It's a moral dilemma many travelers have faced at the airport: If you have TSA PreCheck® and your traveling companion doesn't, do you ditch them for the PreCheck lane … or wait with them in the (sometimes painfully long) general security line?
TSA PreCheck is the government-run trusted traveler program that lets you breeze through airport security with your shoes and belt on and your liquids and laptop still in your bag. Leaving your friends for the faster lane might not be a cardinal sin, but your spouse or kids? That's a different story.
One of the most common questions about PreCheck is whether you can bring guests through the dedicated lanes with you. In most cases, the answer is no. But that doesn't mean everyone in your group has to resign themselves to the long standard security queue. From using your credit card's benefits to facial-recognition lanes that make PreCheck even faster, there are several ways to get your whole party through security without splitting off on your own.
Here's what to do when friends or family don't have TSA PreCheck.
Who Can Use Your TSA PreCheck Benefit?
The answer is simple: You're the only one who can use your TSA PreCheck benefit. You can't bring a friend, family member, or even your spouse through the PreCheck lane if they aren't already enrolled in the Trusted Traveler Program and have PreCheck on their boarding pass.
There's one meaningful exception: Kids.
Children 12 and under can accompany a parent or guardian into the PreCheck lane, even if PreCheck isn't listed on the child's boarding pass. Teenagers 13 to 17 can also use the PreCheck lane, as long as they're on the same reservation as their parent or guardian and their boarding pass shows the PreCheck indicator. TSA (somewhat) recently expanded the policy to include teenagers; previously, only kids 12 and under could tag along.
What about spouses, other family members, or friends traveling together? Officially, your PreCheck benefit doesn't pass down. In practice, airlines occasionally extend it to everyone on a shared reservation – but don't count on it.
Cover the Cost of TSA PreCheck for Your Traveling Companions
Instead of hoping the airline passes your benefit through to everyone in your group, the more reliable option is to help your travel companions enroll in PreCheck themselves.
Many travel credit cards offer a statement credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry that reimburses you for one enrollment fee every four to five years – and those credits can be used to pay for someone else's application, not just your own. So if you've already got PreCheck and don't need the credit for yourself, consider using it to enroll a family member or friend. The credit will still apply.
Read more: Cheap Credit Cards That Get You Free TSA PreCheck & Global Entry
If you have the American Express Platinum Card®, there's an even better play. You can cover TSA PreCheck (or Global Entry) for your whole family by adding authorized users to your account. Each authorized user with a free Companion Platinum card gets their own credit to apply for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. After a change a few years back, adding a full Platinum authorized user card now costs $195 per year (see rates & fees) – but adding a Companion Platinum card costs nothing extra, and the PreCheck credit still applies.
Read our full guide to getting TSA PreCheck for the whole family with one credit card!
The exact language from Amex's benefit terms is the tell here: “Additional cards on eligible consumer and business card accounts are also eligible for the statement credit.” Translation: Add a Companion Platinum card for each family member who needs PreCheck, have them complete the application and pay the fee with their authorized user card, and Amex should reimburse the cost.
It's not a reason to get the Amex Platinum on its own. But if you already carry it, it's one of the more underrated ways to extend the card's value beyond yourself.
Already Have PreCheck? There's Now an Even Faster Lane
If you have TSA PreCheck and haven't heard of TSA PreCheck Touchless ID, that's worth fixing before your next trip. It's a facial recognition upgrade that lets you walk through a dedicated security lane without pulling out your ID or boarding pass at all – and because relatively few people know about it yet, the lines are often noticeably shorter than standard PreCheck lanes.
Here's the catch: Everyone in your group needs their own PreCheck membership to access it. It's not a workaround for companions who aren't enrolled – it's a faster option for people who already are. If getting PreCheck for your travel companions is on the table, this is one more reason to make that happen sooner rather than later.
Read more: How to Use TSA PreCheck Touchless ID to Skip Long Security Lines
Try CLEAR+ Instead
CLEAR+ allows you to cut to the front of the line: On its own, you can skip to the front of the standard security line. In tandem with PreCheck, you can skip to the front of that shorter, faster line – keeping your coat and shoes on and keeping electronics inside your bag, too.
The downside? It comes at a cost … a really significant one at that. After yet another increase, it now clocks in at a whopping $209 a year – though fortunately, there are a handful of ways to cut that cost (or even make it free with some travel credit cards).
But the good news is, you can enroll in CLEAR+ right at the airport and make use of it instantly if you're in a pinch.
Related reading: Is CLEAR+ Worth the Cost Anymore?
Don't Have a Real ID? There's a Fix for That Too
If your travel companion's issue isn't PreCheck – it's that they don't have a Real ID-compliant license – there's a straightforward workaround worth knowing about. Apple iPhone users can now store their passport as a Digital ID in Apple Wallet, accepted at more than 250 U.S. airports.
Instead of scrambling to find a physical passport or get a new license before the trip, they can add their passport digitally and use it at the checkpoint.
It doesn't get anyone into the PreCheck lane or speed up the screening process itself – your companion still goes through standard security. But it solves the REAL ID problem entirely (as long as you have a passport), which is its own kind of headache to avoid at the airport. Just make sure it's set up well before leaving for the airport … verification takes up to an hour after adding it.
Read more: Apple Launches Digital ID With Passports: Great Real ID Workaround
Bottom Line
You can't bring guests through the TSA PreCheck lane – but you might not be completely out of luck with a handful of workarounds either.
Kids 12 and under travel free with you in the PreCheck line, and teens up to 17 can tag along as long as they're on your reservation and their boarding pass shows PreCheck.
For adult companions, the best move is to enroll them in PreCheck and use a travel card's statement credit to cover the cost, or leverage Amex Platinum authorized user cards to cover multiple people at once. And if you've had PreCheck for a while but haven't set up Touchless ID with your airline yet, do that now too. It takes five minutes and makes an already fast experience noticeably faster.
