Originally Posted by
rylan
I have yet to see/use an airport check in area with the digital ID active... this includes airports where the terminals are there but off/not in use.
Flying out of BOS - nothing is installed. The only time I've actually used this was during an intl departure out of BOS terminal E at the gate a few months ago.
I do agree that Clear is quickly becoming no faster than precheck. I've seen the same lines in Clear as Pre, or sometimes Pre is faster.
I've only used it at LGA, but I've used it every single time I've been there save for one.... and it was a terrible mistake not to use it that one time.
Thinking about the processing speed per-person, digital ID is faster than regular pre-check (which now seems to use the same camera as digital ID to take your picture, so you're just saving them scanning the physical ID), which in turn is faster than CLEAR (because it currently requires a number of time-consuming steps).
But it all comes down to the makeup of the passengers at the particular point in time you're going through security. If everyone is eligible for digital ID, then of course that line will be full and it'll take a long time to go through it. The same is true for pre-check and CLEAR. I've skipped CLEAR virtually every time in the last several months because it's been faster to go via regular pre-check, except for my last trip where CLEAR saved me 15-20 minutes, if not more. So it is all really variable.
If CLEAR actually enables the "lane of the future" they are promising, that in turn could be a game-changer.