Registered Traveler Program Meets With Resistance
The long touted, but as yet unimplemented, Registered Traveler program seems to be meeting with mixed feelings despite a rather successful pilot program.
The program, pushed by Congress and designed to help reduce time spent at airport security checkpoints, was to have been implemented by summer in order to have an impact on expected heavy summer wait times. Participants would pay a fee ($100), and then go through an extensive background check. Once cleared through the background check, travelers would use a biometric card to skip the main security lines and go through a line specifically reserved for the Registered Traveler. The TSA has not said what checkpoint procedures would be streamlined, or eliminated, in this special security line.
To be successful, both in terms of speeding of security lines and being a financial prudent decision, the program needs to have major airports signing up. So far, this hasn’t happened.
Only one of the nation’s busiest airports (Orlando) has signed on, making it much less appealing, and potentially putting the entire program in danger of cancellation. Four more major airports have definitely said no (Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco, Las Vegas). Still on the fence are: Dallas/Fort Worth, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Miami, Denver, Houston-Bush, Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Newark, New York-JFK, New York-La Guardia, Philadelphia, and Phoenix.
There seems to be lots of pointing fingers and complaints all around. The business travelers complain that they are being asked to shell out a $100 fee without any information about the return on their investments, specifically how the program will help speed up their time in line. The airports complain that they have yet to see a viable program with definitive terms, and without that, there is no incentive for them to sign up. The TSA says that it will have that information for everyone in the near future, and reiterates that much of the success of the program depends on airports and travelers signing up.
There is still hope that when the TSA issues its guidelines and directives that more airports will sign up.
Then it will be up to the travelers: Will you sign up?
Tags: airlines, airports, flight+attendants, travelRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Air Travel
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