Do I need my physical NEXUS card to receive benefits at the airport?

Upvote:1

Border crossing. For USA border crossing, you will be using Global Entry machines, these work with your passport. This guide says "Members must use a passport or U.S. legal permanent resident card at Global Entry kiosks." The Canadian border uses NEXUS machines but since any citizen/permanent resident can use the automated machines with just a passport there as well, their advantage is largely diminished / nonexistent. (There are NEXUS members who can't use these machines because their iris scanning failed. I am such.)
Security. Again USA and Canada differs. As this page details, US citizens/permanent residents at US airports with a PASS ID are eligible for TSA Pre. Your eligibility is checked based on your boarding pass. At Canadian airports, to quote the official page "trusted travellers [...] carry special photo identification cards with security features that give them direct access to many airport security screening checkpoints across Canada." However, very often you will only get to jump the queue (although some airports have less stringent security lanes which are either open or not). This forum thread have reports of the lane dragon allowing access to companions not carrying a NEXUS card as long as one person showed theirs.

user4188 0

Source: stackoverflow.com