What To Do If Your TSA PreCheck Status Isn't On Your Boarding Pass - Your Mileage May Vary

Having TSA PreCheck status can potentially save you a lot of time (although maybe not quite as much time as in the past). So when you have the status and it somehow doesn't wind up on your boarding pass, it can be a little frustrating. Here's how to take care of that.

Why did it happen?

Good question. It's most likely because:

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• Your Known Traveler Number (KTN) wasn't included when making your reservation. Once it's done the first time, the airline probably will keep your KTN in their files so it will then populate automatically. But it has to be done the first time for each airline you fly.
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• The name on your boarding pass is spelled differently from how it's spelled in your PreCheck account.

These first two may particularly come into play if someone else is making your plane reservations for you. Say, work or a travel buddy. They may not know your KTN and you may not have thought to add it in later. They may also misspell your name (Mathew/Matthew, Chris/Christine, Jamie B./Jamie Blaine), exclude the middle name that you always use, etc.

Other reasons for not having your TSA PreCheck status could be:

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• Your airline might not participate in TSA PreCheck. These are the airlines that do. But if you're flying Aer Lingus, Gol or Air Transat, for example, you won't be able to go through PreCheck because those airlines don't participate in the program.
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• You got this on your boarding pass instead.
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• Your TSA PreCheck status expired and you didn't renew (now don't you feel silly).
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• You're not guaranteed to get TSA PreCheck status on your boarding pass, even if you have TSA PreCheck; it's done purposely by the TSA to keep everybody guessing.

What to do about it?

For those last 4, you're probably out of luck for this flight. But for the first two, you may have a chance:

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• Log into your airline's website, key in your KTN and reprint your boarding pass (note: if it's too close to your flight time, this might not work. In which case, try the next option).
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• Go to your airline's desk agent, with KTN in hand. (S)he may be able to do whatever magic on their computer.

Hopefully, you'll be able to get everything fixed and again have PreCheck status on your boarding pass. If not, well, if you think about it, it's really just a #firstworldproblem and I personally wouldn't get my knickers twisted about it too much. Stuff happens sometimes, right?