Getaways in the United States, Travel

Skip The Line: The Magic of TSA PreCheck

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Have you ever heard of TSA Precheck? Neither had I until my mother discovered that I didn’t have it and decided to nag me about it! Luckily, I listened to my mother and realized that being prechecked by the TSA saves me hours of waiting in security lines at airports. For those of you who have never heard of this but hate lugging your baggage through lines like cattle, this one is for you! (No, this isn’t sponsored, but ways to save time should always be shared with others!)

If you’ve ever flown, you’ve been through exactly what I’m talking about. You get to the airport, luggage in tow, and you find the security check only to see an endless line weaving between ropes as far as the eye can see. According to the MyTSA app (Transportation Security Administration), security line wait times can take anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on the airport location and size. Add a toddler or two and your exciting vacation isn’t off to a great start. However, have you ever noticed that extra line to the left that rarely has anyone waiting? You can join that random businessman in a suit who gets to skip the line by making an appointment online with the TSA to complete a background check.

Guy waiting in security line at airport

According to the TSA website, in July 2022, 95% of TSA PreCheck passengers waited less than 5 min.

To make a background check appointment, you will need to input your full name, contact information, mailing address, and social security number. Click here to jump straight to the appointment page! Most appointments are held at an actual airport, and multiple smaller airports in central Illinois provide this service. I made my husband and I appointments online two weeks in advance and didn’t have to provide any payment information online. The website did request that we both bring our driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and a copy of our marriage certificate to support my last name change. I used a debit card to pay $85 per person and we both got electronically fingerprinted on a machine in their office. They snapped a quick picture of each of us and we were done within 20 minutes!

For $85 per person, both of us now have unique “Known Traveler” identification numbers that are valid for the next 5 years to allow us to jump into the TSA PreCheck line at any airport in the country!

Obviously, I was excited to try this out, and I was lucky to have a short trip coming up the week after. I trotted into the TSA PreCheck line with my backpack and was gestured straight to the front of the long line of travelers. Skipping over 50 people made me nervous, but the security guard smiled and took my boarding pass like nothing was amiss. After verifying my ticket, he sent me through the security gate with a cute piece of paper that said “TSA PRECHECKED”. I had no clue what to do with it, so I started to take my shoes off like normal before the guard stopped me.

TSA Precheck sign and line

On that note, here are the perks of being TSA PreChecked!

  1. You don’t have to take off your shoes, belt, or jacket. Leave ‘em on and walk right through the scanner with your cute piece of paper.
  2. Your electronics can stay in your bag! They advertise that you can leave your laptop in your bag as it goes through the rolling x-ray scanner, but I also left my Nintendo Switch and cellphone in my bag with no issues.
  3. 3-1-1 liquids don’t have to be removed either. As long as they meet TSA’s liquid rules, they can stay packed away.
  4. Kids age 12 and under can go through the TSA Precheck line with a parent/guardian with no extra fees. Anyone over the age of 12 is eligible to be Prechecked, but it’s difficult to complete if they don’t have a driver’s license yet. For more details on qualifications for minors, click here!

Note: Yes, they still x-ray your belongings, and you still have to walk through the scanner to make sure you’re not carrying deadly weapons or peanut butter.

I got through security in less than 3 minutes, which was lucky because I was running short on time. If I would have had to wait in the general line, I would’ve been significantly more likely to miss my flight. On the return home from my visit with family, my dad decided to fly back to Illinois with me. Not only did we accidentally end up in the wrong terminal, we went through the entire security check process before we realized that we were on the wrong side of the airport! (Orlando Airport is big, okay?) However, we could still laugh at the situation because our TSA PreCheck sped us through both security lines and got us to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Without skipping the 100+ person lines, we undoubtedly would have missed our flight home. This is an awesome way for travel nurses to minimize commute time when they fly home to visit family, and I am thrilled to skip through the line on every trip in the future!

Skyler on airplane

If you fly regularly, have kids in tow, or just don’t want the extra stress of waiting in long lines at an airport, we highly recommend getting you and your family TSA PreChecked! For more tips on picking flights, check out my article, “Flying Cheap: The Hopper App and Spirit Airlines”!

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Boujie on a Budget, Travel

Easy Ways to Fly Like a Pro With Southwest Airlines

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My absolute favorite way to fly is on Southwest Airlines using my flight points. Southwest has more comfortable seats than my preferred budget airline, Spirit. Both airlines have good customer service and pristine plane interiors. However, Southwest has more leg space than budget flights, and the seats even recline slightly! Each passenger also gets one carry-on and one checked bag included with their flight cost, saving you from surprise extra fees at checkout. If I’m taking a flight longer than two hours, I skip Spirit and book with Southwest. Here are a couple of my tips for flying Southwest!

Flying southwest with Chase Southwest Credit Card

CHASE Southwest Credit Card

When I started travel nursing, a friend introduced me to Chase’s Southwest Airlines credit card. No, this is not sponsored; this card is worth the hype! You can use it on any purchases in your daily life to earn 1 Southwest flight point per dollar spent. Certain purchase types, like partnered hotels, rental cars, and Southwest flight tickets, earn you double the points! I put all my monthly bills or large purchases onto this card and immediately pay them off. This practice keeps my credit usage in my ideal range, yet it wins me MANY free flight points. We usually fly for free using these points once every 3-6 months round-trip. When I first applied for the card, I got 50,000 flight points translated into two round-trip tickets just for signing up. Unlike Spirit’s point program, Southwest Rapid Rewards points never expire.

Tips for Getting Better Seats

The only aspect of flying Southwest that I don’t like is that you can’t pick your own seat. Southwest requires you to check into your flight 24 hours in advance to be sorted into groups A, B, and C. You can check in online or via the Southwest app. How high you rank depends on how fast you check in! On gate arrival, you board in order of the group and ticket number. It’s essentially an open seating policy; once it’s your turn to get on the plane, it’s a free-for-all to pick a seat! This unique boarding process can baffle infrequent fliers, and it is easy to end up in group C if you don’t know what you’re doing. Finding nearby seats for companions or small children can be difficult if you board last.

You can pay a high premium for A-list boarding as a business professional, or anyone can pay an extra $20 per ticket for automatic check-in. We have ended up scrambling for seats in group C, so we always purchase the automatic check-in! We’re usually placed in the middle of group A, giving us plenty of seat options. If you get stuck in group C, keep in mind that they will let you check your carry-on for free because space is tight by the time you finally get on the plane! We love flying Southwest when we can pick great seats without stress. I would highly recommend trying the $20 automatic check-in upgrade.

For tips on minimizing costs and traveling “cheap,” check out my article “Flying Cheap: The Hopper App and Spirit Airlines.”

Which airline do you usually fly through? Should we try Delta or American Airlines? What cost-saving tips do you have for flying? Leave a comment below!

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Boujie on a Budget, Travel

Flying Cheap: The Hopper App and Spirit Airlines

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People frequently ask me how I fly so often and how I keep it cheap. I don’t know if I could ever consider flying “cheap,” but I do use some specific tools to keep costs down! These include utilizing the Hopper app to pick my flights and booking through Spirit Airlines.

(Disclaimer: This article is not sponsored, paid, or intended to be interpreted as advertisement in any way.)

The Hopper App

My favorite tool for purchasing flights is an app called Hopper. This app allows you to input tentative flight dates into their scheduler, giving you a report of prices for each airline for those dates. Hopper’s most useful function, however, is that it predicts whether your flight might be cheaper to purchase at a later date and can tell you exactly when to buy them for the best deal.
I usually input my trip dates into the app early in the planning process, and it will give me update notifications about once per week. I always wait until I can get the best deal, especially if I’m taking a short flight and can wait until the last minute to book it.

The Hopper app also provides a color-coded calendar to show you the cheapest days of the week on average to fly. Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to have the lowest prices, and many airlines send discounts to their email list specifically for Tuesday and Wednesday flights. Hopper provides the price calendar for flights, hotel bookings, and car rentals. Note: The app also offers to “freeze” the price that a vendor gives you even if you aren’t ready to book yet, but that comes with extra charges from Hopper. I haven’t used that service yet.

Fun fact: Hopper plants four trees with Eden Reforestation Project for every booking made through the app!

Skyler and Colton on Spirit Airlines
Skyler and Colton on recent flight to Florida

Spirit Airlines

My favorite affordable airline is Spirit. Spirit lets you “build your own flight” and pay only for exactly what you need. I have never had a Spirit flight delayed or canceled (knock on wood), and they tend to have the cheapest options if you don’t need a checked bag or carry-on. This option is perfect for short flights to visit my family out-of-state, so consider this when you know you’ll have laundry access after you arrive.

Tip: Pay the extra fee to sit in the emergency access seats! The emergency seats have much more legroom than the standard option! Passengers sitting in the emergency row must be at least 15 years old, able to read and understand English, not under the influence of alcohol or drugs (no in-flight drinks!), and be able to lift the door handle to open the emergency exit. If you meet these criteria, emergency access seats by the window are the way to go! We have tried the upgraded front-row seats that Spirit advertises but felt like they weren’t worth the money. They only offer more arm wiggle room than emergency row and standard seats; the cushions are not more comfortable, and the seats still do not lean back.

View out Spirit Airlines window
Our view out Spirit Airlines window

Southwest Airlines

Another way that I save money on flights is by using my Southwest Airlines credit card and flight points. Click here to find out, “Easy Ways to Fly Like a Pro With Southwest Airlines“!

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Nursing, Travel Nursing

Five Interesting Lessons Travel Nursing Has Taught Me

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To become a traveler, a nurse has to work at least 1-2 years in their chosen specialty and grow confident in their ability to work independently. Travel nurses take short-term contracts (often around 12 weeks long) and jump straight into short-staffed units with little to no orientation. This is a difficult transition no matter how experienced you are. I’ve been travel nursing for over a year and have narrowed down five major lessons that travel nursing has taught me!

1. Not everyone travels with the same priorities.

I work with many people who are only there for the famous “travel nurse” paycheck. They clock in, do their job (usually very well!), and clock out. They aren’t interested in making too many friends because they travel home to their families every moment they’re off work. The other side of the spectrum travels to experience new things and meet new people. They are the friendly nurses that might talk your ear off while you’re charting and always want to make plans on your off weekends. If it’s possible to fall in the middle, that’s where I find myself! I love new experiences, exploration, and adventures in a new city, but I will hit up those extra shifts for the paycheck!

2. We are not all single in our 20s.

While I partially fit that stereotype, many travelers are career nurses with 10+ years in their specialty. A surprising number of travelers I’ve met have spouses, loved ones, kids, and jobs back home. These nurses are the ones I admire the most! For them, these contracts are a means to an end. While traveling is not for everyone, it can help people from a wide variety of backgrounds reach their financial goals.

3. Our contracts are not legally binding.

Agencies actually call them “work agreements.” Hospitals constantly drop our pay, float us to other units in their hospital, and end our contracts on a dime. Unfortunately, travel nurses are frequently blocked from that hospital system if they leave their contracts early. According to experienced long-term travelers, these practices were unheard of pre-COVID. Traveler forums are filled with uproar about these practices, but legal action is slow and inefficient. This is one of the downsides of traveling.

4. Housing is hard.

Safe, affordable housing can be tough to find. Most of us use Furnished Finder, a website specifically designed for healthcare travelers to find short-term furnished accommodations without extra fees. I’ve been fortunate enough to find suitable housing at each of my contract locations. Still, many other nurses are not so lucky! Some nurses lose deposits to scammers or end up in some pretty crazy housing situations if they aren’t careful.

5. Traveling can make you an incredible nurse.

Functioning in new environments every few months can teach you endlessly valuable skills, improve your critical thinking, and broaden your knowledge of specialty care. My abilities have blossomed over the past year of traveling. I never could have become the nurse I am today if I had stayed at one location my entire career! Travel nursing teaches you to think on your feet, stand up for yourself, and help you broaden your clinical approach past simple protocols.

Skyler in nursing scrubs, on first travel nursing contract

While it’s not feasible for everyone, I believe that travel nursing has valuable lessons to teach every nurse. To read more about my nursing specialty, click here! If you are a nurse and have been peripherally following the travel nursing world, keep an eye on this blog for practical help to get started!

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Nursing

I’m an intensive-care unit (ICU) nurse and care for the sickest patients in the hospital.

I left my staff nurse position in June 2021 to begin travel nursing. I take temporary contracts across the U.S. and jump straight in to help with critical staffing shortages! My husband, Colton, joins me when he can and takes care of our home in Central Illinois.

Ultimately, I plan to complete my master’s degree to become a critical care nurse practitioner. I love to teach, and nursing education is one of my passions! Follow along to discover what travel nursing is like, the crazy situations that nurses find themselves in, and tips for starting off in the travel nursing world!

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