FlyerTalk Forums - Checking bag without "valid" ID

Quote:

Originally Posted by Night Flyer (Post 29090116)

I’m sorry but that’s not correct. And I never suggested that Clear maintains a 50-state database of IDs. When you register with Clear, they take a digital copy of your ID. Your biometrics are merely to confirm your identity, and your ID is already on file. That’s why the TSA lets them bypass the ID check

if your ID on file is expired, I don’t know what happens. The OP may find out and let us know.

It has nothing to do with an ID document. The use of an ID is just to allow the TSA to match the data on the boarding pass (which was run though Secure Flight) with the person standing in front of them. CLEAR automates the whole process. I have not shown any ID to Clear since 2006 when I signed up for the original program. The photo that pops up when I go though the lanes is the same photo that they took of me that day in the Denver airport. The ID I presented then is long since expired and no one cares.

I guess we're maybe talking about the same thing; once you're registered, the Clear program (in and of itself) serves as the ID check and not merely a fancy way of storing a copy of some other ID document. The Registered Traveler program, of which CLEAR is the sole private survivor, associates biometrics with the data used for Secure Flight (name, DOB, sex) during the registration process. Therefore, the need for an "ID" is unnecessary since the biometrics serve to match the human presenting themselves at the checkpoint with the data that the airline ran through Secure Flight.

For those without Clear that matching is done by the TSA agent via a visual comparison of the data on the ID presented (including the photo), the person standing in front of them, and the data on the BP. Without the biometrics the photo is used to associate the person with the data on their ID which is then associated with the data on the boarding pass. Clear automates all of that and eliminates the need for the visual comparison.