If you are flying Aer Lingus you will NOT be able to access TSA Pre-Check under any circumstances. They will enter your TSA KTN on your reservation after being on hold for over 30 minutes. But, it means nothing. They do not enter your KTN on Boarding Passes. "Fortunately," my wife and I have considerable health issues and will likely get whisked through TSA BS because of wheelchairs and the like.
FYI Lufthansa same situation.
Just going to point out that TSA is a US program. Many European airlines don't participate in this.if you want TSA pre-check-best to fly US airlines like Delta.
the word "many" is a bit excessive. Check the lists.
My sister sometimes gets a wheelchair when traveling. She does not have TSA pre-check, but it has always been our experience that the wheelchair attendant will take us to the front of the line or a designated special needs line for both security and passport control. This has been the case in both US and European airports.
Here is a list of airlines that participate in TSA Pre...
https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/participating-airlines
Lufthansa does participate.
And Air France !
and Cathay Pacific, but I have had to specifically enter the Known Traveler Number on the airline ticket booking at purchase. I've done this with multiple foreign airlines on-line, no waiting on hold to have it added - although I don't doubt the OP's experience.
Even pulling the KTN from a FF membership as US airlines are supposed to doesn't always work. AA used to miss my KTN about 50% of the time pre-Covid, they seem better recently.
With Turkish Airlines you need to bring your GE or TSA Pre-check number to the counter and get them to add it in to your record and printed on your boarding pass. Don't ask me why, just how it works.
Flying Delta was a good suggestion except we tried to use our AMEX Delta miles this time- about 260k miles for September. We cancelled 2 flights during Covid because of the quarantine restricts (when no one was traveling. Each time 140k in the middle of summer ! We went with Aer Lingus, cheapest (no miles) and saved our Delta miles for next year somewhere.
Many European airlines don't participate in this.
According to the list linked in the thread it seems like most major European airlines participate.
A bit odd that of the IAG corp. cousins, only BA participates while Aier Lingus and Iberia do not.
Pro-Tip!
If you enter the US on an airline without PreCheck and have a connecting flight, the original boarding passes won’t be flagged for PreCheck. You can stop at the service desk at ‘bag drop’ after customs to get a properly coded boarding pass.
Side note: the only commonality of the IGA carriers is the hot mess that is their IT.
That is a very long list of domestic and international airlines that DO participate in TSA-Pre. We too were surprised by not being able to use our TSA-Pre this summer when flying Aer Lingus from SFO. It doesn’t happen very often.