Yes, the passport card does not get you into the special lines. It’s just a convenient card you can carry in your wallet in lieu of carrying the regular passport. It is only good for land crossings into Mexico and Canada. If you fly you have to use the regular passport. If you sign up for a new passport, there’s an incremental fee you pay to get both the passport and the passport card. I went ahead and did it even though I don’t really care for going to Mexico anymore.
if you sign up for Global Entry, you get three things in one shot 1) a Global Entry Card which lets you bypass customs when reentering the US by air, and it 2) also gets you access to the SENTRI lane when coming from Mexico, and it gives you 3) a KTN so you can sign up for TSA PreCheck.
Just flew four times with TSA Pre Check and it’s like flying was in the old days – no backscatter, no removing belts or shoes, and laptops and liquids can stay in your luggage.
