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TSA Pre-check for returning international travelers to BWI?

Berry_Lady
Explorer C

After arriving from Costa Rica to BWI and passing through Customs and Immigration, we will have to re-check our luggage through security. This can be very time-consuming. Is there a separate security line for TSA Pre-Check here? We have only an hour and 45 minutes layover. We are worried that will not be enough time to get through everything and make our connection. Has anyone had experience with this?

4 REPLIES 4

Re: TSA Pre-check for returning international travelers to BWI?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@Berry_Lady wrote:

After arriving from Costa Rica to BWI and passing through Customs and Immigration, we will have to re-check our luggage through security. This can be very time-consuming. Is there a separate security line for TSA Pre-Check here? We have only an hour and 45 minutes layover. We are worried that will not be enough time to get through everything and make our connection. Has anyone had experience with this?


Are you asking if there is a TSA PreCheck lane at BWI? I would say that there is although I don't know specifically about getting to it after leaving the customs area. Is your connecting flight also on Southwest? Maybe someone who has traveled through BWI recently can chime in.

 

The last time I had to make this same sort of transfer in Denver the legacy ticketing system wouldn't allow PreCheck to show up on the boarding passes for the connecting flights - some issue related to the addition of the international flights being incompatible with domestic flight ticketing. Hopefully this situation is remedied in the current ticketing software (or else it won't matter for you if there is or isn't easy access to a PreCheck lane).

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: TSA Pre-check for returning international travelers to BWI?

Berry_Lady
Explorer C

I was wondering whether Southwest at BWI has a setup like Houston Hobby. There, you come out of Immigration and you have to go through security screening before your connecting domestic flight, but there is a TSA Pre-Check line. That goes pretty fast, for Pre-Check peple. At Houston Bush, on the other hand, there is no Pre-Check line for the domestic leg of your flight and everybody gets in the same humongous line that snakes through the building and makes you worry that you will never make your plane. So I would like to know whether BWI is set up with the Pre-Check there, or not.

Re: TSA Pre-check for returning international travelers to BWI?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

That's a good sign @Berry_Lady - the Houston Hobby airport recently had a big expansion to allow for more efficient international travel. FLL also had new gates built that have ability to segregate international arrivals. These are very 

 

When I last flew Southwest international in 2016 Southwest wouldn't produce PreCheck on a connecting flight, so if they had a PreCheck lane at Hobby that's a great sign that at least the capability is there since it is mainly for Southwest customers.

 

BWI seems to have quite a few of the destinations, so hopefully it was judged to be busy enough to have the PreCheck like you saw at Hobby.

 

This list isn't clear to me if the D/E location is within the airport for international flights, or if this the general access checkpoint.

https://www.bwiairport.com/flying-with-us/security/tsa-prer

 

At Denver we had to go back through the main security lines, so if it is analagous then you should have a PreCheck lane available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: TSA Pre-check for returning international travelers to BWI?

Berry_Lady
Explorer C
Solution

We have decided to re-route through Houston rather than Baltimore -- so I guess I can consider this question "solved." Thanks for the help!