Disney World, Universal and other theme and amusement parks understand a fundamental truth about their guests. People do not want to wait in line. In fact, people hate lines so much that they would rather pay money to skip these lines whenever possible. At Disney it's called Disney Genie+, at Universal it's Fast Pass. But there is another line that many travelers pay good money to skip when they go on vacation, the TSA line at the airport.

Pre-pandemic (also know as The Before Times) I had to do a lot of travel for my job. Working in the academic field, it was essential for me to demonstrate how involved with my field I am through attending conferences, presenting or publishing my own work and holding leadership positions in a variety of local, state and national organizations.

Needless to say it was a lot of work, and with 3-4 conferences to attend a year I had to find a way to streamline my travel experience. One way I did this was to make it easier to get through airline security. At the time I was initially looking, there were two major services to bypass the majority of the security line; TSA Pre-Check and CLEAR.

I decided to sign up for the CLEAR service and was able to enjoy the benefits of it for about a hot second in the summer of 2019 and the end of January 2020. For the next few years, having a shortcut to bypass security lines at the airport was suddenly not as relevant and I cancelled my service.

Now that I am travelling again, this time for leisure, I've been thinking about if either of these programs make sense for me, my family and the types of travel I plan on doing over the next few years.

TSA Pre-Check is run by the Transportation Security Administration. As they are the same folks that already give you the pat down and stare, yell at you about shoes and have a 4K 3D image of every cell of your body when you're just trying to fly to Chicago, it's safe to say that this program is legit. You still have to do most of that stuff, but if you are trying to get out of a really busy, i.e. disorganized and understaffed, airport *cough in LAX, MCO, ATL*, then this helps bypass a majority of the wait to be the first one to take off your shoes and place your hands above your head.

One of the best understated benefits of this program is that it works in over 200 airports and partners with over 85 airlines. This means that (almost) anywhere there's a TSA there is going to be TSA-Precheck, and for folks that travel a lot to a variety of places, this could be a huge selling point. When I was originally searching for a program that would work for me, this felt like too much for what I thought would only be 2-3 trips a year but being a bit older and wiser I can see it for the benefit that it is.

While most folks know this program as TSA Pre-check, this is actually only one of the services that are a part of the TSA's Trusted Traveler Programs. TSA Pre-check only covers departures by air from US airports, so it would not work for international land or sea travel. The other programs are:

Global entry includes TSA-Precheck while it may be added on to NEXUS and SENTRI. It is not included with the FAST program.

Each of these these programs have various prices, benefits and limitations such as application processing time. I recently found out how important this last point is as I just received my renewed passport in the mail a few days ago but submitted the application materials back in February. As I'm writing this the website states that processing times for Global Entry are 4-6 months, while Nexus and Sentri are between 12-14 and 10-12.

Unless you are a truck driver only the first 4 will be relevant to your travel. If you plan to travel through Canada and Mexico, especially if you plan to cruise then Global Entry and Nexus make a lot more sense. If you were planning on visiting locations on other continents, then Global Entry seems like it would be the best bet. If you're not sure which one to choose, the Traveler Program website also includes a quizlet to help you narrow down your best match. No matter which program you choose, they are all valid for 5 years once approved.

For me, I plan on visiting the international Disney and Universal parks sometime in 2024. I also would like to take a cruise in the next year and need to consider whether Global Entry would make better sense for me.

When I first started looking at this program, I did not dig deep enough to see all of these benefits and options that are available to travelers. Now that I am taking my time to make a more intentional purchase, I see that I have a lot more to consider than I originally thought.