TSA warns PreCheck lines might be longer this year for Thanksgiving travel

Air aviation news- In the latest aviation news, the Transportation Security Administration gears up for record crowds over Thanksgiving, with PreCheck screening lanes likely to be busier than before; AAA predicts air travel numbers will be 6.6% greater than last Thanksgiving; Alaska Airlines will overhaul international award travel for Mileage Plan loyalty members next year; Frontier rolls out its 2024-25 all-you-can-fly airpass; Southwest plans a small devaluation of Rapid Rewards points in 2024; two more big U.S. carriers will add service to Mexico’s new Riviera Maya airport in the spring; U.S. airlines show no signs of resuming Israel service yet; JetBlue won’t lose its Amsterdam routes next year after all; there are more ups and downs for U.S.-China flights; Dubai’s two international airlines order a huge number of new wide-body planes for the years ahead and Southwest Airlines increases alcoholic beverage prices just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Transportation Security Administration says it is ready to handle an unprecedented number of air travelers over the coming holiday. TSA defines the Thanksgiving travel period as Nov. 17-28, and predicts it will screen a record 30 million passengers over those 12 days. The busiest days at airport checkpoints are projected to be Tuesday, Nov. 21 (2.6 million), Wednesday, Nov. 22 (2.7 million) and Sunday, Nov. 26 (2.9 million). If that 2.9 million forecast pans out, it will match the number of TSA airport screenings recorded on June 30 of this year — “the heaviest passenger screening volume in TSA history,” the agency noted.

Members of TSA’s PreCheck trusted traveler program might be facing checkpoint lines that are longer than last year’s. Why? According to TSA, the number of travelers enrolled in PreCheck is now more than 17.6 million, a gain of 3.9 million (28%) over the same time last year. Still, the agency says it expects to keep waiting times below 10 minutes for PreCheck members and 30 minutes for the regular screening lanes. So far this year, “We have already seen seven of the top 10 busiest travel days in TSA’s history,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. “We are ready for the anticipated volumes and are working closely with our airline and airport partners to make sure we are prepared for this busy holiday travel season.”

Last week, United and American Airlines said they expected record air travel over the Thanksgiving holiday period, which started this week, and now the annual forecast from AAA suggests a similar boom. The organization defines the Thanksgiving travel period as just five days (Nov. 22-26) versus the 12 days in the airlines’ predictions. AAA said during that period it expects to see 4.69 million Americans traveling by air, up 6.6% from last year and a gain of 2.5% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday of that week will be the busiest travel days, AAA noted. Average airline ticket prices during November and December this year are $681 for domestic trips (up 5% from last year), AAA said, and $1,231 for international flights (down 5.7%). Road travelers will outnumber air travelers by 10 to 1 over Thanksgiving, AAA said. (It predicts that in the Bay Area, the busiest driving route that weekend will be Monterey to San Francisco northbound via San Jose on Sunday evening, which will take three hours and 10 minutes – 63% longer than usual.)

Alaska Airlines said this week it is revising its policies for Mileage Plan award trips starting in March, with new award pricing charts and an emphasis on expanding and simplifying award travel on its 24 international partner carriers, which include both Oneworld and non-Oneworld airlines. The new award travel charts are split into three regions: the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia-Pacific. “They provide clearly defined ‘starting from’ redemption rates that vary depending on the distance being flown,” Alaska said. Under the new pricing structure, the company said, 60% of nonstop routes on partner airlines in economy class will start at a lower price, and so will 64% of routes in business class. The shortest award flights will have a minimum price of 4,500 miles, down from the current 7,500.

“All our partner redemption pricing will be one-way so our guests can mix and match which airlines they’re flying, say British Airways on an outbound flight from Seattle to London and then Finnair from Helsinki to Seattle for the return,” Alaska said, adding that it will expand access to premium economy awards on more partners, including American Airlines and Japan Airlines. It also promised to offer “global partner award sales with quarterly, limited-time promotions featuring special pricing of up to 50% off specific partners, routes or destinations.” The Points Guy said the new structure offers “a mixed bag compared to current award rates,” although it provides “some notable simplicity that was previously missing.” One Mile at a Time opined that “changes along these lines were long overdue.” And View from the Wing said the revisions bring “a lot more confidence” in Mileage Plan awards. Previously, “They had different pricing for different partners, that they no longer disclosed and that would change without notice. Now everyone is on the same chart with the same rules.”

Frontier Airlines has unveiled the 2024-25 version of its GoWild! All-You-Can-Fly airpass, priced at $499 for 12 months of travel from May 1, 2024 through April 30, 2025. Customers who buy the pass at FlyFrontier.com by Nov. 28 of this year will also get Frontier Miles Silver elite status during 2024. The pass price covers only the basic fare, not add-on fees like bags, seat assignments and so on. It also comes with booking restrictions; domestic trips can be reserved no earlier than the day before departure and international flights no more than 10 days in advance, and bookings must be made on the airline’s website. However, Frontier said it will introduce a new feature making select flights available for earlier booking. “Simply search and choose GoWild! when available,” Frontier said, adding that an early booking fee might apply.

Members of Southwest Airlines’ Rapid Rewards loyalty program who plan to book an award trip for next year are being advised to make the reservation before Jan. 1 to avoid a reduction of their point values. The point cost of an award trip is tied to the dollar price of the ticket, and according to The Points Guy, the airline is telling Rapid Rewards members on their latest account statements that on Jan. 1, the number of points required per dollar of base fare will rise by around 4%. “We’re making this change as a normal course of business to adapt to the current environment and increased cost pressures,” an airline spokesperson told The Points Guy.

The last week of March next year will be a busy time for Mexico’s new international airport at Tulum, serving the Yucatan’s popular Riviera Maya resort area about two hours south of Cancun. Besides the new non-stop service that Delta and Spirit Airlines will launch on March 28 from Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale/Orlando respectively, United and American are also jumping on the Tulum bandwagon. United announced it will operate 22 flights a week to Tulum starting March 31 from its hubs at Newark, Houston Bush Intercontinental and Chicago O’Hare, followed by seasonal daily service from Los Angeles beginning May 23. American said it will introduce four flights a day into Tulum on March 28, two from Dallas/Fort Worth and one each from Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina, all using 737s. In June, AA said, it will boost schedules on several Latin America/Caribbean routes, adding a second daily flight from Charlotte to St. Thomas; from DFW to Guatemala City, Guatemala and San Jose, Costa Rica; and from Miami to Antigua; Anguilla; Georgetown, Guyana; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

U.S. airlines are continuing their suspension of flights to Tel Aviv as Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and related skirmishes in the region show no signs of abating. Delta had previously suggested it might revive New York JFK-Tel Aviv service on Nov. 15, but this week it said its plans have changed. Now, JFK-TLV flights “will continue to be canceled as the airline continuously monitors the security situation in the region,” Delta said, noting that it will make “additional cancellations on a rolling basis, as needed for the safety of our customers and crew.” Last month, Delta suspended its Atlanta and Boston flights to Tel Aviv. United Airlines has suspended its Israel flights without setting a date for their resumption. There were some published reports this week that United would resume Newark-Tel Aviv service on Nov. 24, but according to Reuters, that’s not happening. United said that notification was made in error by its public relations agency. American Airlines has suspended Tel Aviv service at least through Dec. 4, but Israel’s El Al Airlines continues to fly into Tel Aviv from its U.S. gateways.

Apparently JetBlue’s routes from Boston and New York JFK to Amsterdam will be safe next year after all. JetBlue was expecting to lose access to Amsterdam Schiphol following the Dutch government’s announcement earlier this year that it planned to mandate a 10% reduction in 2024 flight operations below 2019 levels due to noise and environmental concerns. That order would have banned airlines that recently started flying to AMS (like JetBlue) and led to schedule reductions for longer-term operators (like Delta and Air France/KLM). But this week, the government suddenly reversed course after the U.S. and European Union lobbied against the plan, dropping its proposed cap on flights at Schiphol.

U.S.-China air service continues to experience some ups and downs with Chinese airlines slowly adding flights and U.S. carriers pushing back the planned revival of some routes. China Southern Airlines has filed to increase frequencies on its San Francisco-Wuhan route from one weekly flight to two effective Nov. 30; and China Eastern, which currently operates two weekly SFO-Shanghai flights, plans to boost its Los Angeles-Shanghai schedule from three flights a week to five starting Nov. 25. Air China, which flies from SFO to Beijing twice a week, plans to bring back Washington Dulles-Beijing service twice a week, with a stop in Los Angeles on the westbound leg; and to add a third weekly departure to its regular LAX-Beijing roundtrip route. But Delta’s latest update shows the resumption of its LAX-Shanghai service now being pushed back from March 31 to July 12, when it plans to offer four flights a week. United, which recently revived daily SFO-Beijing flights, is delaying the restoration of Newark-Beijing and Newark-Shanghai flights from Jan. 9 to mid-February.

It looks like Dubai’s international airport is going to be extremely busy in the years ahead, based on news from the big annual airshow held there this week. Two Dubai-based airlines have placed orders worth tens of billions of dollars for new aircraft from Boeing. Emirates, which already has more Boeing 777 wide-bodies than any other airline, has ordered 90 more — all of them from Boeing’s next-generation 777X model. That consists of 55 777-9s and 35 777-8s. “This takes the airline’s 777X order book to a total of 205 units,” Emirates said. The first 777-9, from an earlier order, is due to join Emirates’ fleet in 2025. The carrier also boosted its existing order for new Boeing 787 Dreamliners to a total of 35. The overall order is worth around $52 billion.

And in case those 90 extra 777s aren’t enough, Emirates has also placed a $6 billion order for 15 more Airbus A350-900 wide-bodies in addition to the 50 it had ordered previously. As for Emirates’ existing fleet of 777s, The Points Guy said this week that the carrier is planning to announce a refit of its “woefully outdated” business class cabin, possibly replacing the current 2-3-2 configuration with a roomier 1-2-1 layout. Meanwhile, Emirates’ low-cost sister carrier flyDubai, whose current fleet is mostly Boeing 737s, placed its first-ever order for wide-body aircraft — a total of 30 787-9 Dreamliners with an estimated price tag of $11 billion. Elsewhere, Reuters reported this week that rival Turkish Airlines has reached a tentative deal with Airbus to buy 355 new planes, including 90 wide-body A350-900s and A350-1000s along with 250 single-aisle A321neos.

Southwest Airlines is upping its prices for onboard beverages. The Dallas Morning News reported how the increase arrives just in time for Thanksgiving travel. Beer prices, previously $6, are now a dollar more while wine prices are rising $2 from $6 to $8. All liquor sales on Southwest flights are also rising two bucks from $7 to $9. The airlines hasn’t changed its price points for alcohol since 2018.