If you’ve flown through a major U.S. airport in recent months, you might have experienced winding lines at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoints, exacerbated by the partial government shutdown—which has thankfully finally come to an end—that meant officers worked without pay for weeks. More than 1,000 TSA agents were forced to leave the workforce entirely, which created staffing shortages at security. Emergency funding was used to temporarily stabilize the situation, and President Donald Trump has signed a bill to fund DHS, but more checkpoint chaos could be ahead as summer and World Cup travel heat up.
There is one underused option that TSA PreCheck members can opt into to shorten security checkpoint time: a program called TSA PreCheck Touchless ID, a facial recognition system that eliminates the need for physical identification at security checkpoints at more than 60 airports.
Sandra Zo Awodele, a travel blogger and data engineer at Deloitte, says the technology has eliminated stress from her journeys. Awodele is always looking for ways to make her airport experience more seamless, especially when traveling through busy cities like Atlanta and New York.
“As a frequent flier who has a habit of forgetting to keep all my traveling documents with me—as I’ve done on several occasions—the relief of not having to stretch for my ID repeatedly was more than welcome,” says Awodele.
What is TSA PreCheck Touchless ID?
The Touchless ID program uses facial identification technology to verify traveler identities at security checkpoints. Rather than handing a TSA officer your physical ID (which needs to be a Real ID as of May 2025), you simply stand in front of a kiosk that captures your image from the neck up.
“The technology compares biometric templates of passengers’ live photos to a pre-staged gallery of existing passport or visa photo templates,” explained a TSA representative.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been using biometric technology since 2002, and facial recognition has already been used in airports for bag drop and at border control. Credential Authentication Technology machines were introduced at TSA checkpoints in 2022, allowing passengers to go through security with only their photo ID and not their boarding pass as well.
The Touchless ID technology solely uses facial biometrics, completely skipping the need for an ID altogether. It operates through a collaboration between TSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), utilizing CBP’s Traveler Verification Service.
How do you get TSA PreCheck Touchless ID?
TSA PreCheck Touchless ID is available to anyone who is already enrolled in TSA PreCheck and is flying with a participating airline—Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, Southwest, or United Airlines—but you must opt into Touchless ID to access the Touchless ID security lines, which are often much shorter than regular TSA PreCheck lines. To opt in, you will need to go to your frequent-flier account with a participating airline and adjust your personal settings.
Each airline has slightly different instructions on how to do so (the airlines links above will direct you to the process for each). With United, for example, you go to the app, then the Help Center, then MileagePlus account, then Adding a KTN (Known Traveler Number) to your profile, and in this section, you can make sure you have opted in.
You must also upload a valid passport to your airline profile.
Once enrolled, a logo indicating access to Touchless ID will appear on your boarding pass, the same way your TSA PreCheck indicator does. At the checkpoint, look for the dedicated Touchless ID lanes separate from the standard PreCheck line. Then, rather than handing a TSA officer your physical ID, such as a passport or Real ID, you simply stand in front of a kiosk that captures your image from the neck up.
Which airports have Touchless ID?
The Touchless ID program began in March 2021 and has expanded to 65 airports across the nation:
- Albuquerque International Airport
- Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
- Baltimore/Washington International Airport
- Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport
- Boise Airport
- Boston Logan International Airport
- Bradley International Airport
- Buffalo Niagara International Airport
- Charleston International Airport
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport
- Chicago Midway International Airport
- Chicago O’Hare International Airport
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
- Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
- Dallas Love Field
- Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
- Denver International Airport
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
- Dulles International Airport
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport
- Harry Reid International Airport
- Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta International Airport
- Indianapolis International Airport
- Jacksonville International Airport
- John F Kennedy International Airport
- John Glenn Columbus International Airport
- John Wayne Airport
- Kansas City International Airport
- LaGuardia Airport
- Long Beach Airport
- Los Angeles International Airport
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
- Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
- Miami International Airport
- Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport
- Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
- Nashville International Airport
- Newark Liberty International Airport
- Oakland International Airport
- Orlando International Airport
- Palm Beach International Airport
- Palm Springs International Airport
- Philadelphia International Airport
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
- Pittsburgh International Airport
- Portland International Airport
- Raleigh-Durham International Airport
- Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport
- Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
- Sacramento International Airport
- Salt Lake City International Airport
- San Antonio International Airport
- San Diego International Airport
- San Francisco International Airport
- San Jose Mineta International Airport
- Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
- St. Louis Lambert International Airport
- Tampa International Airport
- Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
- Tulsa International Airport
- Westchester County Airport
- William P. Hobby Airport
- Will Rogers International Airport
What about privacy concerns?
Participation in TSA PreCheck Touchless ID is entirely voluntary. You can opt out any time and use the standard ID check lane instead. According to the TSA, the DHS deletes biometric data collected through the program within 180 days.
That said, Joshua McKenty, CEO and cofounder of cybersecurity firm Polyguard, says travelers likely have less control over their facial data than they realize. “Should I opt into any government system that uses my biometrics? Guess what—practically speaking, you don’t have a choice,” he says. “All modern passports and Real ID documents involve capturing and storing facial biometrics. If you want to travel, you’re already rolling the dice here.”
McKenty notes that CBP and DHS already use traveler facial biometrics and that photos of permanent residents and foreign nationals are never deleted from DHS’s Automated Biometric Identification System. “Even if you do opt out of that ‘last step,’ it probably doesn’t change your privacy posture at all,” he adds.
For travelers who’d rather stick with the manual ID check, that option is always available. For those looking to cut time at the checkpoint—especially heading into what could be another unpredictable summer at the airports—Touchless ID is now about as widely available as it’s going to get.
This story was originally published in April 2025 and was updated on May 5, 2026, to include current information.
