Pre Check

TSA Pre Check

Save Time on Your Return From Overseas

When you travel to an international destination, especially if you travel from a smaller airport, you will discover that you are always routed through a larger airport on your return so that you can go through Customs and Border Protection(CBP). Now, it is true that you usually cannot fly to international destinations from your smaller airport, but you can still save time upon your return by being able to avoid the CBP hassle upon your return.

How, you might ask? Use CBP Preclearance.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Preclearance is the strategic stationing of CBP personnel at designated foreign airports to inspect travelers prior to boarding U.S.-bound flights. With Preclearance, travelers then bypass CBP and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inspections upon U.S. arrival and proceed directly to their connecting flight or destination. These airports also allow you to use your Global Entry identification number to make it through the check-in process more quickly. Also, keep in mind that you will want to get to the airport a little earlier on your trip home to go through the preclearance.

As of December 2023, CBP has staff stationed at 15 Preclearance locations in 6 countries:

  • Dublin and Shannon in Ireland
  • Aruba
  • Bermuda
  • Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates
  • Nassau in the Bahamas
  • Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg in Canada

I did not know about this program when we traveled to Calgary in 2021 and was quite surprised that we did not have to go through CBP upon landing in the US. After a little research, I discovered the magic that saved us time at the end of a long travel day.

Keep in mind that the time saved is great, but putting the extra hassle at the beginning of your return trip means that after a long and tiring flight, especially if you don’t sleep well on an airplane, means that you get out of the airport sooner to get home to your own bed for a good night’s sleep.

The real question has to do with the convenience of travelling through one of the above airports if you are going beyond those destinations. For example, is it worth the effort to fly through Dublin to visit South Africa.

Generally when we travel to Africa, we travel through London Heathrow to break up the trip as well as to spend a few days in London. But, London Heathrow does not have preclearance and Dublin does and we would love to spend more time visiting Ireland. So, as noted above, is it more expensive to fly through Dublin vs flying through London to get to South Africa.

When I checked in December 2023 for a trip to Africa during the Emerald Season in May 2024, the round trip from Sacramento was priced between $2250 and $2750 per person for economy plus. Those flights went through various European airports, but not Dublin. The round trip from Sacramento to Dublin was about $1600 per person and the round trip from Dublin to South Africa was about $1500. That means that it would have cost about $400-$800 more per person to fly via Dublin.

Known Traveler Info Updated

These days, almost everyone who travels a lot has Pre-Check or Global Entry or some other program that gives you a Known Traveler Number (KTN).

Here are a few things to keep in mind.

  1.  When you book travel make sure that you put your KTN into your airline’s system to speed your processing during check-in as well as upon your return to the USA. Also, make sure that you add that as well as your passport info in your name as well as your frequent travel partner. Otherwise, you may get Pre-Check and your partner won’t. Your partner won’t be happy with you when they find out that it was all your fault.
  2. If you are like me, you got your Pre-Check first, then later because of expanding to international travel, took the time and effort to get your Global Entry Card. We could not get an interview in our area so we set it up to do the interview in Alabama on a trip to visit family.
  3. You can also get a KTN by applying thru through Nexus, Sentri. You don’t need all 4, just do Global Entry.
  4. With having more than one type of program available, what numbers do you inter for your KTN?
    1. If you only have Pre-Check, you enter that number. Generally it starts with a TT followed by numbers and letters. Once you obtain your Global Entry number, don’t use your Pre-Check number. In fact, go to all of your airline apps and change your Pre-Check number to your Global Entry number. They still call it your Known Traveler Number on every airline website that I have used.
    2. If you have upgraded to Global Entry, use that number and quit using your Pre-Check number. Your Global Entry number is 9 numbers and generally it starts with a 15 or 98 or 99. You can find the number on the back of your card if you ever received a card.  Forget about the two letters and three numbers that you may see showing after the 9 numbers. I don’t know what they are, but the are not a part of the KTN that you need.
  5. Finally, you don’t need to carry your Global Entry card unless you are returning to the US from Canada. They will ask to see it.
  6.  Also, you will not get a notification to update or renew your Global Entry membership. So, go back and find the date that you received it and put a note in your calendar, a couple of months prior to the 5 year expiration date, to log in to do a renewal.  Do your renewal at https://ttp.cbp.dhs.gov.  It will show you your KTN and the expiration date. You can renew it up to 1 year in advance if you wish, but no earlier. Before you renew, you may consider getting a credit card that will pay for your renewal. Get one that also gives you Priority Pass access to the lounges that you will want to visit during those long layovers. I use my Hilton Honors card from American Express. Not only do I enjoy the Priority Pass access to the lounges, I also enjoy the reduced car insurance when I travel to Mexico. My last trip to Cabo, using that card, saved me over $500 on car insurance but also allowed me to use the VIP lounge in Cabo before our trip home. A lot of people use the Chase Sapphire Reserve card for the same type of benefits.
  7. On a similar subject, for those of you who don’t travel internationally very often and chose to stay with Pre-Check, you have another option for your return from your infrequent travels abroad if you return to a major port of entry. That app was called Mobile Passport when it first came out. It was changed to Airside Mobile Passport but it has changed again in February 2022 to CBP MPC which is short for Customs & Border Protection Mobile Passport Control. You often have a line as short or shorter than what you will see for Global Entry, but like I noted, it is not available at every airport or port of entry. Currently only 31 airports and 4 shipping ports. When we returned from Cabo recently, I was telling some of the people in line to board the flight about this App. Unfortunately, we were flying back to the US on Southwest Airlines by way of the John Wayne International Airport in Santa Anna (SNA). If we were entering via PHX, LAX, OAK, SAN, SFO, SJC or SMF, they could have used this App and saved waiting in line with a couple hundred other folks. Keep that in mind when booking your flights if you can use this App.

———————————————————————-

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you.  Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Travel Documents – Real ID

I am sure that you know that you need a passport for most international travel.I am also sure that you have heard that by October 1, 2020, you will need to have your driver’s license updated/reissued to travel stateside in compliance with the Real ID law. Of course, you could use your passport for all of your air travel, but if you don’t want to carry it for domestic travel, get your driver’s license updated if you are over 18 years of age.

Of course, each state has to set up the issuance of a Federally approved Real ID. All of them are doing it through their Department of Motor Vehicles. For my friends who live in California, here is the link to the DMV website to use to determine which of your documents will suffice to get your Real ID. As of September 2019, almost all of the states have had their version of the Real ID approved by the Feds. Click Here for more info. If you live in Oregon or one of the other states without an approved Real ID, make sure that you have your passport in order. Yes, there are a few other documents that will suffice, but whatever you do, don’t show up at an airport after October 1st without the proper ID or you won’t be allowed to fly. That could really ruin an otherwise well planned trip.

Now that we have done the extra research about Real ID, it is time to double check our passports to make sure that we have at least 6 months on our passports beyond the time we will be traveling and that we have at least 2 empty pages for passport stamps and visa stamps for each country that we are visiting.

———————————————————————-

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you.  Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

I Can’t Check In Online – Now What?

GoldRushGetawaysLogo

I booked a trip to Europe for the Rhine River Cruise. We booked our flights through the cruise company. It looked like we were booked on Delta, but when we tried to check in online for our trip home, we could not do it on the Delta Website. They said to go to Virgin Atlantic. Upon closer review of the itinerary, it did show that the flight from London to Los Angeles was “Operated by Virgin Atlantic.”

Unfortunately, I did not have a flight number or a booking number for Virgin Atlantic.  I called the cruise company and was given the flight number and the terminal number, but was told that since it was an economy booking that I would have to be at Heathrow 3 hours early to check in.

I did not accept that as a reasonable option so I went back to the Delta website looking for another option. I clicked on the “view seats” option, since it did not show that we had seat numbers assigned, and it took me to another Delta page that had a small message at the top. “This flight is operated by our partner, Virgin Atlantic, and the seat map is not available. To manage your seat, please visit virginatlantic.com. Fees for seat selection may be applicable based on class of service, frequent flyer status, or days to departure.” I clicked on that link and it took me to the Virgin Atlantic check in page. It only showed my reservation, so I clicked on the “Add Passenger” link to add my wife.

I added the info for my wife, but it would not add her as a passenger. I also noticed that the Airline Booking number that it showed next to my name was not the same one that showed on my air itinerary.

Not to be defeated, I went back to the Delta page and clicked on the link next to my wife’s name for “view seats” and was taken to the above noted page and I clicked on the highlighted link to Virgin Atlantic. I then proceeded to add my name for the extra passenger and it worked.

I followed the rest of the onscreen prompts to update the info for our passports, etc… and even got to the page to select a window and middle seat for us.

Success!!! We had our boarding passes emailed to us as well as having them messaged to us so that we were ready to board when we got to the airport.

———————————————————————-

Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you.  Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel