TSA lines grow to 3 hours, snake outside the terminals, with no end in sight

for that you need a Nexus card (or is that just for us north of the border?)… It is beginning to look like they need a consolidated card of cards.

I should have been more clear. With “Between WA and BC” I really meant the 2-3 times I’ve driven in the direction from BC back into WA.
As for the GE card, I know what CBP says. Quite frankly, I’m not really sure the purpose of the GE card. According to my reading, it may be that [the humans at] some airports require it to be shown, even if you’ve been to the kiosk and have the printout–I’ve seen some people claim that this is the case at ORD.
About the GE card comments and flying, I was specifically responding to (and disagreeing with):
“Regardless you definitely want the GE card with you when returning from overseas by plane.”

Just another reason to either get rid of the TSA and do something different OR reorganize the TSA to actually be useful.

Neither one will happen though.

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I guess it depends on the airport, toward the end of March i flew Austin/Vegas round trip and going both ways the line at security was slow but it was not 1-3 hours wait. I waited 10-20 minutes.

I was curious and had to look it up.

Travel internationally and move quickly through CBP processing Global Entry (selected airports only?)
Travel between the U.S. and Canada NEXUS
Travel into the U.S. from Mexico via land SENTRI

also for Pre if you have one of the above:

If you are a Global Entry member or eligible NEXUS or SENTRI member, enter your membership number (PASS ID) in the “Known Traveler Number” field when booking reservations, or enter it into your frequent flyer profile with the airline.

I think I will just stay up here.

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Between.
preposition: 1. at, into, or across the space separating (two objects or regions).
Example: I have been traveling between the US and Canada quite a bit over the last few years.
Note that the implication isn’t that I just go to Canada here, but that I also return from there. I apologize that I did not specify all of the constraints: that I knew it would be silly to suggest I used it entering Canada, and thus the use for it would only be back into the US
/Sorry if this did come across as a bit rude. Wasn’t really meant that way. I was just frustrated to read it because some else already pointed it out and I believe that while I could have been more clear, it wasn’t technically wrong either.

It very much does. I fly Austin <-> Newark 20x a year. Austin’s worst day of that 20 is better than Newark’s best day. Two different worlds.

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You’re correct - I can’t think of an instance that requires you to card the actual card. Since your KTN is associated with your passport and profile there’s really no need to carry the card itself.

In theory you should be able to use it at a GE kiosk instead of your passport but I can’t think of a situation where you would travel internationally and not need your passport for entry to the destination country. In practice, carrying the card is pointless.

I have NEXUS which includes membership in GE (and PreCheck) so my card is actually different from my wife’s which has GE only.

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Well, they have similar root causes: a lack of competitive alternatives.

In the USSR, it was because the Party controlled everything, and threatened you with detention or murder if you worked outside of it.

In the modern-day US, it’s because shadowy military and financial oligarchs control (almost) everything, and they threaten you with financial and legal ruin if you work outside of them.

Which I suppose is progress of a sort!

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Not flying unless absolutely necessary is another. Some people would fly from Boston to Baltimore for the trip I made last year (and will make again this summer) – I prefer to take the train. Sure, it’s a longer trip, but I have a little more leg room and can walk around a little bit on the train, I can bring my own drinks and snacks, I don’t have to deal with traffic on the highway (a benefit the train and the plane share over a car), and I don’t have to go through an unknown period of security checks requiring me to be at the terminal six hours early.

The last time I flew (which was two years ago, I think) was for work, on a plane chartered by my company. Security screening was a little different because of that, and I have a feeling it was less of a PITA than regular screening.

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If these particular snakes had the ability/opportunity to seek the most efficient route, we wouldn’t be having these problems…

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They got to the terminal ssssssix hourssss ahead of time for their ssssssscreeningssss? Good for them.

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Precheck is not a profit center. $85 barely covers TSA’s cost of the in-person interview, fingerprinting, and background check.

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The military industrial complex has been around since Eisenhower coined the term in 1961.
The deregulation of the financial services industry began, in earnest, in 1978.

Our elected officials and our un-elected elites are to blame for our bureaucratic nightmare. There are lessons to be learned from the former USSR if we are to avoid the same fate, but the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 is unrelated to our lines growing ever longer.

Why not go to the (il)logical conclusion: an hour or two before your flight is scheduled to leave a TSA van arrives at your home or hotel where the TSA personnel performs your full body cavity search, sedates you, dresses you in your straightjacket and diaper, and scans your luggage. Then they return to the airport, pack you in the plane like sardines, and fly you to your destination before the sedation wears off.

Everyone wins: planes are now filled more efficiently with less wasted space for unnecessary items like “seats” or “bathrooms”; no need for flight attendants to serve drinks if everyone but the pilots are unconscious; you can get a prostate exam at the same time as you are being screened for your flight; and there’s no threat of a passenger taking the plane hostage, because they sleep through the trip.

Sure, the people running restaurants and shops inside airports will lose out, but you can’t be safe without breaking a few eggs or something like that. Oh yeah, and there are some people who will complain about “dignity” and the search “violating their bodies”, but they’re just eggs.

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I don’t remember the last time I had to queue for more than 15 mins to get through security at any UK/European airport, why are you guys putting up with a several hour wait???

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#Do Not Taunt Global Entry Card!

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No noise emission regulations in the US? The main approach corridor to the airport of Zurich lead to serious diplomatic quarrels between Switzerland and Germany.

Interesting perspective. But…wouldn’t it become a net savings in the end if they can do a less intensive screening on that person each/most the 100 times they travel over the next 5 years? If so, then I’d suggest that is a motivation they have to push people to precheck.

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Wouldn’t that be great, just like the '30’s. Everyone wearing suits, ties, furs, and hats, wood paneling, steaks and champagne served, more air crashes, lots of wait service. Wonderful.

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