Frequent (and even not-so-frequent) flyers will tell you that TSA PreCheck is a godsend when it comes to saving time. And boy, how it’s grown! When the program started in December 2013, a whopping 9 airlines, all domestic, participated in the program. That number has since increased to 94 domestic and international airlines.

However, TSA PreCheck is only as good as the airlines that participate in it. 94 participating airlines are great, but there are currently over 1,000 active commercial airlines around the world.

Granted, many of those 1,000+ airlines don’t service the United States, so there’s no need for them to participate in TSA PreCheck. But the list of those who don’t “do” PreCheck includes some very popular airlines, especially ones from outside the U.S. that regularly fly to/from international airports in New York, California, Florida, etc., that aren’t on the list for PreCheck. So we decided to contact them to see if they could shed some light as to why, after all these years, they still don’t participate in the program.

Who we contacted

We only contacted airlines (A) had a significant presence in the U.S. and that (B) offered some sort of written communication – either an email address, online inquiry, or Facebook Messenger. If all they offered was a telephone number (I’m looking at you, GOL Airlines, TUI, etc.), we didn’t reach out because we wanted their response to be in writing.

These are the airlines we contacted in mid-late February:

• Aer Lingus
• Air New Zealand
• China Southern Airlines
• Egyptair
• Iberia
• LOT Polish Airlines

This is what we sent upon initial contact in mid-February:

Hello! As a traveler from the U.S.A., I use TSA PreCheck as often as possible. As a co-writer of a moderately successful travel blog (http://yourmileagemayvary.com), I’m aware that your airline doesn’t participate in PreCheck.

I’m currently writing a piece about the airlines from other countries that offer many flights to/from the U.S., yet still don’t participate in PreCheck. Could you please give me a statement as to why NAME OF AIRLINE chooses to not participate in the program? Specifically, is it cost? The bureaucracy involved? Something else?

I realize that whoever is reading this email may not know the answer to my question. If that’s the case, could you please give me the email address of who I can contact that would be able to help me?

I look forward to your response and thank you for your time.

Sharon Kurheg

Orlando, Florida

U.S.A.

Their responses

Let’s just say that trying to learn from oneworld why they spell “oneworld” with all lowercase and some boldface (Psst! Here’s why!) was easy peasy lemon squeezy in comparison to this self-made assignment.

Trying to get responses – ANY responses – from some of the airlines was oftentimes the hardest part. Then I had to deal with auto-responses (within 5 minutes of any email I sent to Aer Lingus that included the term “TSA PreCheck,” I’d get an autoreply that said they don’t participate in TSA PreCheck. Yes, I know. I’m trying to find out WHY) and “Wrong department; try this email instead.”)

Aer Lingus

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand has an online request form on its website. A couple of days after I wrote, they said to write to the airline’s Public Affairs department and supplied the email for the same. A representative from there, Justene, said she would look into it and get to me as soon as she could.

A few days later, Justene wrote back with a quote from Air New Zealand Customer Experience Manager Kylie Mcgillivray-Brown: “We’re always looking for ways to improve our customer journey at every touch point. TSA Precheck is something that is on our radar, and we will be sharing more information on this later in the year.” That sounds promising! 🙂

China Southern Airlines

I had a lot of false starts with China Southern Airlines; apparently their Customer Service email is only for ticketed passengers and their “Other contact information” email is also only for passengers. They suggested I check with the “local office” about it. Once they told me the best U.S.-based e-mail that would be (I had to ask), I wrote to them. After 2 weeks with no response, I wrote again. As of this writing, they still haven’t responded.

Egyptair

I wrote to them via their online request page in mid-February. After two weeks without a reply, I tried again. As of this writing, I still haven’t heard from them.

Iberia

The only way to contact Iberia was via Facebook Messenger. They wrote back shortly thereafter and gave me an email address for my question. I wrote there with my question (in English and Spanish). After two weeks without a reply, I wrote to them again. As of this writing, there has been no reply.

LOT Polish Airlines

They were the first to give me an actual response, just over 12 hours after I sent them my original request: “ I would like to inform you that we do not have an official statement on why LOT Polish Airlines is not participating in PreCheck.“

Well, OK then. Not very helpful, but at least they answered, and it was truthful. 😉

In conclusion

So there ya go – of the 6 airlines we contacted, 3 never replied back, 1 said, “Nope, not happening,” and 2 may have happy announcements sometime in 2024. Fingers crossed!

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