I am a frequent flier, too, but I think everyone should be treated the same. No $100 or $5 to be treated differently.

So, only economy seats?

Airlines are private companies. Global Entry seems to be the govt.

To be eligible for GE, you must have a background check, and the $100 is the fee for the background check and other processing. If they don't grant you GE due to the background check, you still have to pay the $100.

While there are surely many instances of governments treating wealthy people more favorably than the common man, this isn't one of them.

We were informed that we had that special TSA status on the way home from San Diego a couple of weeks ago on Southwest. The agent said don't get used to it-- it's random.

The Pre-Check program is more random for some than for others. GE folks seem to have close to 100% success (I've only been pushed back to the kettle line once since they started the program) while people pulled out of those regular lines win only once in a while, usually depending on how empty the PC line is at the time.