TSA lines have been wildly unpredictable lately, and finding reliable, real-time data has become more important than ever. But a new tool helps to track TSA wait times and is far easier to use than the MyTSA ap.
My friend and colleague Zach Griff, who writes From The Tray Table, has built a very useful new tool that tracks TSA wait times at select airports, including checkpoint-specific data and even PreCheck where available.
Instead of showing airport-wide estimates like the official MyTSA app, Zach’s tool pulls data directly from airports and breaks it down by checkpoint, giving you a much clearer picture of what’s actually happening on the ground.
If you’ve ever arrived at an airport only to find one checkpoint empty and another backed up for an hour, you know exactly why this is a big deal.
The tracker shows:
- Checkpoint-by-checkpoint wait times (where available)
- PreCheck and CLEAR lanes at some airports
- Live data pulled directly from airport feeds
The Takeoff Nap
That’s something the MyTSA app has never done particularly well, especially right now when its data is not always up to date during the current disruption.
For me, this is also just more practical. I have my laptop open most of the day anyway, so being able to keep this in a browser tab is actually more useful than pulling out my phone and opening the TSA app.
There Are Some Limitations…
As good as this tool is, it’s not perfect. And to Zach’s credit, he’s very upfront about that.
First, it only works at airports that actually publish live checkpoint data.
Right now, that includes about 19 airports, including major airports like:
- New York (JFK, LGA)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- Dallas (DFW)
- Miami (MIA)
Notably missing are some major airports like Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Seattle (SEA), which simply do not provide the underlying data needed to power the tool.
Second, not every checkpoint is tracked even at supported airports. If an airport does not publish data for a specific checkpoint, it will show as “unknown” or unavailable. For example, at LAX the checkpoint time for the Tom Bradley International Terminal is published, but not for the other eight terminals.
That’s not a flaw in the tool…it’s a limitation of the data itself.
I appreciate that no login is required (though you should sign up for his email newsletter…and mine!), it’s free, and it gives you a better sense of what you’re walking into at the airport.
Sadly with the ongoing shutdown, the difference between choosing the right checkpoint and the wrong one can be the difference between a five-minute wait and missing your flight.
CONCLUSION
Zach Griff has built a genuinely useful tool here. It’s not perfect, and it’s limited by the data airports choose to share, but it’s still a big improvement over the MyTSA app, especially if you are using a computer and not a phone.
I hope, probably naively, that we can soon reach a point when the TSA is funded and his tool is no longer as relevant, but for now I’m checking it every time I fly…
top image: TSA
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