just signed up for clear....
 

any experiences? worth the 99 bucks a year? What do you guys think? Now that its at newark, i think it could beat the elite line.

The only thing CLEAR does is lighten your wallet. Do a search for "CLEAR" on this forum. Then, ask for your money back while you still can!

It's not worth it even if you frequent all of the limited airports (and the limited terminals within each airport) that uses this program.

didnt mean to start a new thread but when i searched "clear" i got a million results.

Sometimes at newark even the elite line is monstrous. Plus at airports like MCO where I frequent there arent elite lines. If i can get guaranteed fast pass in under 10 mins at EWR and MCO, its worth the >$10 a month since i fly out of newark at least 2 times a month.

I am confident that "Some day" they will get their anti-shoe-taking-off technology greenlighted by the TSA (they've been denied twice), and then it will be worth it. I've had it since almost the beginning, and I have to admit that it's tough to justify. However, I will still renew. I fly out of SJC Terminal C every 2 weeks, and there's no elite line there. So, for the rare times when there is actually a line, it is useful. It's slightly humorous how there are so few people who have it. Almost without fail, as I'm walking up to the Clear line (at any airport), they immediately start to direct me to the normal line. When I ignore them, they get a little nervous and ask if I'm a Clear Traveler. When I say, "yes", they are pretty surprised.

I don't think it is worth it at all. At EWR it is only at Term B and I think just one area, not all three sections. Your not going to get your use out of it at EWR on CO. I would just stick to the elite line where available. I did consider it because I travel to MCO quite often, but the line seems to move quick at MCO. I never wait more than 10 minutes.

Clear is a waste. Period. Despite the hoopla, passengers who show up at the recommended times for check-in will virtually always make their flights, and those who didn't sign up for Clear will have that many more dollars in their wallets.

Sorry -- I meant that you should do a search on CLEAR on the Travel Safety & Security forum, where this topic belongs. It's moving now. Please hold on!

Xyzzy
CO forum moderator

I agree. I looked at Clear a few months ago and could see no benefit to it. I rarely fly into any of the airports using Clear, with the exception of EWR, and there, it's of no use to me since it's not available at Terminal C.

From the CLEAR web site::eek:Wow:eek: -- they help you with the bins for $100/year. :rolleyes: Oh - and despite the fingerprint/iris scans and the fancy card you are issued, you still have to show your ID. Save your money!

I only got it coz it was free from Hyatt for a year... Feds already have my prints due to my job... so biggie on that end. :p

just signed up for clear....
 

P.T. Barnum is laughing in his grave.

Aside from the privacy concerns, I think clear might be reasonable (especially as it is being rolled out to more and more airports) *if* it was implemented as envisioned and it would actually save the trusted traveler some of the hassle of going throuh security (in particular the shoe carnival).

Unfortunately right now all it does is allows one to cut to the front of the line, which for some people might make it well worth the 99 bucks, but for someone who already has elite status probably not (unless they are regularly flying out of a terminal with clear, but no elite line - and a tendency for long security lines).

Another downside to using it as simply a means to cut to the front of the line is that unlike elite status, it does not allow you to bring a traveling companion with you. So it won't do you any good when traveling with the wife and kids - unless they also sign up.

I often wonder if there are more people working the Clear line than using it...:rolleyes:

Clear is a bad idea. It's a precursor to removal of elite line benefits for frequent flyers. Instead of spending money on clear, frequent flyers should be spending their time complaining at places like MCO where there are no elite lines.

Unlikely. At most airports (I am not sure about those with single security checkpoints), the elite lines are based on the wishes of the airlines. Ultimately it doesn't cost them any real money (it just inconveniences non-status pax a bit more in exchange for inconveniencing status pax a bit less) so there is no motivation for them to remove the perk.

Airport authorities thrive on money paid by concessionaires. Unless there is something in the airline contract with the airport that specifies elite lines, the airport authority may sell the right to special screening lines to a concessionaire like CLEAR.

Having seen what kinds of deals the airports drive, I would not be at all surprised if they eliminated Elite in favor of CLEAR when and where there is enough revenue involved.

There isn't revenue if we don't sign up :D

And if there's no elite line (MCO), then people will be forced to sign up or stay in the cattle pen.

Point of fact: most of the public-private partnerships to build toll roads contain contract provisions that prohibit the state/local government from building any new roads or highways that will reduce traffic and/or revenue on the toll road. In San Antonio, they have proposed to convert a 6-lane highway to "service road with traffic lights" when the new, parallel, toll lanes are built.

Same concept here.

Ah, but there is a solution to that. Clear is going to start putting photographs on the Clear cards! :D

If only that would work. Actually this gets to the core of what I personally find offensive about the TSA (not the airport employees, but the organization itself):

Clear has invested in in a system of authentication that works not only as well as the current system of seeing if you look somewhat like a 5 year old drivers license, but is actually is far superior to it. And not only does it authenticate that a given person has the name as on the boarding pass, it goes beyond that by telling you which individual "John Smith" the person was.

So they go to the TSA and ask - "So our clients don't need to go through ID checking do they?"

And the TSA says that everyone needs to have ID checked by someone in the line.

Clear spends a bunch of money on a shoe clearing device that makes it easier on the passenger but still screens the shoes (and if it fails, it notifies the staff so the TSA can do a secondary if warrented).

And clear goes to the TSA and says "So our customers won't have to take their shoes off, right?"

And the TSA informs them that everyone needs to take their shoes off.

So clear says, well hey, we had you guys vet our customers, we have (with much higher degrees of both certainty and precision than you are able to otherwise provide) confirmed their identity and we have precleared their shoes - Shouldn't that streamline the process for you to check them?

The TSA answers: "No, but maybe you can have them cut in front of the rest of the line before they get to us. That would be ok with us."

Cynical counter productive bureaucrats.

Funny thing is, if you travel often enough to think about Clear, you travel often enough to access an elite line, obviating the need to think about Clear.

I signed up for Clear because my employer pays--having held off previously when it was my money--but it's never saved me a minute in clearing TSA. I do think it may be a time-saver, someday, though--as things security-wise will get worse before they get better, and the screening process can't get worse but has to get better (and the stratification Clear contemplates makes some rational sense and has to be part of that improvement process). I'm not sure any improvement is likely any time soon, but until I'm footing the bill, the cost-benefit of realizing that future benefit is pretty easy.

Interestingly enough, a federal agency I used to work for told us NOT to sign up for that as they thought it was a security risk.

Feds all on the same page ... :rolleyes:

If another plane drops out of the sky, you can bet that there will be new, more rigid "security" setups employed by the TSA (who are masters at fighting the last war). Yes, the "security" setup would get MUCH worse.

INS Pass went away after 9/11, and you can bet things like NEXUS and Clear would go bye-bye as well if another plane fell out of the sky.

I had imagined that another terrorist incident would make Clear MORE likely to be useful--though I hear you, maybe it means the reverse. Even so, the cost benefit is pretty easy, as long as the employer is footing the bill--a longshot chance that Clear might survive, and actually prove to be useful in saving time, translates into a positive expected return on my zero investment.

If the employer is footing the bill, then it's an okay waste of resources? :confused:

That's a different question--I was just talking about my out of pocket cost, which is largely unrelated to what's good for the company. Fact is, my employer is actually encouraging its travelers to sign up. Why? One theory is that Steve Brill, head of Clear, has some sort of relationship with the boss, and is tapping that relationship to gain some market acceptance of Clear by our buying in; a further theory is that we have some sort of rebate coming back to us (I do come out of pocket initially, but am then reimbursed by the company--this theory would posit a further reimbursement by Clear to the company). No idea whether either point is true, but the fact is, my employer is encouraging Clear, and evidently has come to the view that it isn't a waste.

See, I would do it once/if ATL gets it. ATL is too much of a mess with the lines, Medallian members get one line that feeds into ALL the lines, its just no fun there.

Check.

That's the case in ALB. 3-4 people standing there and I've never seen anyone go through.

Not to mention the two or three people at the table with the bright blue lights peddling the product across from the check-in counters.

FWIW - If you sign up and cxl after you have been approved, YOU HAVE TO WAIT 90 DAYS to get your info purged out of their system before you can sign up again, so I was told. So they have all your info for 90 days but won't let you sign back up. what gives?

I asked the MCO CRC about elite lines and was informed that MCO didn't set them up as one of the other AC didn't want an elite line. They would not identiy the carrier

You are joking, right? You think they ever "purge" your info? I assume once you give it to them it stays in the system for a VERY long time.

Yep! We got a similar briefing on new OPSEC topics. Evidently there's no implicit trust for TSA/DHS. :D

I think that airline would be SW, which never has supported an elite anything. Not sure how even SW, though, could have enough weight to prevent US or UA from doing it at the opposite terminal, should they so desire.

I called MCO admin one time to find out why this otherwise spectacular airport doesn't have this most basic amenity to ease passage for FF's. (Suspect the answer is MCO is the birthplace of "Clear" and the "free" but identical bennies from FF Elite security lines in the same airport would show up Clear for the debacle it is.) Got as far as a woman from Virgin who headed up an "airline council" that represents airline positions to other stakeholders at the airport. She agreed to get a rep. from the major airline in the "opposite", non-SW terminal to call me to discuss why an elite FF line was needed, and how it could be provided. Never happened. :(

The MCO web-site lets you put in ???'s but the answers provided on this issue are sheer nonsense. (TSA controls lines, never any problem if you arrive multiple hours in advance, etc.)

There may be a perspective that the ratio of business travel at MCO is too small to warrant elite security lines. AFAIK TPA doesn't have elite security lines, either.

Jargon check: OPSEC?

Um, because WN is the largest carrier in the US (second largest in the world)??

OPerational SECurity.

I refuse to fly in/out of terminals that have CLEAR but no Elite line if I can.

One such example is JFK Terminal One, where normal lines are often ridiculously long.


Also, an interesting tidbit about Southwest. Their Rapid Rewards members can use elite lines where they exist. It's even mentioned on a graphical list of approved cards at PDX.

-A