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The summer air travel season is shaping up to be the busiest ever, which could mean lengthy lines at U.S. airport security checkpoints. But you can use the faster lanes if you belong to an expedited screening program, which could essentially be free to join with the right credit card.
The primary federal programs for air travel, TSA Precheck and Global Entry, cost $85 or $100 per traveler, respectively, and enrollment lasts five years for both.
Both give you access to the Transportation Security Administration’s Precheck security lanes at more than 200 domestic airports, where wait times as of May were less than five minutes for 92 percent of passengers, according to TSA. Global Entry includes TSA Precheck privileges and adds expedited entry through U.S. customs when you return from a foreign country.
‘IF YOU USE IT, YOU DON’T WANT TO GO BACK’
Faster security lanes could help reduce stress this summer as a record 243 million passengers and crew members are projected to pass through airport security checkpoints nationwide from Memorial Day to Labor Day, according to the TSA. That total is up from 239 million last year.
“Frequent travelers place great value on Precheck and Global Entry,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group. About 91 percent of business airline travelers said expedited airport screening was important to them, according to a 2017 survey by Harteveldt’s group.
Joe Brancatelli, a business travel writer and founder of travel site JoeSentMe.com, calls both programs a breeze to use. “If you use it, you don’t want to go back,” he said.
Leisure travelers will have to decide whether they fly often enough to justify the cost and effort to apply. For example, if you take two round-trip domestic flights each year, Precheck’s cost will average $4.25 per flight.
Here’s how to know whether Precheck or Global Entry is right for you and how a credit card might be able to defray the cost.
WHICH TO CHOOSE
With both programs, you provide personal information and submit to a background check. In exchange you get a trusted traveler number, which you can use for faster screening.
Global Entry might be the obvious choice for frequent and international travelers because it comes with more benefits for a little extra money, costing an average of $3 more annually than Precheck.
The downside of Global Entry comes upfront: It’s a bigger hassle to apply for, and it requires a more thorough background process than Precheck. It not only requires a passport but also an in-person interview, which is available at the nation’s large international airports and border crossings.
If you rarely travel abroad, don’t have a passport and don’t live near a Global Entry center, TSA Precheck may be the better option.
Application details are on the TSA Precheck and Global Entry websites.
BENEFITS OF PRECHECK
TSA Precheck status gives you access to security lanes with lighter screening. To use the special lane, make sure your trusted traveler number is included in your airline itinerary. Leave on your belt and shoes, keep your laptop in its case, and let liquids and gels remain in your carry-on. Dedicated Precheck lanes and quicker screening usually mean faster-moving lines. Children ages 12 and younger can use Precheck lanes when traveling with a parent or guardian who has the Precheck indicator on their boarding pass.
BENEFITS OF GLOBAL ENTRY
Global Entry, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, includes TSA Precheck benefits and expedited customs screening when traveling internationally. When returning to the U.S., you can use a self-service kiosk instead of waiting in customs lines. The program also includes expedited processing at Mexico and Canada border crossings. Children of all ages need their own Global Entry status to use expedited customs screening.
HOW YOUR CREDIT CARD CAN HELP
More credit cards that earn travel rewards are starting to add a valuable benefit: reimbursement of the application fee for Precheck or Global Entry once every four or five years. Typically, reimbursement is automatic when you use the travel credit card to pay the $85 or $100 fee.
For card issuers, the benefit is becoming a must, especially for travel credit cards with hefty annual fees. “If you want to market your card as an elite one and charge a high fee, you better offer this rebate as part of the bundle of benefits,” Brancatelli said.
OTHER ADVICE
If neither program is right for you, TSA offers these tips for regular security lanes:
—Before heading to the airport, check your carry-ons for prohibited items.
—During busy travel periods, TSA recommends using its app, MyTSA, to check what your wait time might be.
—When packing your carry-on, keep in mind that some items will need to be removed and scanned separately.
This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet.

Baldwin’s regular board meeting of aldermen was temporarily upended Thursday with the public address of embattled Town Clerk Chrystal Willis.
Willis had been placed on administrative leave with pay Wednesday by Mayor Donna Lanceslin for reasons cited in a letter as, “insubordination, creating and executing documents beyond the clerk’s authority, abusing her position as clerk, and/or creating a work environment that isn’t conducive to productivity, and other reasons.”
The mayor said to the Banner-Tribune Thursday morning the proposed termination of Willis was not on the agenda for Thursday evening’s meeting due to time constraints. However, she said she intended to expand the agenda to include the proposal at the meeting.
But Willis appeared before the board ahead of the proposed expansion and addressed the overfilled room.
She read out loud the list of reasons Lanceslin had given for grounds for termination, and called them “unfounded and very much untrue.”
Willis went on to say, “The severity of these accusations paired with the detrimental consequences they can have on my professional, my entrepreneurial and my personal life are why I am convicted to stand before you all today.
“This is not about a job. This is about more than a job. This is about what is right, and I am standing here to protect my name and my reputation.”
Willis proclaimed her professional and civic records are without blemish and decried further the reasons for her proposed dismissal as without precedent.
She asked the board to review the audacity of the evidence of her job performance, calling for them to ask themselves whether they could recall just cause for her dismissal, and whether or not such cause was simply “hearsay.”
After a brief exchange with Alderwoman Margaret Coleman regarding previous agreements to procedure, Willis said, “This problem was here before I got here, and the problem continues to persist as long as the council (board) turns a blind eye to the egregious actions, the dictatorship and the unwarranted treatment of staff, including yourselves, by Mayor Lanceslin.
“It is time that people stop throwing bricks and hiding their hands.”
She further asked the council to reflect on her job performance in terms of personally witnessed evidence.
She explained that during the February board meeting, she donated her professional services, beyond those of clerical work, to include “making sure the town of Baldwin would have a web presence and identifiable in-house email addresses, so that we could provide a professional presence moving forward.”
She then accused the mayor and aldermen of colluding against her “behind closed doors.”
She levied nonspecific accusations of fiscal irresponsibility concerning the employment of a contract employee and her own position as being at odds, and told of her apprising the mayor of an idea she intended to execute concerning town employee reviews.
According to Willis, she attempted a second time to present the mayor with her proposal of employee assessments, but as the mayor was inaccessible that day, went on to carry out the assessments anyway, in the interest of saving time.
“When Mayor Lanceslin returned, I provided her with the documentation,” said Willis.
Then, she said she was openly reprimanded by Coleman, who told her she didn’t have the authority to carry out employee evaluations, citing the brief nature of her tenure as the reason.
At this time, Lanceslin gaveled the end of Willis’ opportunity for comment.
Baldwin legal counsel Joseph Tabb pointed out the procedural implications of Willis’ continuing despite not having yet expanded the agenda for such an address to aldermen and the mayor, but Willis insisted she had more to say.
“In closing, if I may,” Willis said. “I am urging lawmakers of this town to wake up and pay attention to what is going on around here.
“Closed mouths do not get fed. Our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence states that when the government fails to meet the needs of the people, the people have the right to revolt.”
She then turned to the gallery and said, “You have a right to know what is going on here at town hall. You have a right to open and transparent communication with the mayor and your council regarding the matters here.
“We are in a situation where our employees are being treated deplorably. We are not in a municipality, we are under a dictatorship.”
Mayor Lanceslin gaveled a final time and had Baldwin Police Chief Harry Smith usher Willis to her seat.
Following the meeting, Willis said, “I felt I had the right to be here and stand up for myself and to tell the truth.”
She lambasted the fiscal structuring of the town’s beleaguered water and sewage system, and insinuated that such problems as antiquated water pipes and misread meters were going purposefully unsolved by town government.
Willis concluded with, “If the town citizens will not act and do not want to know what’s going on, I strongly recommend that the State step in and put the town of Baldwin under fiscal administration which would remove the mayor and the board’s ability to make decisions, and hopefully we would get the help we need to get this town back in order.”
A special meeting will be held July 23 at 6 p.m. at town hall to further discuss the issue.

A request to utilize the St. Mary Parish Courthouse square for a farmer’s market in Franklin was not acted upon by parish council members Wednesday.
Faith Broussard, Centerville, approached the council with the idea in May. She is a grower and former vendor of the previous farmer’s market. Legal counsel Eric Duplantis was asked to investigate liability issues, if any.
Duplantis reported at the following meeting that he was still researching the matter. On Wednesday he asked for more time.
Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said he recently met with the parish’s liability insurance carrier.
LaGrange said he learned the market could be covered by the existing parish policy, even if participants were not required to acquire coverage.
“However, I must caution you that, if we would want to do that without having coverage from those vendors is a policy decision that has to be made,” LaGrange said. “Our general liability policy has a $25,000 self-insured addition, which means that any legitimate liability claims, we’re on the hook for the first 25 grand.”