If you pay attention to the media and announcements, you’ll notice a very interesting pattern. When entities want news – especially bad news – to stay a little bit under the wire, they’ll announce it on a Friday, usually during the late afternoon. So when I saw the TSA had a new national press release late Friday afternoon, I was thinking the worst.
As it turned out, it was GOOD news! The announcement was to let the public know that the TSA PreCheck enrollment provider, IDEMIA, has just reduced the initial enrollment and in-person renewal price from $85 to $78.
The cost to renew membership online will remain status quo at $70 (but hey, they decreased that last year, so…)
Neither TSA nor IDEMIA said WHY they’re decreasing the price, but I don’t think anyone is going to look that gift horse in the mouth, regardless.
The press release came just a few days after IDEMIA’s own news that they had just processed their 15 millionth TSA PreCheck enrollment (IDEMIA has been an authorized TSA PreCheck enrollment provider since 2013). As of April, 2022, there were over 27 million TSA PreCheck members total.
Here’s TSA’s Friday afternoon press release about the new price for PreCheck.
Coincidentally, FinanceBuzz recently surveyed 1,500 people to see whether or not they had TSA PreCheck, what current users liked about it, and more. These were the key findings:
- 92% of TSA PreCheck members say the cost of TSA PreCheck is worth its benefits.
- 64% of those without TSA PreCheck are willing or already planning to sign up for the program to help reduce long lines for holiday travel.
- TSA PreCheck members say they experience shorter lines at the airport 65% of the time on average.
- TSA PreCheck members say they would pay an average of $224 for a membership — more than double the actual price of $85 (don’t let the federal government or IDEMIA hear you say that, y’all…they just DECREASED the price, LOL!)
78% of the respondents said they’re not enrolled in TSA PreCheck. Of those:
- 59% said they don’t fly enough to warrant it
- 24% claimed they’ve never considered getting it
- 18% believed it’s not worth the cost
- 11% said they don’t know how to get it
- 9% said they don’t have to wait in security lines when they fly
- 6% always travel with family and wouldn’t want to get it for everyone
- 6% said it’s hard to get appontments
- 4% said the airport they use most often doesn’t participate in TSA PreCheck or Global Entry
Of course, many credit cards pay for the cost of PreCheck. And PreCheck is included if you get Global Entry. But if you’re just looking for the basics – PreCheck membership – your price just went down by a few bucks, for whatever reason. Can’t complain about that.
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