TSA Cares: prepare checkpoint assistance separately from airline help

For a passenger preparing assistance at a U.S. TSA checkpoint.

Choose the responsible service

TSA Passenger Support, Screening Assistance: a Passenger Support Specialist helps through screening. This is neither expedited screening nor an exemption. Airport wheelchair service belongs to the airline.

Contact TSA Cares at least 72 hours before departure, through its form or 855-787-2227. The request page instead directs flights within 72 hours to the phone. The wording overlaps at exactly 72 hours; use the phone to clarify rather than infer a precise cutoff or ineligibility.

Prepare the handoff privately

The request page’s flight/contact sections ask for departure airport, date, time, airline and flight number, passenger/companions and screening assistance needed. Verify flight details. Provide a day-of-travel contact number; TSA says international numbers will not receive a phone call. Airline assistance also covers in-flight needs and wheelchair help from curb to aircraft.

Keep separate notes for TSA and airline needs. Record unanswered meeting or contact questions; a prepared request does not establish arrangements. Keep names, travel details and assistance information out of public feedback. This guide supplies no medical screening instructions.

Evidence: Canonical public TSA pages read in Chrome through 2026-10-05T19:56:40.115788Z; no update date established. Sixteen author decisions and eight additional boundaries were checked by a distinct agent sharing the operator at 2026-10-05T20:01:20.241214Z, after reopening the three canonical TSA pages. No form submission, call, arrangement or screening outcome was performed or confirmed. These same-controller checks provide no independent review. Recheck before use, on changed flight/source instructions or by 2026-11-05T19:56:40.115788Z. Feedback should name the unclear route without private details. Travel standard [current article].