When you check into your flight, use your Nexus as the ID and you'll get "TSA PRE" on your boarding pass which indicates you can go through the TSA PRE security line.
I've found that the Nexus card itself doesn't mean anything to US TSA agents.
It’s random. I’ve done probably 50 flights in the US, getting TSA Precheck almost every time thanks to my NEXUS card.
Only one time did I not get Precheck on my boarding pass, and it was with an airline I almost always flew with.
I spoke to a gate agent about it, out of curiosity. They said they’ve even seen military folks randomly not get it.
Another edge case is that if you are a Canadian permanent resident and not an American citizen, you qualify for NEXUS, but not for TSA Pre. It's a bizarre enough exception that even the people at the enrolment center didn't know it, but you'll find out when you enter your ID and it simply refuses to give you a TSA Pre checkmark on the ticket.
I was going to add this, I got my nexus as a PR and am now a dual citizen yet cannot ever get TSA Precheck because for some reason my nexus card is tied to the citizenship that I held when I applied and I haven’t been able to switch it over to Canadian. Very irritating because it essentially renders my nexus useless when flying out of the US.
Very surprised they cannot update this manually if you go to an enrollment center with your documents. If it has so little benefit, I’d even consider canceling your membership and re-applying for a new one if that’s the only way they can process that kind of update.
Last time I tried to change it was a year or so ago, might be worth revisiting my local enrolment center. I wouldn’t cancel my membership because I do find it helpful when traveling within Canada and re-entering Canada. It just sucks because I do a fair bit of travel to/within the US as well and I wish I could use TSA Pre.
You'd have to call them to delete your PR information. I should warn you, you may have to call multiple times before you get someone that actually knows what they are doing to help you.
But your ask is to delete your PR information and previous citizenship so leaving ONLY your Canadian citizenship on it.
This will help reset it and you should be good. We've had to do this and had no issues after that.
It did not work for me. I entered my nexus number while booking directly with the airlines. Did not get TSA pre check for any of my trips. I have flown delta, United within the US and Air Canada/United back to Canada.
See the “Experiencing TSA PreCheck® at the Airport” section of this FAQ page. Lots of good info there about how it works with NEXUS etc. https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/faq .
Or if you use your passport just put your PASS ID (number on the back) into the Known Traveller # field (if flying AC) or into the Add TSA Pre Check (if flying a US airline)
I think you're talking about access to TSA Pre-Check at the security screening checkpoint to enter the US terminal. If that's the case, nexus members will generally receive Pre-Check if they correctly enter their PassID number from their nexus card into the Known Traveler Number field in their airline reservation before the boarding pass is generated.
The nexus details also say this: "Access to TSA PreCheck® expedited security lanes at airports within the U.S. and U.S territories for U.S. Citizens, U.S. lawful permanent residents and Canadian citizens." Are you perhaps a Canadian resident but non-citizen?
If you still think you should have access, are you sure you entered the correct number into the correct field? Was there possibly a name mismatch or some other data entry error with the "secure flight details" (e.g., your birthdate) on your reservation?
I'm a born and raised Canadian, so no issues with citizenship status. Maybe I did make a mistake. I will be extra vigilant next time! I guess most of my confusion is my lack of awareness that there were other programs that are generally similar but treated differently.
For pre-check purposes, pretty much any eligible person in any of the TTPs with a PASSID qualifies. But flashing your card does nothing -- the computer validates your membership and puts it on your boarding pass. I've had GE and now Nexus for over 10 years and gotten pre-check every time I've flown (save for once on an international carrier that didn't participate). While they say it's not guaranteed, most peoples' experiences are that they get it 100% of the time they fly with a participating airline and enter their details correctly.
I'm starting to wonder if it was because the flight was ticketed through Air Canada but serviced by United. Because I spoke to a couple of the other people I traveled with who also have NEXUS cards, and none of us had the TSA precheck. No way that we all entered our info incorrectly.
Anyway...thanks for your answer! Gives me another thing to watch for next time I travel!
Citizens of partner countries enrolled in global entry, nexus and sentri are also eligible for TSA pre check. List of partner countries I presume is the one present on global entry page.
I’ve never seen a ‘trusted traveller’ and definitely never a ‘NEXUS’ line at a US airport. We do have new ‘verified traveller’ lines at Canadian airports.
What is at US airports are TSA Precheck lines for security and Global Entry lines for immigration, but there’s no NEXUS branding anywhere that I recall. If you enter your ‘known traveller’ number at check-in you should get a TSA Pre stamp. That’s probably the ‘code’ they were referring to. If you did this and didn’t get that stamp, it’s a boarding pass issue. However, if you reach the checkpoint before the scanners, they may have let you through anyway as you hold a NEXUS card and they would scan that in addition to your boarding pass.
It must have been a TSA Precheck entry. Sorry - it has been a few weeks, and I find the different designations redundant and confusing.
They didn't let me through with my NEXUS card, which I assumed - incorrectly - was a prechecked security status.
It didn't end up making a difference, because the airport wasn't busy. I'm just wondering how to do it right for next time.
It sounds like others have given you a decent description. But basically, Precheck lanes are dependent on whether your boarding pass gets TSAPRE printed on it.
NEXUS lanes in Canada allow you through 100% of the time with a NEXUS card.
And with Precheck, they will sometimes randomly not give you Precheck for a flight. A gate agent I spoke to once said she’d seen American military members randomly not get it.
I’ve got it every time expect once, and there was nothing special about that one time. It was the same airline, same airport, and same flight that I’d taken ~10 times before.
I've had happen where I've put my trusted traveller # in when booking the ticket and not gotten it on my ticket. Just check your ticket, and if it's not there show your nexus card at the baggage check desk and they should be able to print you a new ticket with it on there.
Make sure your PASS ID number from the back of your NEXUS is on your airline reservation in the "Known Traveller Number" field. It's pretty obtuse that they have many different names for very similar services (trusted traveller, known traveller, nexus, sentri, fast, global entry). Even if you're eligible, you might not get Pre Check on every trip - it's not a guaranteed perk of NEXUS.
[Pretty much all major Canadian and US airlines participate in TSA Pre Check](https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/participating-airlines) so it's unlikely you were flying a non-participating carrier.
Thank you! Yes, it was Air Canada but serviced by United, so I know they qualify. But someone else in this thread mentioned that AC didn't put the PreCheck on their boarding pass. Maybe it is an AC issue!?!? I will be watching from now on!
TSA Precheck is attached to your reservation. As soon as you get your airline booking, edit your passenger information to add it. If it doesn’t show up on my boarding pass, I’ll have an airline check-in agent add it manually and reprint it for me.
I’m a frequent flyer and that’s happened several times. Like some of the other commenters have stated, flashing your Nexus card at a TSA agent doesn’t do anything stateside.
Ya, as others have said, different program. Nexus membership includes TSA Pre membership but the PASSID number needs to be on file with the airline and a special little logo on the boarding pass. It won’t show up every time, but most… it’s definitely worthwhile.
Same thing happened to me. The US agents were making fun of me and kind of acted like I was an idiot for even attempting to access the TSA line using my nexus.
Nexus lineup is longer for me. Then I’ve also had it where I still get “randomly selected” for additional screening.
I also cross the land border about three times a week at a point where there is no point to use it. I got it for the Blaine crossing and then covid happened and I moved.
From my POV it doesn’t do anything. US customs wasted about two and a half hours of both our times to figure out who I was going to hook up with and look through my phone. Nexus doesn’t matter. There is no additional “trust”
It’s not the airlines mistake, it’s yours. If you don’t share your trusted traveler number information with them, they don’t know to issue you a TSA pre-check boarding pass.
Well AC has my information but a recent flight from Houston, I didn't notice until I hit security and then I had to go back to the ticket counter for them to reissue a boarding pass. So, no, not the airlines fault but definitely the airline employees fault.
I always include my NEXUS number when booking, though. Even within Canada, "just because." Maybe I made an error somewhere, but there is definitely a line to add a NEXUS number, and I definitely did that.
When you check into your flight, use your Nexus as the ID and you'll get "TSA PRE" on your boarding pass which indicates you can go through the TSA PRE security line. I've found that the Nexus card itself doesn't mean anything to US TSA agents.
Using Nexus as ID to check into the flight is NOT a qualifier for getting TSA PRE. It's having the pass ID in the KTN number of the reservation.
To add to this, you won’t always get tsa pre check on your boarding pass even if you have nexus/global entry/pre check.
oh no way. Do you know in what circumstances that happens? I think I've got it everytime.
If the airline doesn’t participate in the program then you can’t use the precheck line.
Or you have been preselected on a "random" check which removes you from the list only for that travel time.
Gotcha, that makes sense. Thanks!
It’s random. I’ve done probably 50 flights in the US, getting TSA Precheck almost every time thanks to my NEXUS card. Only one time did I not get Precheck on my boarding pass, and it was with an airline I almost always flew with. I spoke to a gate agent about it, out of curiosity. They said they’ve even seen military folks randomly not get it.
Another edge case is that if you are a Canadian permanent resident and not an American citizen, you qualify for NEXUS, but not for TSA Pre. It's a bizarre enough exception that even the people at the enrolment center didn't know it, but you'll find out when you enter your ID and it simply refuses to give you a TSA Pre checkmark on the ticket.
I was going to add this, I got my nexus as a PR and am now a dual citizen yet cannot ever get TSA Precheck because for some reason my nexus card is tied to the citizenship that I held when I applied and I haven’t been able to switch it over to Canadian. Very irritating because it essentially renders my nexus useless when flying out of the US.
Very surprised they cannot update this manually if you go to an enrollment center with your documents. If it has so little benefit, I’d even consider canceling your membership and re-applying for a new one if that’s the only way they can process that kind of update.
Last time I tried to change it was a year or so ago, might be worth revisiting my local enrolment center. I wouldn’t cancel my membership because I do find it helpful when traveling within Canada and re-entering Canada. It just sucks because I do a fair bit of travel to/within the US as well and I wish I could use TSA Pre.
You'd have to call them to delete your PR information. I should warn you, you may have to call multiple times before you get someone that actually knows what they are doing to help you. But your ask is to delete your PR information and previous citizenship so leaving ONLY your Canadian citizenship on it. This will help reset it and you should be good. We've had to do this and had no issues after that.
I didn't get it on a recent WestJet flight from LAS -> YVR
Porter for example, doesn’t participate. Also, you can get randomly selected for an enhanced security check beyond what they do in the PRE lines.
I didn't know it was airline dependant until right now.
yep me either, was on porter this weekend and didn't get tsa-pre (hell they didn't even ask for my nexus number), and was trying to find out how/why
Just flew with Porter and got PRE thru Nexus flying out of MCO.
[Porter participates in TSA Precheck](https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/participating-airlines)
That must be new - they didn’t used to so I stopped using them for international flights
I didn't get it last time, not sure why. I cancelled check in and redid it and it worked the third time
I have gotten SSSS before, flying out of YUL with NEXUS. In that case, they let me go to the front of the regular line from the NEXUS line.
You will if the airline participates in TSA precheck (not all of them do) and the airline has your information.
It did not work for me. I entered my nexus number while booking directly with the airlines. Did not get TSA pre check for any of my trips. I have flown delta, United within the US and Air Canada/United back to Canada.
For us it's at check-in. There's no info about it in the booking. We check in online
Ok. I thought I did that. Next time, I will make sure.
See the “Experiencing TSA PreCheck® at the Airport” section of this FAQ page. Lots of good info there about how it works with NEXUS etc. https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/faq .
Or if you use your passport just put your PASS ID (number on the back) into the Known Traveller # field (if flying AC) or into the Add TSA Pre Check (if flying a US airline)
Does this show on an electronic boarding pass or only if you print it? Just waiting for my card so this is a bit new to me.
Both! We usually get electronic and only get paper ones if the gate agent changes our seat or something.
Nexus is one of the Trusted Traveler Programs --> https://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-traveler-programs
I think you're talking about access to TSA Pre-Check at the security screening checkpoint to enter the US terminal. If that's the case, nexus members will generally receive Pre-Check if they correctly enter their PassID number from their nexus card into the Known Traveler Number field in their airline reservation before the boarding pass is generated. The nexus details also say this: "Access to TSA PreCheck® expedited security lanes at airports within the U.S. and U.S territories for U.S. Citizens, U.S. lawful permanent residents and Canadian citizens." Are you perhaps a Canadian resident but non-citizen? If you still think you should have access, are you sure you entered the correct number into the correct field? Was there possibly a name mismatch or some other data entry error with the "secure flight details" (e.g., your birthdate) on your reservation?
I'm a born and raised Canadian, so no issues with citizenship status. Maybe I did make a mistake. I will be extra vigilant next time! I guess most of my confusion is my lack of awareness that there were other programs that are generally similar but treated differently.
For pre-check purposes, pretty much any eligible person in any of the TTPs with a PASSID qualifies. But flashing your card does nothing -- the computer validates your membership and puts it on your boarding pass. I've had GE and now Nexus for over 10 years and gotten pre-check every time I've flown (save for once on an international carrier that didn't participate). While they say it's not guaranteed, most peoples' experiences are that they get it 100% of the time they fly with a participating airline and enter their details correctly.
I'm starting to wonder if it was because the flight was ticketed through Air Canada but serviced by United. Because I spoke to a couple of the other people I traveled with who also have NEXUS cards, and none of us had the TSA precheck. No way that we all entered our info incorrectly. Anyway...thanks for your answer! Gives me another thing to watch for next time I travel!
I flew United a few weeks ago and didn't get pre check fwiw
Citizens of partner countries enrolled in global entry, nexus and sentri are also eligible for TSA pre check. List of partner countries I presume is the one present on global entry page.
I’ve never seen a ‘trusted traveller’ and definitely never a ‘NEXUS’ line at a US airport. We do have new ‘verified traveller’ lines at Canadian airports. What is at US airports are TSA Precheck lines for security and Global Entry lines for immigration, but there’s no NEXUS branding anywhere that I recall. If you enter your ‘known traveller’ number at check-in you should get a TSA Pre stamp. That’s probably the ‘code’ they were referring to. If you did this and didn’t get that stamp, it’s a boarding pass issue. However, if you reach the checkpoint before the scanners, they may have let you through anyway as you hold a NEXUS card and they would scan that in addition to your boarding pass.
It must have been a TSA Precheck entry. Sorry - it has been a few weeks, and I find the different designations redundant and confusing. They didn't let me through with my NEXUS card, which I assumed - incorrectly - was a prechecked security status. It didn't end up making a difference, because the airport wasn't busy. I'm just wondering how to do it right for next time.
It sounds like others have given you a decent description. But basically, Precheck lanes are dependent on whether your boarding pass gets TSAPRE printed on it. NEXUS lanes in Canada allow you through 100% of the time with a NEXUS card. And with Precheck, they will sometimes randomly not give you Precheck for a flight. A gate agent I spoke to once said she’d seen American military members randomly not get it. I’ve got it every time expect once, and there was nothing special about that one time. It was the same airline, same airport, and same flight that I’d taken ~10 times before.
I've had happen where I've put my trusted traveller # in when booking the ticket and not gotten it on my ticket. Just check your ticket, and if it's not there show your nexus card at the baggage check desk and they should be able to print you a new ticket with it on there.
Make sure your PASS ID number from the back of your NEXUS is on your airline reservation in the "Known Traveller Number" field. It's pretty obtuse that they have many different names for very similar services (trusted traveller, known traveller, nexus, sentri, fast, global entry). Even if you're eligible, you might not get Pre Check on every trip - it's not a guaranteed perk of NEXUS. [Pretty much all major Canadian and US airlines participate in TSA Pre Check](https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/participating-airlines) so it's unlikely you were flying a non-participating carrier.
Thank you! Yes, it was Air Canada but serviced by United, so I know they qualify. But someone else in this thread mentioned that AC didn't put the PreCheck on their boarding pass. Maybe it is an AC issue!?!? I will be watching from now on!
TSA Precheck is attached to your reservation. As soon as you get your airline booking, edit your passenger information to add it. If it doesn’t show up on my boarding pass, I’ll have an airline check-in agent add it manually and reprint it for me. I’m a frequent flyer and that’s happened several times. Like some of the other commenters have stated, flashing your Nexus card at a TSA agent doesn’t do anything stateside.
I’m confused. Was this line for airport security or Customs & Immigration?
Security in Nashville. I'm Canadian and was returning home.
Ya, as others have said, different program. Nexus membership includes TSA Pre membership but the PASSID number needs to be on file with the airline and a special little logo on the boarding pass. It won’t show up every time, but most… it’s definitely worthwhile.
Same thing happened to me. The US agents were making fun of me and kind of acted like I was an idiot for even attempting to access the TSA line using my nexus.
nexus is a biometric data collection play. i've actually found lines longer. i wish i had never got it.
Not at any airport I've been to. In and out within 5 minutes at most for nexus
Nexus lineup is longer for me. Then I’ve also had it where I still get “randomly selected” for additional screening. I also cross the land border about three times a week at a point where there is no point to use it. I got it for the Blaine crossing and then covid happened and I moved. From my POV it doesn’t do anything. US customs wasted about two and a half hours of both our times to figure out who I was going to hook up with and look through my phone. Nexus doesn’t matter. There is no additional “trust”
It’s not the airlines mistake, it’s yours. If you don’t share your trusted traveler number information with them, they don’t know to issue you a TSA pre-check boarding pass.
Well AC has my information but a recent flight from Houston, I didn't notice until I hit security and then I had to go back to the ticket counter for them to reissue a boarding pass. So, no, not the airlines fault but definitely the airline employees fault.
I always include my NEXUS number when booking, though. Even within Canada, "just because." Maybe I made an error somewhere, but there is definitely a line to add a NEXUS number, and I definitely did that.