TSA Quietly Slammed the Brakes on Letting Friends Walk You to the Gate

Gateside by TSA PreCheck, which lets approved non-travelers pass through security to meet or see off passengers at the gate, began in September as a 13-airport pilot. By early October the application’s airport menu had grown to hundreds of airports, with roughly 300 reportedly planned. Now TSA has told airports the program is on hold indefinitely aside from the original pilot locations, and it has not said why.

The pilot airports are Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Omaha, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Columbus, Los Angeles, Little Rock, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Wichita and Oklahoma City. At those airports the program continues. Eligible PreCheck members request access for a visitor one to three days ahead using Login.gov and their Known Traveler Number, and the visitor then shows ID at a PreCheck lane. A pass is good for a single calendar day.

There were signs of trouble before the pause. Reports from Dallas-Fort Worth described approved visitors being turned away because checkpoint staff had not been trained on the program or could not find the approval in their system. Whether that played a part in the reversal is unclear, because TSA has offered no timetable and no explanation, and any theory about the cause is speculation.

For travelers, the takeaway is to plan around what exists today rather than what was promised. If your home airport was expected to join, do not count on walking a relative to the gate this holiday season. If you live near one of the 13 pilot airports, check the details with TSA and your airport before the day of travel, and allow extra time in case the checkpoint is still working out the process.

Sources: KSBY, View from the Wing