pvn

I guess the agent could have said "anyone wearing bowling shoes come to the front of the line" and then we would have had a bunch of people who know good and well that bowling shoes aren't officially a criteria used by immigration asking "hey what bowling shoes got to do with immigration"

hotturnip

Kind of a DYKWIA story, but it happened in EWR. Can I tell it here?

On the Sky Train between terminals. A stout woman with two kids and a GIGANTIC piece of luggage enters the car. These cars at EWR have small compartments. We already have a lot of people in there, so it's really tight. We get to the next stop. We all have to get out--EXCEPT giant suitcase lady. Several of us look at her meaningfully. She says to her kids, "OK, we have to let the other people out." And they stand there, completely blocking the exit, since they were last in. I say to her, "I think you're going to have to step out so that we can all get out." She and the kids comply--leaving giant suitcase blocking the middle of the car. She's smiling like she's done everyone a favor, and we're trying to figure out how to exit before the doors close.

I squeeze past this mammoth bag, and as I'm at the door, grab the bag and lift it out, saying, "Here, I'll put this back in for you when everyone's out." Giant suitcase lady glares at me and snaps, "I DON'T want my bag removed!" I've been up 20 hours at this point--I look at her (as everyone is pouting out of the car finally) and say, "Nobody can get out because of your bag--don't worry, I'll put it back for you." Which I promptly did. Ticked off at her, I say as I leave, "I'm just trying to be helpful." She finally seemed to have realized what was going on.

She's probably reporting ME as a DYKWIA somewhere.

spamkiller

No. Clear lets you cut the precheck line.

syd999

This happened around 12 years ago on Continental. Our flight was delayed about 30 minutes coming into IAH due to inclement weather. It was a regional airline (Continental express or Copa or something like that) where there was no premium cabin. The plane lands and we are waiting on tarmac for another plane to leave our gate. After a couple minutes waiting on the tarmac, a older lady with a fur coat gets up and starts to open the overhead bin to get her baggage. The flight attendant who is the jump seat tells her to take her seat. Fur coat lady says that her gate is the next one over and since it was the airlines fault for the delay, she should be allowed to deplane (on the tarmac!) before we got to the gate so that she could make her connection. The flight attendant repeats herself to no avail. A deadheading continental pilot that was seated a few rows behind gets up and tell her sternly - "Maam, you need to take your seat fight now. This is your final warning". She keeps arguing and pilot guy gets up and physically forces her to take her seat. She gets up again and just starts yelling. "I am going to sue the airline and the pilot and the bimbo attendant (seriously who uses 'bimbo' anymore?? (even in 2006)). She literally said "Do you know who I am?" to which the deadheading pilot said "I don't care." We are met at the gate by airport police. Fur coat lady is still complaining about being mistreated by airline and how she is going to sue everybody. Police dudes roll their eyes and who then take her into custody like handcuffs and all. Fur coat lady is still fuming as she is taken off airline. Other passengers start cheering and clapping and offer to be witnesses if needed. Needless to say, she didn't make her connection. I had a feeling she hadn't flown commercial at least since 9/11 (as in she seemed the type that flew private jet) and most certainly didn't realize the crap she got herself into.

Youngmiler

I'm not sure what is so confusing about Clear - it has nothing to do with deplaning, entering the US, any country's immigration, any country's customs, or baggage retrieval from the carousel. At the airport, Clear is strictly for expediting the security check point on departures from the United States that have Clear kiosks and are open at the time of your use. A customs and immigration officer, gate agent, police officer, hotel clerk, doctor, convenience store clerk, or concert usher has absolutely nothing to do with the program.

Furthermore if you were wondering Clear has nothing to do with buying coffee, playing sports, driving a car, or having a job (Fun Fact: You can use Clear kiosk at the 2018 MLB All Star Game, American Airlines Arena and Marlins Park in Miami, as well as other venues in the US - more details can be found at clearme.com).

MSPeconomist

Zorak

Starting to feel sorry for zitsky. What (I believe) they are asking is, given that we all know and agree CLEAR is not supposed to have anything to do with immigration they are curious why the officer/airport employee/whoever in the original report, called for anyone with GE or CLEAR to step forward and cut in line.

We'd probably have to go find and ask that employee though. They could be misinformed, making an executive/maverick decision, etc.

flyerCO

I'm guessing - he may have meant Nexus and instead said clear or OP heard Clear but employee said Nexus.

pvn

Right. This is sort of like when there's an obvious bug on the website and a bunch of people post here asking why delta made a policy change. Sometimes things just get ....ed up.

Dovster

Sometimes (admittedly rarely) exceptions are made when certain lines are very full and the "reserved" lines are empty.

This happened only once in my experience, but I was flying MXP-TLV with my daughter on LY and there was absolutely nobody in the "EU Citizens Only" line at passport control. The other lines were very long and the man working in the EU booth stepped outside and announced that anyone with a U.S. passport could go to his booth. Naturally, my daughter and I made the switch immediately.

zitsky

Happened to me in CDG.

SDQBound

Define "expedite". It takes longer to use CLEAR than to scan the BP. I just use CLEAR because I'm a millennial and per my generation requirements I have to do it whether it's faster or not

KDCAflyer

pvn

Clear is faster because there's nobody in the clear line. Scanning a BP is faster but you have to actually wait to get to the scanner.

flyerCO

SDQBound was replying to MSPs comment of using Clear to access the Skyclub. It indeed seems to take longer. You have to angle your wrist correctly or it tends to not read correct.