03/25/2026
🚨Important Travel Tip🚨
If you, or anyone you know, is traveling by air soon, I wanted to share a few notes about the TSA/Airport situation plus what I've been recommending to my clients. Not all airports are seeing the same delays or situations, but I just want everyone to be prepared!
What's happening:
⚠️TSA agents have been dealing with reduced pay since mid-February and about 10% are calling out daily. At major airports like Atlanta, Houston, BWI, and JFK, standard lines are stretching to 2 to 3 hours. Some travelers are showing up 4 to 5 hours early just to make their flight.
⚠️Airlines are cutting flights because jet fuel costs have spiked with everything happening in the Middle East. Prices are climbing and itinerary changes plus cancellations are happening more often.
⚠️If you or any of your family misses a flight because of TSA delays, the airline is not required to refund. In most cases, you’re paying to rebook.
What you can do to prepare:
✅Aim to arrive 2-3 hours early for domestic travel, or 3.5-4.5 for international.
✅TSA PreCheck, Clear, and/or Touchless ID (with your Passport) lines are all moving much faster than standard lines (NOTE these need prior sign-up before using, so do ASAP if traveling soon).
✅If you are traveling out of DEN, MSP, MCO, PHX, or SEA, you an pre-reserve a spot in line during certain hours.
✅Check real-time wait times for your airport before leaving home (see note below)
--MyTSA and the official TSA tracker on tsa.gov are both down right now because of the shutdown. Plus most airport websites aren't publishing current wait times. So I would not rely on them!
Here's what's actually working:
• On Air Parking (onairparking.com) — shows live wait times across airports at a glance
• Kayak — has a live security wait time tracker built in
• QSensor ( on X) — posting live alerts by terminal as conditions change
Just know that even these aren't perfectly reliable right now since conditions are shifting by the hour. Honestly the safest advice is still just assume the worst and get there early. Yes, it stinks to wait in the airport, but better than missing a flight, scrambling to reschedule/rebook, and/or being out money/time/memories altogether.
Please feel free to ask any questions or needs for clarification below and I'll provide as much information as I can in response!