I have TSA precheck, friends do not

I’m taking two friends on a girls trip to Disney. I have TSA precheck and my two friends do not. I bought their plane tickets. What are the chances they get assigned precheck when I check us in for our flight?

I’ve had one co-worker tell me that when she buys tickets for her parents, they get precheck assigned to their tickets when they fly with her. Has that happened to anyone else?

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I’ve heard that happens with children but haven’t heard of that for adults. But I’m interested to know if anyone else has had that happen cause I’m in the same boat.

My DH has precheck and it would happen with our kids getting it (when they were under 18). But it never happened to me when traveling with him.

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DW and I have pre-check. When we buy tickets for our adult son he does not get it.

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Yeah, never for adults in my experience. Maybe your friends parents got it because of their age? I’ve only had my kids get it when they were minors.

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My DH and I have precheck. My adult son when traveling with us did not get precheck. After a few long waits for him to get through security lines, I paid for his TSA precheck application for his birthday.

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I would be shocked if an adult got precheck just because another adult bought them a ticket. That would subvert the entire purpose of precheck.

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In my experience, adults traveling in groups where others had pre checked used to get it too. That hasn’t happened in a few years.

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My elderly parents got precheck when traveling with us. DDs 25 & 26 did not.

I have precheck and DH does not. He has never gotten precheck in all the times we have traveled together. However, my MIL boasts that she gets it about 50% of the time when she travels alone.

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I’m in TSA management so apologies in advance. I understand our popularity is only slightly better than the IRS according to polls.

To address your question. PreCheck is only available to those who go through the vetting. For several years, the upper tier earners of airline frequent flyer programs were provided the service at no fee. This was eventually reduced to this group randomly getting a PreCheck designation. 2019 or thereabouts, the frequent flyers were completely removed, leaving the vetting only that exists today.

Long explanation to say your friends will not get the service simply by travelling with you. However there are exceptions that could authorize expedited screening or what some may refer to as PreCheck Lite. Age is one of those as well as security mitigations in effect at the time you pass through a checkpoint.

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Prepandemic my minor son once got it when my parents had it. None of the rest of my immediate family did including my minor daughter, go figure? We sent son thru with them and met them all at the gate. I’m not quite sure if he was a random but if so it’s so weird to give it the minor of parents who don’t have it. If we weren’t with my parents he couldn’t have used it. He was like 10-12 age range.

Thanks for all the replies. We flew to Savannah last year and I went through pre-check and they went through the regular line. My friend bought the tickets last year. I told them I’d be waiting on the other side. I’ll do the same thing this year at MCO. MCO is the reason I pay for pre-check for my family! When my son was under 13 he always given it when he flew with us. As soon as he turned 13, I went ahead and got it for him because there was no way I was going back to the regular line if he didn’t get auto assigned with us.

But do minors still get it when they’re on a reservation with TSA precheck? My nephew traveled with me quite a few times last year and he always got it. He turned 18 in February so I paid for his PreCheck to make sure he still got it.

I am about 50/50 with this. My minor children 12 and under always get through with out pre-check but my minor that is 13 only gets the stamp 50% of the time. I will be buying her pre-check soon. Wasnt able to before because you need an ID or passport to apply for pre-check and she isnt eligible for am ID until 14 and didnt see the need to buy a passport.

My adult travellers never received pre check with me.

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Per the TSA site:
Do children need to apply?

“It depends on their age and whether they are traveling with a parent or guardian with TSA PreCheck®. Family members ages 12 and under traveling with an eligible parent or guardian with a TSA PreCheck® indicator on their boarding pass can join them in the TSA PreCheck® lanes without applying. Children between the ages of 13 and 17 who will be traveling on the same reservation as an enrolled parent or guardian may also access the TSA PreCheck® lanes, provided the children have the TSA PreCheck® indicator on their boarding pass. Children 13 to 17 may be randomly excluded from receiving TSA PreCheck® on their boarding pass. In these cases, they must go through standard security screening. Children 17 and under who will be traveling alone or without a TSA PreCheck®-eligible parent or guardian must apply for TSA PreCheck® to have access to expedited screening.”

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I lucked out in that we have a cruise scheduled for this year so I renewed DS’s passport early when he turned 13. I tried to get my nephew PreCheck when he was 16, but he didn’t have an ID either. He just got his license in December (at 18) so I was finally able to do it!

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This makes me happy for me (not happy for you) that I did get it when DS turned 13. I debated on leaving it to chance and hoping he would be assigned with us. Your comment confirmed that I made the right decision. He already had a passport so it was easy to do.

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Before you could buy pre-check, if you had flown in the past a few times, you could snag pre-check once and a while. Now it maybe more difficult as TSA is making money. On the other hand even TSA pre-check is NOT a total guarantee that you will get it. TSA does random non pre-checks even though you paid to get by. It happened to my wife who did not get the TSA pre-check even though we both had paid for it. Be aware of this fact. You can however contact CS and if you have your TSA pre-check number, some will enter it for you and get the TS pre-check applied to your reservation.

By the way, for those who were wondering, I got my TSA known traveler ID email 9 days after my appointment. So not in time for the Liner meet, but pretty soon after.

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