"Clear" Security Card

Old Jul 1, 2005, 4:36 pm
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"Clear" Security Card

After 9/11, U.S. airports dramatically stepped up security, which has resulted in longer lines and frustrating waits for travelers.
A card called "Clear" is supposed to change that. For an annual fee of $79.95, a company says the card will help clear the way through security at the Orlando, Fla., airport and a handful of other test areas.
"You will still go through a metal detector," said Steve Brill, chief executive officer of Verified Identity Pass, the company making the cards. "Your carry-on bags will still be X-rayed, but, for example, you are much less likely to be singled out for the secondary searches we all go through once in a while."
Is it worth it?

Clear
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Old Jul 2, 2005, 4:13 am
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I see very little advantage of this Clear Card. You still have to go through WTMD and have your possesions x-rayed. What happens if you have a SSSS on our boarding card as this comes from the Airlines? You still have to have the groping treatment from the TSA.

Interestingly the Greater Orlando Airport Authority at Orlando get 18% of the $79.95 and a cut of the revenue from any other Airport this Clear System is installed in in the future.

I suggest this is all about money and has very little else. I for one will not be contributing to this scam.
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Old Jul 2, 2005, 6:25 am
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Originally Posted by OrlandoFlyer
I see very little advantage of this Clear Card. You still have to go through WTMD and have your possesions x-rayed. What happens if you have a SSSS on our boarding card as this comes from the Airlines? You still have to have the groping treatment from the TSA.

Interestingly the Greater Orlando Airport Authority at Orlando get 18% of the $79.95 and a cut of the revenue from any other Airport this Clear System is installed in in the future.

I suggest this is all about money and has very little else. I for one will not be contributing to this scam.
Do you have a reference for the Orlando revenue sharing? That'd be interesting to see.

This sounds different than Registered Traveller in DCA. The main benefit is: if my ticket is stamped SSSS it doesn't matter AND I get to go to the front of the line. Still have to take shoes off though (TSA Sucks!).
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Old Jul 2, 2005, 1:47 pm
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Originally Posted by AArlington
Do you have a reference for the Orlando revenue sharing? That'd be interesting to see.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/busin...ness-headlines
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Old Jul 2, 2005, 2:41 pm
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If you don't take your shoes off and you don't alarm, does the Clear Pass exempt you from being *randomly* selected?
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Old Jul 2, 2005, 3:28 pm
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So this is a private sector version of TSA(R) Registered Traveller program? Interesting that these companies go through the airports and not TSA. Oh well; as long as they are interchangable (and available for me at more than just DCA) I don't care anymore. The only real benefit is a de facto "elite" line at airports that don't normally have elite lines.
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Old Jul 2, 2005, 3:59 pm
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The firm peddling this program should consider Privium as a source of how to make it work for them (and better for their customers).

In any event, I'm not interested in paying an annual extortion fee to some private contractor (not just this one) willing to selectively massage the underlying databases feeding CAPPS/CAPPSII/SecureFlight while cutting a deal with local authorities or federal ones that equates with an increased need to pay "protection money" to avoid the SSSS. After all, I have not received even an SSSS once these last two years.
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Old Jul 2, 2005, 6:47 pm
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
After all, I have not received even an SSSS once these last two years.
You probably do not travel very often; maybe too busy posting on FT, or you only purchase r/t tickets well inadvance and do not change flights.

Approximately 75% of my travels involve last minute, driving to the airport, at the airport, one way purchases. SSSS is certainly an established part of my day. Most of the time I enjoy it. The line is faster than the F/C elite line.
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Old Jul 3, 2005, 1:56 am
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Originally Posted by DMorris
You probably do not travel very often; maybe too busy posting on FT, or you only purchase r/t tickets well inadvance and do not change flights.
Discussing other FTers is against the FT TOS.

In any event -- and the above false presumptions not withstanding -- nearly all of my flights on the Shuttles are last minute purchases -- generally airport purchases which are opportunity costing me 1,000 miles -- and fewer than 20% of my flights are set in stone for even more than 2 days.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jul 3, 2005 at 10:27 am
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Old Jul 3, 2005, 6:00 am
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Originally Posted by DMorris
You probably do not travel very often; maybe too busy posting on FT, or you only purchase r/t tickets well inadvance and do not change flights.

Approximately 75% of my travels involve last minute, driving to the airport, at the airport, one way purchases. SSSS is certainly an established part of my day. Most of the time I enjoy it. The line is faster than the F/C elite line.
I've flown nearly every week since April '04; I've renewed my Platinum status on Continental via segments alone already this year. A number of my flights involved last minute itinerary changes and reroutes due to cancellations. I haven't been SSSS'ed once in all that time.

I've seen a boarding pass with my name and 'SSSS' on it, just once, but it was never actually used as that particular reroute didn't happen in the end.
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Old Jul 6, 2005, 7:01 pm
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Who created/authorised this? Some dumb-... politician who doesn't see that a door plated in gold without much surveillance, is the perfect chance for a terrorist to do something. If homeland security is so important, than this clear card makes no sense whatsoever. I don't know about you, but I personally would prefer long lines to burning planes.
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Old Jul 6, 2005, 8:46 pm
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Originally Posted by Knoppix
Who created/authorised this? Some dumb-... politician who doesn't see that a door plated in gold without much surveillance, is the perfect chance for a terrorist to do something. If homeland security is so important, than this clear card makes no sense whatsoever. I don't know about you, but I personally would prefer long lines to burning planes.
You're 12, aren't you?

Originally Posted by Knoppix
I'm a 12 ear old going into 8th grade
Live in Lanham, Maryland
Play sports, post on FT, fly around the world, read, an' play video games
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=362633&page=3

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Old Jul 6, 2005, 9:03 pm
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Originally Posted by FWAAA
You're 12, aren't you?



http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=362633&page=3

With age comes wisdom. In many years, you will be much wiser.
Already seems pretty wise to me!
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Old Jul 7, 2005, 5:25 am
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Here is where I have to side with TSA critics. This is nothing more than ambulance-chasing, and someone has certainly figured out a way to cash in.

This card merely exempts someone from the selectee passenger screening policy. In other words, for $79.95, you can guarantee that you will never get the dreaded SSSS on your boarding passes as long as you pass a background investigation.

As posted previously on many occasions, I think the SSSS system is completely wrong. Everyone and their carry-on property is already screened at the checkpoint. Selectively screening some more than others does not add to the security and it tends to imply that the basic screening is not effective. We either do it right or we don't. TSA needs to drop the selectee passenger screening policy.

It is wrong to expect people to pay for a background check to prove that they are not terrorists. The burden of proof should always remain on the government's shoulders. And this is exactly what we have here: laying down money to prove one's innocence. At $79.95 a head, I have very little confidence in the thoroughness of the type of background check it would buy since I have plenty of first-hand experiences with one of the most thorough background checks conducted by DoD: the special background investigation. SBIs are extremely thorough, and you would need something like it in order to declare someone as beyond suspicion for something like this. It's not something that can be done for $79.95. I think mine cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 to $15,000 in 1979 dollars; safe to assume it would be much more today.

Here's the catch: in the end, all it does is exempt someone from being pre-selected for secondary screening; it does not exempt people from screening. You still have to go through the WTMD, you still have to submit your property through the x-ray and, yes, you still have to remove your shoes if they meet the screening criteria.

Instead of giving in to snake-oil schemes, TSA should drop the selectee passenger screening policy.
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Old Jul 7, 2005, 10:08 am
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[QUOTE=FWAAA]You're 12, aren't you?

Yeah what of it?
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