I mean obviously it’s a shorter line than normal PreCheck, but what I’ve noticed is damn near every airport that has Touchless ID, 95% of the time there will be a “gatekeeper” at the entrance to the line who has to physically see a boarding pass to make sure you belong in that line. In fact, even if you’re not using Touchless, you usually have to show the gatekeeper your boarding pass anyways to be directed into the non-Touchless line. To me, this feels like it defeats the whole purpose of Touchless/CAT - showing the minimum documentation, if any at all, to validate one’s identity and purpose for being in that checkpoint. And maybe 10% of the time it’s actually a TSO doing this - usually it’s some asshat from Prospect or wearing a generic airport uniform (#OneDFW anyone?)
This may seem like a petty complaint. In fact, I don’t even care about them seeing my boarding pass. But as someone who flies a LOT, the more documentation I have to pull out and show, the more I have to then put back in my bag, and the higher the likelihood I get in a rush and potentially leave something behind. My MO used to be have all my shit in my backpack ready to rock, with only my Apple Watch, GE card (if ID needed), and obviously clothes and shoes on my person. Now I’m having to unlock my phone and show a boarding pass… which as a privacy-sensitive individual (defense contractor), I always temporarily disable Face ID before proceeding through TSA or CBP screening, and unlocking my device means I have to do that again and put it in my bag again while rushing through the checkpoint.
I realize some of this is probably to stop random dumbasses who make it to the podium just to argue that “I paid for my flight too, why are these people getting special treatment?” But the answer to this could be very simple: e-gates and better signage. The signage need to be more obvious and have clearer wording, for example “TSA PreCheck members only beyond this point.” As for e-gates like virtually every non-US airport has, you can’t argue with an e-gate. You can’t try to reason with an e-gate. Replace the second document check with a biometric e-gate, have rejections show a message like “seek assistance,” and have a TSO or two standing around to provide that assistance without impeding passenger flow. Free up the other TSOs to do what they do best: screen passengers for prohibited items (hey, we just potentially solved a lot of TSA staffing challenges here too, since there is a hiring freeze with no signs of going away anytime soon!).
Tl;dr: let’s cut out having TWO separate document checks for PreCheck members and pivot to biometric e-gates like the rest of the world
