A new survey of U.S. air travelers suggests that while TSA PreCheck members feel a real reduction in airport security stress, they don’t believe they’re saving as much time as TSA claims.
The survey by the Upgraded Points website, found that travelers with PreCheck say that the line through security averaged about 36 minutes compared with TSA’s claim of an average of under 10 minutes. Surveyed travelers without PreCheck reported an average of 43 minutes. That small difference may be the reason why there’s only a 6-minute difference between the two groups in how early they arrive at airports.
Where PreCheck showed a big difference was in stress reduction. On a 10-point scale, PreCheck membes rated their ‘security stress’ at 3.3, compared to 7.3 for non-members. It’s possible, of course, that some of the difference may be due to more frequent and confident flyers among the PreCheck group.
The survey also includes data on many other aspects of the airport security experience, including data on missed flights, reasons for enrolling or not, and price points.
