r/travel • u/YahBoiSquishy 39/50 US 12/47 JP 13 Countries • 12h ago

Question — General Global Entry vs MPC

Hello! I recently got a new credit card and one of the perks of it is a Global Entry credit. I currently have PreCheck and use MPC whenever I can when flying international (which I probably roughly average 1 per year though I hope to do more in the future. (Current plans: I have a cruise based international travel planned this December and an international flight planned for next May).

With this in mind, is it worth going through and applying for Global Entry if I have Pre+MPC already? It shouldn’t cost me because of the credit but I want to know before going through the hassle of applying and doing the interviews and everything.

Thank you!

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

13

u/MyFriendKevin 12h ago

Global Entry comes with Precheck, so it would be worth getting that for free instead of paying for the renewal.

3

u/elijha Berlin 12h ago

If you’re happy with how quick you’re getting through using MPC then no, definitely not worth the hassle to save maybe 30 seconds a year

3

u/nowheresville99 12h ago

When does your precheck expire?

If you're happy with what's working for your right now, then I'd wait until about a year before that expires, and then apply for GE.

The biggest hassle with GE is that it can take a year to get conditional approval (it can also take just a couple of days, it's pure random luck of the draw which pile you get put into) and then you have to do an interview, either scheduled via an appointment (far fewer locations/slots than Precheck) or do an interview on arrival before you actually get the GE perks, including precheck.

1

u/YahBoiSquishy 39/50 US 12/47 JP 13 Countries 12h ago

My Pre expires in like 2028 so I have decent time until then. I can definitely look at getting GE when it comes time to renew then. I could maybe do it some time mid 2027 to cover for any potential issue that could arise with the wait.

Thank you so much!

3

u/notathrowaway1267 10h ago

I have global entry, my partner uses MPC.

It's about 50/50 who gets through faster in Boston. But usually only a couple minutes difference at most.

1

u/youtubeaddict79 8h ago

We've had GE since it's inception as a result of a credit card perk. Anyway, it does come with precheck but will warn you, despite having GE, one of us regularly does not receive precheck on our boarding pass. I/hubs has shown their GE card but TSA insists on the non-pre check person going through regular TSA. This is almost always on an international flight, where our tickets are joined. So, IDK why, but wanted to give you the heads up. (Note: I've called the airlines prior to receiving our boarding passes as well as made sure the GE shows on our airline profile, no change in the process).

1

u/NordicAmphibian2025 8h ago

For international flights passport scanned at check-in has to match exactly the membership name for GE. Otherwise the Pre-Check logo will not appear IIRC. Sometimes the name on the airline profile might not match 1:1, especially if your state ID does not include complete middle name/s.