Timesaver! Alaska Airlines and CLEAR team up to make travel easier and more secure
Jun 21, 23, 9:22 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Snohomish, WA
Programs: AS MVP Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 2,773
Timesaver! Alaska Airlines and CLEAR team up to make travel easier and more secure
https://investor.alaskaair.com/news-...vel-easier-and
Our commitment to care for our guests comes in all forms, including improving their travel day. To help do that, Alaska Airlines is partnering with CLEAR the secure identity company to provide friction-free and predictable travel experiences with CLEAR Plus. With our new partnership, Mileage Plan members can take advantage of a discounted rate for a CLEAR Plus membership and also receive bonus miles for a limited time. This is the first step in the partnership to accelerate the adoption of digital identity and remove friction throughout the travel journey.
...
All Mileage Plan members can enroll in CLEAR Plus at a discounted rate of $179 a year at clearme.com/alaska. Plus our elite Mileage Plan members MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K and MVP Gold 100K who enroll will receive 1,500 Mileage Plan bonus miles. Elite Mileage Plan members who renew an existing CLEAR Plus membership and link it to their Mileage Plan account will receive a total of 1,250 miles every year upon renewal.
...
All Mileage Plan members can enroll in CLEAR Plus at a discounted rate of $179 a year at clearme.com/alaska. Plus our elite Mileage Plan members MVP, MVP Gold, MVP Gold 75K and MVP Gold 100K who enroll will receive 1,500 Mileage Plan bonus miles. Elite Mileage Plan members who renew an existing CLEAR Plus membership and link it to their Mileage Plan account will receive a total of 1,250 miles every year upon renewal.
Jun 21, 23, 9:39 am
#2
Join Date: May 2005
Location: SEA
Programs: AS MVP; HHonors Diamond; Hyatt Explorist; NEXUS
Posts: 884
Sounds like a nice way to get 1250 miles... but anyone who has wanted Clear likely has a DL or UA account... and their elites actually get a discount on Clear.
I get it through my AMEX Plat and it's covered for my wife and I.
I get it through my AMEX Plat and it's covered for my wife and I.
Jun 21, 23, 9:40 am
#3
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1K 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott Ti, LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 55,226
So Clear will now be even less useful at SEA with a bunch of new members clogging the kiosks.
A great example of a subscription the value of which decreases in direct proportion to the company's success in increasing its business. Reminds me of AMEX and the CLs.
A great example of a subscription the value of which decreases in direct proportion to the company's success in increasing its business. Reminds me of AMEX and the CLs.
Jun 21, 23, 9:42 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Snohomish, WA
Programs: AS MVP Gold, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 2,773
Jun 21, 23, 9:52 am
#5
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS
Programs: BAEC Gold, AA PPro, Hyatt Globalist, Amex Plat
Posts: 6,627
Regards
Jun 21, 23, 10:00 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Over the Bay Bridge, CA
Programs: Jumbo mas
Posts: 37,799
What a deal! Every hundred years or so, I'll be able to redeem a "free" premium cabin international trip (subject to availability, of course).
Jun 21, 23, 10:13 am
#7
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: YYZ, SFO
Programs: AS 100K, UA*S, IHG Plat, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond | Formerly: AC Super Elite
Posts: 2,457
I hope AS + Clear will soon do the thing that UA + Clear does at SFO T3 - when you do the iris scan, it automatically finds your boarding pass so you don't have to scan your boarding pass on the Clear machine (i.e. one step instead of two steps)
Jun 21, 23, 11:31 am
#8
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: SFO
Programs: AS 75k, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 455
I'd be more incentivized to pay the $179 if the miles were EQM and not (assuming without reading the fine print) that it's RDM. For now I'll stick to my $109 rate with United.
Jun 21, 23, 11:40 am
#9
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: On a plane or a beach
Programs: Yes
Posts: 2,969
Well, a $10 discount is better than nothing for new users and it appears to be the standard $179 rate for non-elites with airlines. It would have been nice if AS negotiated discounted rates for elites. 🤙🏻🥃
Jun 21, 23, 12:20 pm
#10
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: LKE/BFI/SEA
Posts: 196
I am a big 👎 on Clear. I could get it for free through a credit card, but will not sign up as I think it's bad for everyone.
Clear rents lane space from airports (seatac in this example) to provide their service. As their subscriber base grows and their wait times extend, they will be able to lobby the port for more lane space to satisfy their customer's demand for speedy processing. As Clear grows, they will eat more and more of the finite resource which is lane space and corner the market on getting through quickly, while they raise the price on the service and "force" more people to subscribe to it to avoid 30+ minute wait times.
If this happens, we'll all be beholden to Clear to get through security in any reasonable time. Instead we should encourage the port (and other airports) to improve the lane system for everyone, rather than letting Clear do it for ~$200/person.
I realize my boycott of the product will not likely change the outcome, but I'd rather not help them along.
Clear rents lane space from airports (seatac in this example) to provide their service. As their subscriber base grows and their wait times extend, they will be able to lobby the port for more lane space to satisfy their customer's demand for speedy processing. As Clear grows, they will eat more and more of the finite resource which is lane space and corner the market on getting through quickly, while they raise the price on the service and "force" more people to subscribe to it to avoid 30+ minute wait times.
If this happens, we'll all be beholden to Clear to get through security in any reasonable time. Instead we should encourage the port (and other airports) to improve the lane system for everyone, rather than letting Clear do it for ~$200/person.
I realize my boycott of the product will not likely change the outcome, but I'd rather not help them along.
Jun 21, 23, 1:06 pm
#11
Suspended
Join Date: Apr 2023
Posts: 169
I am a big 👎 on Clear. I could get it for free through a credit card, but will not sign up as I think it's bad for everyone.
Clear rents lane space from airports (seatac in this example) to provide their service. As their subscriber base grows and their wait times extend, they will be able to lobby the port for more lane space to satisfy their customer's demand for speedy processing. As Clear grows, they will eat more and more of the finite resource which is lane space and corner the market on getting through quickly, while they raise the price on the service and "force" more people to subscribe to it to avoid 30+ minute wait times.
If this happens, we'll all be beholden to Clear to get through security in any reasonable time. Instead we should encourage the port (and other airports) to improve the lane system for everyone, rather than letting Clear do it for ~$200/person.
I realize my boycott of the product will not likely change the outcome, but I'd rather not help them along.
Clear rents lane space from airports (seatac in this example) to provide their service. As their subscriber base grows and their wait times extend, they will be able to lobby the port for more lane space to satisfy their customer's demand for speedy processing. As Clear grows, they will eat more and more of the finite resource which is lane space and corner the market on getting through quickly, while they raise the price on the service and "force" more people to subscribe to it to avoid 30+ minute wait times.
If this happens, we'll all be beholden to Clear to get through security in any reasonable time. Instead we should encourage the port (and other airports) to improve the lane system for everyone, rather than letting Clear do it for ~$200/person.
I realize my boycott of the product will not likely change the outcome, but I'd rather not help them along.
Jun 21, 23, 1:07 pm
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: PDX
Programs: AS 75K, BW Plat, Marriott Gold, IHG Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 10,555
I typically don't have to wait long with Pre-check even at busy airports like SEA and since we don't have it at PDX it doesn't seem worth the fee even with the discount. I've never found myself at an airport thinking, "I wish I had Clear"...lol.
Jun 21, 23, 1:11 pm
#13
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,707
Clear used to be great, but their secondary ID checks have gotten really bad - it hits me 80-90% of the time now. Makes using clear often slower than just standard precheck lines at many airports.
Jun 21, 23, 1:19 pm
#14
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: LKE/BFI/SEA
Posts: 196
Happy to help but suspect you'll be more annoyed with Clear when they drop their marketing spend/benefit with Amex in a few years.
Last edited by doublemazaa; Jun 21, 23 at 1:30 pm
Jun 21, 23, 1:50 pm
#15
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Las Vegas
Programs: BA Gold; Hilton Honors Diamond
Posts: 3,086
Interesting to hear this, as my wife and I have only been with CLEAR for a couple of months (reduced rate via my employer, and Amex credit) but we're getting the so-called "random" secondary checks roughly 50% of the time when we fly. That plus the shambles that CLEAR is at T3 at LAS is making it increasingly hard to justify using it. Oftentimes we'd have been just a quick joining the regular PreCheck line instead of waiting for CLEAR to get their act together. They seem to have dozens of "Ambassadors" or whatever the term is but only one or two actually seem able to log in to the kiosks and process passengers. Not sure what the rest do but it's not what I need when I rock up wanting to skip the line!
