Booming Demand For TSA PreCheck In Wake Of Long Waits At Airports
CHICAGO (CBS) -- If pictures of long security checkpoint lines at O'Hare and Midway airports have you a bit nervous about an upcoming flight, you might want to do what many people are doing and enroll in TSA's PreCheck program.
Veronica Cervantes went online to get an appointment to apply for a PreCheck pass at a TSA enrollment center, but found the earliest she could get an appointment was 45 days away. She decided to take her chances and walk-in to the downtown location at 11 E. Adams St., and by being among the first to show up today, she was in and out quickly.
TSA officials said you can walk in to enrollment centers to sign up, but people with appointments go first.
"They take your credit card. They check your passport. Make sure you have your passport. Then you go into a room where they take your fingerprints, and they fill out an application for you. They charge your credit card, and you're done," Cervantes said.
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There are three TSA enrollment centers in the city and six in the suburbs and Northwest Indiana.
PreCheck costs $85 for a five-year pass, and allows you skip the more thorough security line at the airport in most cases, although some airlines do not yet participate in the program.
Don Robinson flies regularly, and has received free PreCheck on some of his airline tickets, and he knew he had to get one. The long lines this week at the airports prompted him to apply for a PreCheck card on Wednesday.
"They got me addicted, and I decided I didn't need to wait in line," he said. "I could keep my shoes on, and my belt on. I think I had to take my wallet, telephone, metal things out of my pockets."
Robinson also likes not having to pull his laptop out of its bag to be examined.
Robinson had gone to an enrollment center earlier in the week, but turned around and left when he found out one man there had been in line more than four hours. Robinson showed up when the downtown office opened.
You need a passport or driver's license and birth certificate when applying for PreCheck.
