Last week, Southwest
announced that they are joining TSA Prechcek.
I am a big fan of TSA Precheck and was excited that Southwest was joining. Over the next few weeks, I have a ton of travel on Southwest and not having to take my laptop out of its sleeve is a big help.
Therefore, I was a little disappointed that I did not get Precheck on my fight to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. When I arrived at BWI, the C Concourse Precheck line had no one. I mean no one in it. However, my boarding pass didn't have that great little sign like this:
I sent out this tweet while waiting in security:
A few hours later, I got this response from the Press Secretary for TSA, Ross Feinstein:
Here is the link to the TSA Blog
post he mentions.
Reading the post, one of the suggestions stood out:
- Didn’t enter their full name: first, middle and last name. These should match:
- TSA Pre✓™ participants who qualify via their membership in a CBP Trusted Traveler program should enter their full name — first, middle and last — exactly as it appears on their Global Entry card or in their Global Online Enrollment System (GOES) account, along with their date of birth, gender, and nine digit Membership Number / PASS ID when making a reservation for travel. A reservation made with a name that does not exactly match a passenger's Global Entry card or GOES account will result in the passenger not being considered for TSA Pre✓™ expedited screening. If you click the “manage membership” button when logged into your GOES account, it will direct you to the page in the image below where you’ll be able to ensure your account info — under the personal information section — matches the information in your travel reservation and your frequent flyer program: first, middle and last name fields.
- You should make sure your airline frequent flyer profile and any current and/or future reservations matches this information. You may have to reach out directly to your carrier to make sure this information is correct and consistent, especially your first, middle and last name. You should ask them to update your profile information and/or saved Secure Flight data.
You see my legal name isn't JD. Its a name that was created by my elementary school. I quickly went to my Southwest Rapid Reward profile, sure enough my name at Southwest is JD:
However, Southwest doesn't make it easy to change your name. You have to mail them paperwork:
The other few times I got Precheck, I was flying United and US Airways. In both instances, my name on my frequent flyer account is JD. So, I don't necessarily know if this is the reason why I did not get it this time. Southwest has setup a whole webpage for Precheck, which can be found
here. Reading through the page, I came across this tidbit:
Could it Prechek be for only new reservation made after Southwest getting into the program? I hope this is the reason and not my name. Regardless, I will forward the required paperwork to Southwest to change my name.
Has anyone had luck with Precheck on Southwest?
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