International to Domestic and Precheck

[ericosmith]

Cruise line air is booked I believe through Air New Zealand with the domestic leg on United.  AZO-ORD-AUK-ORD-AZO.  I'm not concerned about Precheck on the outbound flight as AZO is a tiny airport with short lines.  It's the return transfer through ORD that I"m concerned about.  Air New Zealand doesn't have field in their system for a Known Traveler number.  Is there any way I can go about checking in for the return flight so that I end up with Precheck on the boarding pass?

[klfrodo]

Having a KTN is never a guarantee of getting pre-check each and every time you fly. There will be that random time that they want to mess with your day.

 

Having said that, will you have to go thru security again when you change flights at ORD?

 

Otherwise, I’m not much help. Safe travels though.

[ericosmith]

Thanks... yes, it's the time to go back through security at ORD that concerns me.  Just hoping I can cut down on that as I've been down that road and ended up spending the night at ORD, nothing seems to be quick there.  

[scottbee]

3 hours ago, ericosmith said:

Cruise line air is booked I believe through Air New Zealand with the domestic leg on United.  AZO-ORD-AUK-ORD-AZO.  I'm not concerned about Precheck on the outbound flight as AZO is a tiny airport with short lines.  It's the return transfer through ORD that I"m concerned about.  Air New Zealand doesn't have field in their system for a Known Traveler number.  Is there any way I can go about checking in for the return flight so that I end up with Precheck on the boarding pass?

 

Assuming you mean AKL (Auckland NZ), there is no such thing as PreCheck departing NZ.  Pre is an American (only) thing as the [American] TSA do not operate at airports outside of the United States

[waterbug123]

6 hours ago, ericosmith said:

 not concerned about Precheck on the outbound flight as AZO is a tiny airport with short lines.  It's the return transfer through ORD that I"m concerned about. 

 

6 hours ago, klfrodo said:

will you have to go thru security again when you change flights at ORD?

 

 

3 hours ago, scottbee said:

 

Pre is an American (only) thing as the [American] TSA do not operate at airports outside of the United States

 

I believe the OP is referring to the connection at ORD on the way home from their trip.  He knows their is no PreCheck at AKL, but knows he will have to reclear security after clearing customs at ORD and is hoping to do so via PreCheck. 

[CruiserBruce]

OK, we need to clarify things. First ANZ doesn't fly AKL (not AUK) to ORD. It goes to a couple of other airports (LAX, IAH, or SFO), where you connect to a domestic airline (United or American). You will clear US Immigration and Customs in those airports, and should stay behind security in ORD, so no need for Pre-check in ORD.

 

But, if you are connecting to United or America, you should be able to get your KTN assigned to those segments.

 

Unless I am missing something.

[CruiserBruce]

I stand corrected...there is a non-stop AKL-ORD flight...ANZ 26. Disregard most of the previous. I checked their website, and it didn't show up. Must not fly that route every day.

 

But the OP should still be able to get their KTN assigned to the domestic carrier for the ORD-AZO segment.

[fbgd]

Call and ask for the PNRs/booking references for both elements of the trip. You can then contact United with the booking reference and add the KTN to your booking.

 

 

 

 

[terry&mike]

This has worked for me when traveling on a foreign carrier into a US airport, clearing immigration and doing the bag re-check thing, and then clearing security to connect to my domestic US flight. 

My husband and I will complete the bag re-check process, and then rather than go on through security in that area, we will exit the area into the main part of the airport. We will then enter thru a security Pre-Check line out in the main area of the airport.

Occasionally, our boarding pass given to us by the foreign carrier for the local leg (ie your boarding pass given to you by Air New Zealand for your United leg) does not have our pre-check designation on it. I have found that if I then go to a local carrier (United) kiosk and reprint our boarding passes at the local airport (ORD), they have the TSA designation on them. Then I go through security and on to my gate. 

[fbgd]

3 minutes ago, terry&mike said:

My husband and I will complete the bag re-check process, and then rather than go on through security in that area, we will exit the area into the main part of the airport.

 

At ORD you have no option to re-clear security before ending up landside. In the OP's case they will need to take the landside bus (if the ATS is still out of action) over to Terminal 1 for their United flight.

[love to cruz]

We will NEVER fly through O'Hare again. We flew from London to O'Hare, then had to go through security to get our US flight home. We have Global Entry. However, we nearly missed our plane as it took three hours snaking through security with a lot of upset people all around us. Then add insult to injury had to claim our luggage & walk it 5 feet to recheck before racing to our flight. We were the last ones to board before they closed the door.

[fbgd]

12 minutes ago, love to cruz said:

We will NEVER fly through O'Hare again. We flew from London to O'Hare, then had to go through security to get our US flight home. We have Global Entry. However, we nearly missed our plane as it took three hours snaking through security with a lot of upset people all around us. Then add insult to injury had to claim our luggage & walk it 5 feet to recheck before racing to our flight. We were the last ones to board before they closed the door.

 

Either you hit a massive outlier here or there's some equally huge misuse of terms on your part.

 

Any time you enter the US you have to reclear immigration and customs at your first point of entry, and you therefore have to recheck any checked bags after clearing them through customs. This is not specific to ORD.

 

If it really took 3hrs for you to clear TSA PreCheck (which you'd have access to with GE about 99% of the time) then a giant percentage of passengers would be missing their flights. ORD is well known for longer immigration lines, even for US Citizens/LPRs but I've never found the same with GE.

[CruiserBruce]

15 minutes ago, love to cruz said:

We will NEVER fly through O'Hare again. We flew from London to O'Hare, then had to go through security to get our US flight home. We have Global Entry. However, we nearly missed our plane as it took three hours snaking through security with a lot of upset people all around us. Then add insult to injury had to claim our luggage & walk it 5 feet to recheck before racing to our flight. We were the last ones to board before they closed the door.

Ahhhh...if you hadn't collected your bags yet, you were in the Immigration line, not security. It is normal to then collect your bags, and go through Customs. A simplified re-check of your bags immediately after Customs is also normal. However, with Global Entry, none of this should have happened.

 

Yes, 3 hours is a truly significant problem. Wonder if there was something else going on out of the normal.

[Zach1213]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

I stand corrected...there is a non-stop AKL-ORD flight...ANZ 26. Disregard most of the previous. I checked their website, and it didn't show up. Must not fly that route every day.

 

I think it's 4x weekly. 

 

21 minutes ago, love to cruz said:

We will NEVER fly through O'Hare again. We flew from London to O'Hare, then had to go through security to get our US flight home. We have Global Entry. However, we nearly missed our plane as it took three hours snaking through security with a lot of upset people all around us. Then add insult to injury had to claim our luggage & walk it 5 feet to recheck before racing to our flight. We were the last ones to board before they closed the door.

 

That stinks. I clear US immigration/customs at ORD about every month, on top of domestic connections at ORD and O&D trips at ORD, and I rarely run in to any issues..never what you experienced unless there's a major storm or something, and even then... You really must have hit a bad time. 

[ericosmith]

8 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

 

 

 

I believe the OP is referring to the connection at ORD on the way home from their trip.  He knows their is no PreCheck at AKL, but knows he will have to reclear security after clearing customs at ORD and is hoping to do so via PreCheck. 

Precisely

[ericosmith]

6 hours ago, terry&mike said:

Occasionally, our boarding pass given to us by the foreign carrier for the local leg (ie your boarding pass given to you by Air New Zealand for your United leg) does not have our pre-check designation on it. I have found that if I then go to a local carrier (United) kiosk and reprint our boarding passes at the local airport (ORD), they have the TSA designation on them. Then I go through security and on to my gate. 

Ah, that's a great idea.  I'm so used to using a mobile boarding pass that it hadn't occurred to me that I could reprint at ORD. 

 

When I booked this flight it had a 3 hour connection.  Unfortunately at some point they figured out that New Zealand implements daylight savings time a month later than the US and my connection time magically got shortened by an hour.  

[waterbug123]

21 hours ago, fbgd said:

 

Either you hit a massive outlier here or there's some equally huge misuse of terms on your part.

 

Any time you enter the US you have to reclear immigration and customs at your first point of entry, and you therefore have to recheck any checked bags after clearing them through customs. This is not specific to ORD.

 

 

And once through customs, where you've had access to checked bags, you must re-clear security before any connecting flight.  That is also not specific to ORD.