Thanks to Georgio, who gave input when we asked recently about the Mobile Passport App. He pointed out (accurately) that, to hold your information in the app, it would run you $75 for 5 years. He compared that to Global Entry (good for 5 years), which includes TSA PreCheck and suggested that maybe Global Entry is a better deal. After much consideration, we have to agree: Georgio is right. You can read about Mobile Passport at…
www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/mobile-passport-control
When I came through Dallas about 3 weeks ago, my Mobile Passport had to be refilled out. Yes, (horrors) it no longer stored my photo or passport. Yes, when I first downloaded it, that was not the case. However, like many apps, the early versions often decrease the free components. BUT, it is still on the smart phone and still downloadable. (a couple of millenials did so in the line and were thrilled to fill it out standing there) The ‘terrible’ situation is that I needed to reload my passport, photo and details. Took about 2 minutes of my 14plus hour flight and frankly it was much worth the few minutes of diversion anytime 4 hours before landing. When I hit the airport, due to delays and poor crowd management, the lines were down the entry halls on each side — much worse than any lines I had hit in the USA ever, and chaos was fully reigning. (I usually come into LAX, SEA, or SFO and I hope this was not the norm at DFW) If I had not had the free program to input the info, I would possibly have missed my flight. Having the mobile passport helped me bypass horrendous lines of holiday travelers to the special line that was only maybe 20 to 30 minutes long, mostly due to the poor management of joining the mobile passport line earlier than I have happen at other entry ports. In SFO and LAX, I get a line of 4 or 5 people max everytime. I expect there were people who wouldn’t see the immi. officer for 4 hours in line. He looked at my processed mobile passport phone app, scanned it quickly and I was on the way. ALL FOR FREE, except for a few minutes of my time doing the same quick questions on the paper form with the other thousands. Really, if you don’t travel all the time, the APP IS A GOOD DEAL AT FREE. Why waste $75 of supporter funds or ministry funds for a few minutes of reloading some very basic details and doing a few seconds of clicking some of the same questions which must be clicked on the paid versions of all the paid software.
Brigada – do you only provide service to the uber users of Mission executives who use the field staff percentage overhead for the operations of the mission? They have budgets for overhead. Maybe $75 over 5 years is worth their precious time. Or do you still want to provide the field guys that get to travel much less on their own personal support budgets where a few dollars makes a huge difference. This is a good app for the occasional traveler with regular travel internationally that gets the line moving faster and avoids more time in the waiting hall and fewer missed last connections to home. As of three weeks ago it was still a free download and setup, and I was very happy to have it. I cannot justify the paid version or the expensive alternatives with a few international trips per year and even fewer domestic flights. Please provide support advise for field staff, not just the paid home front people who take a percentage of support off the field staff (maybe you would do a good service with a discussion of overhead costs and service for all the orgs you can get to confess their percentages).
Please do not share my name in anyform as I work in closed countries where my colleagues or myself can be jailed, killed, or deported.
CW, thanks for your input. Remember, in our item #10 from the edition before last, we only were echoing the input from another Brigada participant who thought Global Entry was a better deal. Please keep reading Brigada. In *lots* of editions, we try to highlight items which are affordable or even free. If you’ve been reading Brigada, we *do* try to include items for field-based workers too. Also, in a recent Missio Nexus study, we looked at percentages taken by international offices of missions agencies. But either way, it’s probably not Brigada’s place to judge. What we *can* tell you is that we’ll continue to report resources, trends, and information about global missions. Thanks for your input!