Major woes for travelers are piling up.
First, there’s the winter storm, named Hernando, making its way along the east coast, especially in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions, accompanied by blizzard warnings for many areas.
Airlines have already proactively canceled thousands of flights and offered passengers the option to cancel or change their flight plans with no fees.
Mid-afternoon on Sunday, flight tracking site, Flightaware, was showing more than 3,000 flights within, into or out of the United States canceled, as well as more than 4,000 delays.
More than 4,500 flights are currently canceled for tomorrow.
Airports and airlines are on the alert.
If you do have plans to fly in the next few days, make sure to prioritize your safety (and your sanity) and rearrange plans if you can.
The map below was shared by the National Weather Service early Sunday morning.
DHS shuts down Global Entry, but changes course & decides to keep TSA PreCheck open
As if the travel woes from the winter storm aren’t enough, at 6 am on Sunday morning the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shut down Global Entry, the Custom and Border Protection program that offers expedited entry into the United States at airports and at border crossings.
The reason? The DHS says it is due to the partial government shutdown.
TSA PreCheck was initially included in that announcement, but the agency has decided to keep PreCheck open.
For now.
Both PreCheck and Global Entry are paid programs designed to move vetted travelers through security lanes faster.
