Boraxo

i hesitate to argue with a mod, but he specifically said family too. Which includes under 18. And the ID requirement is irrelevant - it is up to Clear who is permitted to use their lanes. They obviously find it in their interest to allow minors to accompany paying parents.

Contrast to Global Entry and PreCheck - both require minors to have their own paid memberships. You cannot bring a minor (or anyone else) through GE or precheck lane unless they are in the system.

TWA884

This is not completely accurate, children age 12 and younger may use the PreCheck lanes when traveling with a parent or guardian who has the PreCheck indicator on their boarding pass.


[Moderator's hat on]

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Any further quibbling on this off-topic subject will be summarily deleted.

[Moderator's hat off]

pseudoswede

A bit of update/clarification.

Yes, Baby Swede cannot go through CLEAR by herself since she is under 18 even though I am a member. That was expected.

On Friday, we stopped by the WN check-in desk to get gate passes for myself and Mrs. Swede. Baby Swede has Pre-Check on her boarding pass, so she was able to use the Pre-Check lane. Mrs. Swede and I were able to use the non-Pre-Check CLEAR kiosks with our gate passes!

Looking forward to using it again tonight when we get gate passes to meet Baby Swede at the gate.

Boraxo

That matches my recent experience at OAK. Technically the parents with gate passes are not permitted to use precheck lanes (after CLEAR validation) but the TSA was surprisingly accommodating.

pseudoswede

In DEN, they won't let you into the CLEAR Pre-Check lane unless you can show you have Pre-Check. The non-Pre-Check CLEAR lane is on totally the opposite side of security; and I'm shocked just how busy the non-Pre-Check CLEAR lane is. People will drop a chunk of change to avoid long non-Pre-Check lines, but they won't spend the extra $15/yr to get Pre-Check?

I longingly looked at the Pre-Check lines as my cold, bare feet shuffled through the metal detectors.

Red259

I went through the process of registering for CLEAR at JFK. Did the first part online before I got there and just needed to do the biometrics. Ended up spending 20-25 minutes doing it because at first i couldn't find the clear person to help me and then when I did I had to wait because there was only one clear person and several people ahead of me. Then once she started assisting me went through the whole thing with the terminal and it basically malfunctioned at the very end so I had to move to another terminal and resubmit all the information again. I didn't see any long lines at the airport. Even when I finally did go through the clear checkpoint I didn't feel like it saved me anytime at all. Maybe in normal times it saves people time to have clear. I sure as heck wouldn't pay for this but for the fact that it comes for free with my credit card.

Cloudship

I signed up and had my biometrics done in Denver. Took me a whole whopping 3 minutes to get the biometrics done, and that was because there were several other people doing heirs at the same time.

addicoe

I didn't want to make a new post just for this. But forgive me if is has already been brought up before. I really want to enroll in CLEAR because I can get it for free. But what stops me is that TSA pre check has been just as good for almost every airport I have gone to, and also the main reason is that I don't trust CLEAR with my biometric data. I don't like giving that stuff up to private companies. What have others done about this, or give me a rationale for why it is OK.

Red259

If you don't want to do it then simply don't do it. Don't worry about what others are doing or not doing.

Cloudship

If you don't trust them, you don't trust them. It's not a rationale thing.

For me, I figure my fingerprints are out there anyways. They basically have my fingerprints and eye scan. I don't think my eyescan is tied into anything else out there. Clear is not different that pre-check - you still go through the pre-check luggage scan and detector. You just bypass the waiting line for pre-check. In some airports that doesn't matter much. In others, such as Denver, even the pre-check line is horrendously long. I don't know if I would justify the $150 if I had to pay for that myself as my home airport doesn't have it. But, as it was free, why not get it?

Magna

I'll try to rationalize it . . . the gov vendors out or contracts out, idk how often, but I believe Snowden wasn't technically hired by the gov therefore private companies already have access and are managing sensitive gov databases. Since it's free for you why not save 5-10 minutes and potentially more, especially when trouble usually occur when people are in a frustrated mood waiting in lines.

Zorak

Today is a good day to have CLEAR... at least at SFO T2 this morning.

SusanDK

I have Global Entry with TSA Pre and have also just registered for Clear (since AmEx covered the cost) but have not yet done the biometrics.

When I read very old posts about MCO, it was reported that TSAPre was better as it was quicker and one did not need to remove shoes, laptop, etc. Is this still the same now? Are these separate queues that one needs to choose between when going through the departure area and, if so, is TSAPre still the better option?

I also note that the Clear enrollment area at MCO is at "East Security Gates 70-129" so is this before the TSA checkpoint? I'll probably try to get the biometrics done regardless of whether or not we use the Clear lane on this departure.

miamiflyer8

CLEAR is to skip the TSA ID check and the line and PRE is as you describe. Unless something changed (doubt it has), you will be escorted to the front of the PRE line provided you have PRE on your bp. You should approach a CLEAR employee by a kiosk and they will both complete your enrollment and take you to the front of the line.

EAJuggalo

When Clear first started you had to choose whether to use Clear or Pre, Clear didn't have the ability to do both. That has changed in most if not all airports now. The enrollment center is before the screening station. I have friends that have had Clear for a couple years but rarely use it, unless there is a big line for the ID check it doesn't save them any time.