Advice from TSA: pay $50 to avoid scanners
 

While flying through DIA last week, I was unable to circumvent the body scanner and had to opt out. The guy doing the pat down was quite friendly and asked if I always opt out. I replied yes, and he pointed to the Clear lane and said something like "you know, you can avoid the scanners by paying like fifty dollars to get a membership to go through there".

So it seems like at least this particular TSO was well aware of the stupidity of the body scanners. What is the point of scanning people when anyone can pay a fee to avoid them? Furthermore, what does it say when a TSA employee himself says something like this?

PS I looked it up and it's a lot more than $50, but the principle is the same: pay money to avoid being scanned.

You might want to look into Pre-check. GE/NEXUS/SENTRI holders are eligible. GE is $100/5 years, I think some credit cards - AMEX? - and some airlines (UA elites) reimburse the cost.

If you're a frequent flier elite with one of the major airlines (not WN, though), you might be eligible through your status.

Caution: GE will get you Pre-check. On any given flight, it's not guaranteed, some folks have higher success rates than others, not available at all checkpoints - it's a work in progress. Right now, it does mean 'expedited' screening - keep your shoes on, kippie bag doesn't have to come out, WTMD.

Note: there is no guarantee that it will always lead to the WTMD. Right now, AFAIK, it's a dedicated WTMD lane where available. I suspect at some point in the future, all WTMD's will be replaced with some form of NoS.

Search this forum for info on pre-check for more information on how it works, people's experiences, where it's available (airports, specific checkpoints).

Probably better bang for your buck than CLEAR.

Clear is only good at a few airports: MCO, SFO, DEN, DFW and HPN. Also, it costs $175 a year and only gets you front of line privileges, which means you still get the NoS.

PreCheck is a better bang for the buck. 40+ airports have a Pre line and you don't get a NoS. You can get it by signing up for Global Entry ($100 for 5 years) or, if you're close to the Canadian border or travel there frequently, Nexus ($50 for 5 years).

I took a trial Clear membership (I have Pre which i got through being an AA Plat), and decided it is worthless. All it does is get you to the front of the line, which you can do if you have status with most airlines and can go to the Priority Lane. They check your biometrics (retina scan, fingerprints, etc.) as well as your boarding pass, but you don't need to give them your id. It doesn't save any time and you still have to go through the regular scanner.

I doubt it, at least in the near future. When travelling with young children/babies, we routinely get routed to an otherwise blocked, WTMD. A NoS is going to have a hard time with an adult holding a baby, or a young child that won't understand how to stand and to stand still.

Also, a NoS requires two TSOs working simultaneously to function (with the existing privacy protections). Recently walking back through security to get a forgotten item, after the last flight had departed from the terminal there was only one TSO working the station - he did the x-ray on my wallet, and walked me through the WTMD.

I'm sure a NoS could be designed to cope, but I still give that a reasonably long way off.

Pre is the way to go. Somewhere from free to $100 and it really is both expedited and easy. For both me and my friends with GE, it's about 100%. Realize that those relying on FF program for the match appear to miss the mark.

I got Clear because there was a free trial and I fly constantly at DFW and SFO. At DFW I had to walk to a different end of the terminal to use the Clear security checkpoint, so it didn't save me any time. In SFO it does save time, even compared to using the priority lane often. Also at SFO the clear person tends to grab me a couple of bins and cuts me in so that I'm 3rd to the X-ray, whereas DFW just gets you past the document checker. However now that VX has pre-check that's way better (at least up to 5pm when it operates). Clear really needs to be able to integrate pre-check so that if you're pre-check elegible the Clear agent can take you to that line.

Hi everyone, thanks for the answers. I'm aware of the various options (Precheck, Global Entry, etc.) and I wasn't really looking for advice. Rather, I posted this because it struck me as odd that a TSA employee realized, and openly spoke about, how useless the scanners are. What is the point of scanning people when anyone can pay to skip them? Maybe they are starting to see the stupidity of their logic.

New revenue sources: Make the screening process, that everyone already pays for, so unbearable that some of the people will pay additional money to get out it. As additional revenue is needed, increase the difficulty of the screening process and institute new levels of screening based on the amount paid by the "customer."

I can see how, in a few years time, everyone but the most destitute will pay $100 a flight to get out of the baseline screening process, which at that time will involve numerous physical exams, a blood test, and, for good measure, an electro-shock trial to check your reaction time.

Neither CLEAR nor pre (which includes GE) for this purpose, is a payment to skip anything. It's a payment to conduct a background check to permit you to generally be classified as an extremely low risk.

By way of example, GE includes an in-depth application, records check, fingerprints and an in-person interview with a CBP Officer. That costs $100 and is no assurance that you will be approved for GE.

The Officer's comment to you about paying $50 for CLEAR is wrong because of the amount, but has zippo to do with the value of different types of equiptment.

+1
SFO is the only airport I've seen where CLEAR might be worth it for someone with GE and then only on a flight that is not PreCheck eligible. Every time I've used it at SFO (including International Terminal), the CLEAR agent cuts in front of everyone and takes you the front of the conveyor. Anywhere else, it's useless for someone with Priority/PreCheck privileges.