I flew to Denver early (very early) this morning to attend a conference I'm speaking at tomorrow. Awhile back American Airlines, because I'm frequent flyer (Advantage Platnium status with over 3 million miles flown with AA), asked if I wanted to register for the new 'TSA Pre-Check' program which is supposed to help speed-up the security checks before you board a flight. I filled out the online form providing the additional data which AA didn't already have, however I never heard anything back and had forgotten about it.
Anyway, this morning I flew out of LAX (normally I fly out out Orange Co's John Wayne Airport, but there was no direct American flights) and it's the first time I've flown from an airport which was setup to use the new 'TSA Pre-Check' procedure. When I got to the first check where they scan your boarding-pass they informed me that I was 'pre-cleared' and was directed to a different security line. In this line, you don't have to take off your shoes, nor remove your coat, or take your laptop (or other electronic devices) out of your carryon as well as not having to show them my 3 ounce or less bottles of shampoo and soap. You still had to pass through the metal detectors and your carry-ons still got X-rayed, but it did speed up things (not have to mess with your shows is the biggest advantage from my point of view).
Not sure if I'll be able to do this on my return on Wednesday as I think they've only rolled this out at a limited number of airports so far.
Anyway, for more information about this program, go to:
http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/escreening.shtm
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