- Do you like waiting in long lines when you travel through the airport? If so, then you are in the wrong place. Because in this video, I'm gonna be talking about three programs to help speed you through your
airport journey in the USA. TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and Clear. I'll be talking about
what these programs are, what the differences
are, how much they cost, are they worth it, and I'll give you some
tips on how to get them for discounted rates or even free. Let's get started with TSA PreCheck. TSA PreCheck is a program created by the US Transportation Security Agency to get you through
airport security faster. Their goal is to get you
through airport security in five minutes or less. TSA PreCheck lines are
special security lines that are at over 200 airports in the USA. And once you enroll in TSA
PreCheck, and you get approved, you can use these special PreCheck lines. Now the special PreCheck
lines for PreCheck members allow you to go through what people would consider
old school security. What is old school security? Well in the PreCheck lines, you don't have to take off your shoes, you don't have to take your
liquids out of your suitcase, you don't have to take your electronics or your laptop out either, and instead of going through
the full-body Nude-o-Scope, you typically go through
a metal detector instead. I have TSA PreCheck and I can attest the security process is so much better not having to do those things and assume the position that you do through typical airport security. Now there's about 10 million
people that have TSA PreCheck. And so even though that seems like a lot, the TSA PreCheck lines
are often significantly shorter than the typical
airport security lines, just because there are less
people in the TSA PreCheck pool. Sometimes the TSA PreCheck lines can be longer than the regular
lines, but in that case, sometimes it still may be worth it to be in the TSA PreCheck line. Just not to have to go
through all the rigmarole that you have to go through
in the regular security line. I like to keep all my stuff
in my suitcase, if I can. Now some of the cons with TSA PreCheck is not every airport in
the US has TSA PreCheck. I mentioned it's at 200 airports, that is not all of the airports. And TSA PreCheck lines may
not be open all the time. They may not be open the whole
time the airport is there. So if you have an early
flight or a late flight, you might get there and find
the PreCheck line is closed. To get your TSA PreCheck benefits, you also have to be flying
on one of the airlines that is partnered with TSA. The good news is there's 83 airlines that are partnered with the TSA to offer PreCheck benefits to travelers. What airlines aren't? China Eastern, China Southern,
and interestingly enough, Aer Lingus are three of the notable ones. Now, in order to apply for TSA PreCheck, you do have to be a US citizen
or a permanent resident. And then you have to appear at one of about 300 enrollment centers. The cost for TSA PreCheck is $85. And then once you're approved, you get TSA PreCheck for five years. Once you've been granted TSA PreCheck, you'll be given a known traveler number, a set of like eight or nine digits, that then when you book your reservations on the airline website you put that known traveler
number into the reservation. Once it's verified and you
print out your boarding pass, then your boarding pass will
say TSA Pre or PreCheck on it, and then you can use that to get into the PreCheck
lines at the airports. If you've got kids traveling with you, children 12 and under can
travel with their parents and get bestowed their
parents TSA PreCheck status. Let's move on to the question of, is TSA PreCheck worth it? It's $85 for five years. And I think if you travel
just a few times a year, assuming that you travel through airports that have TSA PreCheck lines, I think it's worth it. One, for the time savings, but two, for the peace of mind knowing that you're not gonna
be waiting hours in security. That helps me a lot. I have TSA PreCheck. I really enjoy having it. But the way I got TSA PreCheck is actually by having Global Entry. So let's go ahead and talk about the second program here on
this list now, Global Entry. Global Entry is administered
by Customs and Border patrol. And Global Entry is a program that's designed to speed you
through not airport security, but Global Entry is a program
designed to speed you through customs and immigration on
your return into the USA. Now the way that Global Entry speeds your return into the USA is that at 53 airports within the USA, and at 13 preclearance
international locations, there are dedicated lines for
people who have Global Entry. So once you have Global Entry, instead of going to the
regular passport cattle hall you go to the area marked Global Entry. And then, instead of really
talking to a passport agent you go up to a kiosk where
you slide in your passport, put in your fingerprints, and then you answer five
questions on a screen. It prints out a ticket
with your picture on it. And then you just hold up
that ticket and walk through. At LAX, airport that I fly in regularly, the regular cattle call line
can be 30 to 45 minutes. And the Global Entry
line can be zero minutes, walk right up to the kiosks, or maybe three to five
minutes, if it's really busy. Now in my last trip to LAX, they're actually trialing
these new Global Entry kiosks that I really hope Customs and Border patrol
rolls out to more places. These new kiosks, I didn't even have to put in
my passport or my fingerprints. I just looked into a camera on a tablet. It recognized me and said, go ahead. So literally my time at
the Global Entry line was about 10 seconds to look at a screen. And then the Customs and
Border patrol agent just said, Christopher, and I looked
at her and said, yes. And she's like, all right, welcome home. Go ahead. So that was an amazing
immigration experience. Global Entry costs a little
bit more than TSA PreCheck. It costs a hundred dollars for five years, which is $15 more than TSA PreCheck. But when you're approved for Global Entry, you also get TSA PreCheck
benefits as well. Global Entry issues you that
same known traveler number. And so you can use that in the same way that you would use it if you're approved for TSA PreCheck. And so if you're considering
getting one of these programs if you travel internationally, even a little bit for 15 extra dollars to save yourself 30 or 45 minutes after you've come home from
a long flight from Australia, I think is definitely worth the $15. The challenge with Global Entry is that, Global Entry you have to
show up for an interview just like you have to for TSA PreCheck, but the number of interview
and enrollment centers for Global Entry is
significantly less than PreCheck. PreCheck has like 300
plus enrollment centers. Global Entry only has about a hundred. And so there's many people
who live across the US who don't live near a Global
Entry interview center. And so, those people either
have to drive a long way or there are also options to do a Global Entry appointment
on arrival into the US. In that case, you like
stand in a separate line, and then they'll interview
you as you arrive, but that line could be long too. The other challenges right now, there's so many people that
wanna apply for Global Entry because people are
starting to travel again. That actually there's like almost zero appointments anywhere but they give you one year from the time you're nominally approved to
actually get your interview to then get your benefits. If you've got kids, your Global
Entry benefits will apply to them as long as they are
under the age of two years old. If your kids are two or older, then they have to go get their own Global Entry account
approval and interview. And so in case you're wondering, yes, for the traveling princess, we have applied for Global Entry for her. So when we take our
next international trip, she can come through the Global Entry line with me and OCgirl. Now the third program Clear
is an interesting one, because it's not run by
the federal government like the previous two programs. Clear is run by a private company. And Clear's goal is to
verify your identity in new high tech methods, instead of simply looking
at your driver's license. And so Clear's goal is
to help speed you through the identification check process that's part of airport security. So once you're approved for Clear, instead of going into the normal TSA lines and having a TSA agent
look at your identification to verify it's you, when you have Clear,
you go to a Clear kiosk, which looks at your fingerprints
and looks at your iris, your iris scan in your eyeball
to verify that it's you. And then after you've been
verified by the Clear kiosk, a Clear agent will escort you to the appropriate security line. When I say appropriate security line, if you have PreCheck then after the Clear retina scan ID check, they will take you to the PreCheck line passed beyond the TSA
agent who's checking IDs. If you do not have PreCheck, then you'll go in the
regular security queue. But also after that TSA
person who is checking. By the way these three programs really kind of all go together and they're all complementary, because they're all different
parts of the process. You can have Global Entry,
which includes TSA PreCheck, and you can have Clear as well and they all give you a little
bit different of benefit, stack them all up and they all
make it a little bit faster. Now Clear has probably
the easiest enrollment of all of these in that you can basically show up in
the Clear line at the airport and enroll right at one
of the Clear kiosks. Now Clear is at only about
50 airports within the US. And so it has the least amount of places. It's also the most
expensive at $179 per year. The other programs we talked
about PreCheck, Global Entry, $85, a hundred dollars for five years, Clear $179 for one year. You can also add up to three
family members for $50 each, and children's 17 and under
can go with their parents through the Clear line. Now to answer the question
of, is Clear worth it? It's less clear to me
that Clear is worth it compared to TSA PreCheck and Global Entry because it's significantly more
for significantly less time. I think Clear is only worth it, if you travel a significant
amount through an airport that has long lines in security, that are basically the bottleneck is the TSA agent doing the ID check. If the long lines are on the
other side of that TSA agent, like there after the ID check and you're waiting for the X-rays then Clear isn't gonna
help you at all with that. Clear also isn't gonna help you at all, if you are traveling through
one of the many airports that doesn't have Clear lines. But one way to make these
programs a lot more worth it is if you can get them at
a discount or even free. So let's talk about how you can do that. And first we'll start with Clear. Clear gives discounts to elite
members of Delta and United. So if you're a Delta or United flyer, you can link your frequent
flyer account to Clear. And then you can get discounts depending upon your elite status. Discounts up to including free
for top level elite members. If you're an American Express card holder, you may also get Clear credits on your American Express card. The Centurion card gives
credit for like $329. So you can get a primary membership plus like three additional memberships. If you have an Amex Platinum card, it includes $189 of credits per year towards Clear membership. And if you have an Amex Green card, which is a little lower level tier, that one includes a hundred
dollars annual statement credit towards Clear, you know,
bringing the price down to $89. That's assuming you're paying full price, but those statement
credits will also stack with the discounts you get if you are an elite
flyer of Delta or United. Now speaking of statement credits there are also many premium
travel related credit cards that will also give you statement credits towards TSA PreCheck and Global Entry. Those statement credits
are typically limited to one credit every five
years instead of every year because those programs bill
on the five-year frequency. But if you have like a
Chase Sapphire Reserve card or you have an Amex Platinum card, those both will give $85 TSA PreCheck credits every five years and a hundred dollars Global
Entry credits every five years. If you need to get
Global Entry and PreCheck for other family members, if you have multiple cards that
have that statement benefit, then you can put different
family members on those cards. So I apply for my Global Entry benefit on my Amex Platinum card. And I apply for OCgirl's
Global Entry benefit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. And so I can get the statement credits both in the same year, 'cause they're on two different cards. Now on the subject of discounts, if you're planning to travel
anytime in the near future, airfares are at crazy high prices. So if you wanna know how to
get a cheap price on airfare, how to find discounts with
the crazy high prices today, you might enjoy watching
my video right here about how to find cheap airfares. Well as usual fellow
explorers, I won't say goodbye, 'cause I'm gonna see you over there.
