Recently, MrConsumer benefited from a bargain he wouldn’t have known about had he not checked the benefit fine print of his credit card’s website.
He has an upcoming trip to Washington, DC and was getting worried about all the airport horror stories of long lines and delays. He knew that TSA PreCheck is a means to get through airport security quicker but wasn’t about to pay close to $80 for a once-in-a-blue-moon plane trip.
It turns out, however, that some credit cards offer TSA PreCheck as a free benefit. But, only a couple of credit cards with no annual fee cover that cost. One is the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Signature Visa, and the other is the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature card.
MrConsumer coincidentally has that Fidelity card but never uses it — until now. Double checking the fine print, sure enough that is one of the few extra benefits still offered by this card. And the benefit is available every four years. (TSA PreCheck is a five-year membership for $79.95.)
*MOUSE PRINT:
While reading the Fidelity Guide to Benefits, however, MrConsumer found two nasty surprises.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Purchase security, which protects goods buyers if what they bought is lost or stolen within 90 days of purchase, has been a mainstay of credit card benefits for decades. Lost luggage protection is less common, but a nice, valuable benefit to have had for years.
This move by Fidelity follows an industry trend of dropping costly credit card benefits, as it did back in 2021 when it discontinued their very valuable “extended warranty” and “collision damage waiver” coverages (see our story back then). After receiving complaints, collision damage waiver was subsequently reinstated.
So keep an eye on your credit card’s benefit list — there may be some valuable goodies there you didn’t know about or news of other benefits soon to disappear.
The credit card TSA pre check benefit is nice, but only works for the card holder. It will not apply to the spouse. I found that out the hard way when I used the Citi AA card to buy tickets for me and my wife. Since I was the primary card holder (wife was secondary), she did not get the benefit. I could go through the pre-check line, but she had to use the regular, non precheck line. Had to wait just as long.
I still have my Bank Of America Guide to Benefits from 2014 and it is not available on-line. When I called about the Benefits Guide, the only option was to snail mail it. They really don’t seem to want to you ‘benefit’.
A free TSA benefit, no credit card(s) required: a great program called PHX RESERVE at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Sure, that’s only one airport, but maybe your airport has something similar.
It’s free and lets you make an appointment for a specific time to enter the TSA security checkpoint, helping you avoid waiting in the regular security line.
A few useful details:
No membership or account is required.
You can generally reserve up to 6 days before your flight.
You receive a QR code by email and scan it at the PHX RESERVE checkpoint.
It is available in Terminal 3 and Terminal 4 (PHX)
You can include up to 10 people in one reservation.
Important: PHX RESERVE is for the regular TSA screening process. If you have TSA PreCheck, using the PHX RESERVE lane means you won’t get the PreCheck benefits in that lane. I guess it’s a case that you can do one or the other.
I’ve arrived early and late for my PHX Reserve appt and TSA doesn’t seem to care. Worked great, anyway. They just waived me through the lines.
Parker N. makes a good point about the TSA Pre-Check benefit only applying to the Fidelity card holder (and not his spouse). Why not just have her get her own Fidelity credit card account as well, and then apply for the TSA benefit? I’m going to get that Fidelity card, and I’ll probably have my wife get her own credit card, too.