I could be wrong. I didn't find anything on their site that said how long the privilege lasts.

Today at SJC they were letting PreCheckers past the big line, but they didn't have the actual screening process up so they still had to go through the usual shoes-off rigmarole. Lame.

I've yet to miss a flight, but I've had to excuse myself early from many a customer to make that happen. It would let me spend more time getting the job done right instead of hurrying. And allow me some extra sleep in the mornings.

There's now also the "Clear" thing, but that looks entirely not worth it for now.

For the time being, I'm going to keep my $100 and be happy with the A-list benefit. I've managed a whole year just fine joining the unwashed masses in the standard line. Just being able to skip that for the majority of my flights at no extra cost will feel like a pretty great bonus, not feeling worth paying to keep my shoes on sometimes.