Originally Posted by
raehl311
Whenever I'm at an airport with CLEAR I find myself wondering who is bribing who to keep that program going. There's always two CLEAR staff standing at the kiosk and I have NEVER seen a single passenger actually come through.
I suppose I would probably save an average of 10 minutes of TSA Pre line waiting per trip with it, so if it was at one of my "home" airports it might be worthwhile at one of the readily available promo rates. (I.e., definitely don't pay $179/year for it - plenty of discount codes and credit card promos out there to get the cost down.)
Can't imagine how they're staying in business though.
In 2016 they signed a massive deal with DL that included a significant infusion of cash and a promise to install CLEAR lanes at DL hubs. They also lowered their annual membership to $99/year or less for everyone; all you have to do is be a DL SkyMiles GM, with elite status granting an even lower rate. That's just over $8/month. For someone who flies even just a few times a year out of a CLEAR-equipped airport, it starts to make sense.
http://travelskills.com/2016/06/28/d...ar-membership/
And on a couple of occasions it's saved my bacon, when TSA lines stretched for an hour or more and might have caused my to miss my flight. People were literally yelling from the line "Hey, why does HE get to skip ahead?!?!?" It was alternately mortifying and gratifying. (There should be a German word for that.)