If you were an early adopter for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, now might be a good time to check and see when your membership to the program expires.
It’s been five years since the TSA started rolling out PreCheck, with the first TSA PreCheck recipients receiving entry to the program in December 2013. The service lasts for five years, which means if you were one of the first then it’s time for you to start working on that renewal.
Global Entry has been around a bit longer. It was initially made available in December 2008. Those who sign up for the service early on are coming up on their second round of renewals now.
If you’re not sure when yours expires, you can look it up (and potentially fill out that renewal paperwork) online here, Travel + Leisure notes.
And if you travel even moderately regularly and don’t have PreCheck or Global Entry, you should definitely consider putting the services on your holiday wish list.
I finally signed up for Global Entry two years ago, and definitely wish I had made the move sooner. Global Entry is $100 and comes with TSA PreCheck (PreCheck is $85 on its own). With it I’ve shaved literal hours off the time I spend in customs when I return home from overseas. On a trip from Italy to San Francisco last year I managed to get through almost two hours before my boyfriend did, despite the fact that we got off the plane and entered customs together.
That’s to say that it’s very much worth it.
With PreCheck you get to enjoy a shorter line going through security to physically get on a plane which is also a pretty solid win in my book, if only because I don’t have to take my shoes off and walk on the dirty airport floor.