Seems to me that Amex, Visa or Diners Club should step in, buy out the VIP/Clear investors, and run the program as a membership perk.
With 200,000 people using Clear cards up until yesterday, there are plenty of people willing to pay for this service as it is, and my guess is many of them would pay even more for it, especially out of DEN, SFO and MCO, where most of the high Clear usership seemed to be.
I used Clear for the last two years out of DEN, and while there were many days where it was more work to use the CLEAR lane vs the UAL elite lane, there were some days where the CLEAR lane was a godsend...
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You have to wonder if a credit card company would want to absorb the CLEAR labor costs. I saw two TV reports in the Bay Area today that they had 55-60 employees just at SFO. Even if you use a low end figure of $50,000 a year per employee (including all benefits in that), you come out at at $3 million on the high side, just for one airport. Multiply that by 20 other airports and you'd have quite an expenditure.
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I too opened a dispute over my annual membership renewal fee (paid in advance of course!) with my Delta AmEx. they are crediting my account and contacting the company....we'll see what happens....
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Quote:
Originally Posted by puck swami
Seems to me that Amex, Visa or Diners Club should step in, buy out the VIP/Clear investors, and run the program as a membership perk.
With 200,000 people using Clear cards up until yesterday, there are plenty of people willing to pay for this service as it is, and my guess is many of them would pay even more for it, especially out of DEN, SFO and MCO, where most of the high Clear usership seemed to be.
I used Clear for the last two years out of DEN, and while there were many days where it was more work to use the CLEAR lane vs the UAL elite lane, there were some days where the CLEAR lane was a godsend...
I will miss it.
Many of Clear's sucker, er members had their membership subsidized by their airline or hotel program. I'm not sure all would be interested in paying, especially those who recently got shafted and can't get their credit card company to reverse the charges...
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I was lucky enough that I held off renewing until just last week so I have an easy case with my card company. they have already credited me back the money and will be reviewing the case. Since the company is out of business its an easy win on the dispute for me so I am not worried. If I would have renewed earlier when they had the better pricing I know it would have been more of a pain to fight.
I think the major reason they went under is that they were way to slow to roll out the airports they were in. in 2 years they were only at 20 or so airports. if they would have been able to reach at least 50+ airports hitting all the majors they would have had a much higher demand for customers. I know that if they would have gotten setup at TPA every weekly/daily commuter that uses tampa would have purchased it just to get away from the tourist traffic
I "opened an inquiry" with AmEx. Since I paid in Aug 2007 for a 3-year renewal beginning in Feb 2008, I have only limited hopes they will reach back that far and give me anything back.
You're free to part ways with your money as you see fit.
In my long life, Ive finally learned to not fight battles that are not possible to win. Although I expect to live for another decade, I am sure that the hassle of the TSA idiocy will be alive and well long after I'm gone. Politicians will not stick their neckts out on this issue. They can't win an election by being for "less security" because the american public expects the government to keep them safe.
Every year I spend a lot of money buying "time". Some money is spent for buying actual hours, like chartering a plane for short trips, paying Clear for actual time saving, or having a luxury car or paying for first class tickets for "comfort time".
As our country continues down the road to socialism, we'll have less money to part with and probably fewer choices on which to spend it.
I fly out of DEN a lot and I've never heard of FLO ... Are they taking over CLEAR? Their website seems like the same tune, just in a different key.
They also say that they operate in ATL. I have never seen mention of this in Atlanta. Does anyone have any more information on FLO in ATL? CLEAR was such a time-saver for me flying out of ATL on Monday mornings.
Well, this is interesting....just received a VM requesting I call and answer a survey about CLEAR. From the limited info in the VM, there are some CLEAR members who are interested in being investors to get it back up off the ground.
Dude, if I had bank, I'd do it, too. I miss it profusely in ATL and BOS.
Well, this is interesting....just received a VM requesting I call and answer a survey about CLEAR. From the limited info in the VM, there are some CLEAR members who are interested in being investors to get it back up off the ground.
Dude, if I had bank, I'd do it, too. I miss it profusely in ATL and BOS.
So, someone sold the member database to potential investors? How else would they have your personal information?
So, someone sold the member database to potential investors? How else would they have your personal information?
The woman identified herself as an employee of CLEAR calling those who had purchased advance memberships. So no, they didn't sell the member database. But she was interested as to if I would purchase a membership should they start up again.
Changes discussed included monthly memberships (so no prepaid year) and opening at MCO, ATL, CALI (didn't pay attention to where), DCA...I can't remember. BOS not on the list
The woman identified herself as an employee of CLEAR calling those who had purchased advance memberships. So no, they didn't sell the member database. But she was interested as to if I would purchase a membership should they start up again.
That still smells fishy - the company went out of business, and they don't even want to supply refunds to people who deserve them.
Just because someone claims (on the phone) that they work for Clear, does not make them an employee.
