I understand your point and understand why you did not get a Clear card. But that is not the way life is and I can pay the private company extra to get speedier access to a governmental inspection facility.

Sounds like the same deal to me.

It might be, if one were able to show their Plutonium card when the aircraft pulls up to the gate and then be able to bypass all other passengers, including paid F and J, for the privilege of being the first one off the plane. There is still the matter of the Ho Chi Min trail to the CBP desks.... but first off should theoretically be at an advantage.

Disagree. In this case, the F or J boarding pass is the functional equivalent of the Clear card or the "Plutonium Card" and you got it by paying something extra to a private company.

It's not usually an advertised benefit (that I know of). I suppose if a coach passenger made a BIG fuss about it, the FA would probably step aside.

Furthermore, everyone in this case is going to CBP. While I really do think that CBP should be a formality involving waving a passport or even less, forcing people to show an ID to travel domestically is reprehensible. The real problem is that people have to show ID at all, plus submit to the TSA's disgusting policies. There were no lines before this disgusting, un-American agency showed up (not counting the stupidity right after 9/11 and before Comrade Daschle brought this disgusting agency into existence). That's the real problem here and why people who were Clear proponents should clearly have been howling for TSA's blood instead of being shaken down.

Possibly. But it certainly is a factor to some who are buying front cabin, whether advertised or not.
And on this we do mostly agree.

The airline and TSA (*barf*) are directly involved in the transaction, the folks who created CLEAR were a third party with their hands out ... lots of apples to orange comparisons going around by those crying its gone

Beg to differ. I stood in many a line for the private screeners before the nationalized organization showed up - plenty of times I had to walk up the escalator in old DCA temporary (DL/US) terminal because they had to be shut down to accomodate the lines.

Now, I completely agree that the lines are worse - in many cases MUCH - worse now, in part because the airlines have no control over how many lines are open.... and because of "feel good" policies like the ID check.

Fewer TSA screening points is not a loss? :confused:

You anti-Clear folks do realize by now I hope that folks going on and on about how 'bad' the Clear lines were sounds an awful lot like how a general pax grousing about the premium line would sound to you (and me), right?

Which airport(s) let the elite passengers cut into already-established lines past the ID check and up to the checkpoint?

Off the top of my head, both IAD an DCA. And ORD. In those cases the x-ray machine queues are somewhat shared between the (shorter) elite ID check line and the (longer) regular ID check line.

Okay, but that's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Even by your own admission, are more about how the lines build up based on where the ID-check line empties and then enters the checkpoint line. And some of that is simply space issues. At those airports, the elites can go where the general folks generally go, and vice-versa.

In order for your claim to be credible, your example needs to have exactly what the Clear thing did, have someone cut in the already-established line leading to the mouth of the x-ray.

How far does it go?
 

(Your "stuff". Your trust. Through how many handoffs?)

For those not keeping busy by posting in both threads, there's this...

http://www.itworld.com/security/6982...-customer-data

The mouth of the x-ray that Clear had paid for for the exclusive use of Clear members, but that TSA forced Clear to share with regular passengers anyway, with the understanding that Clear members had priority at that x-ray. @:-)

In that respect, I suppose it's like general coach pax griping about red carpet boarding treatment of 1st class, UGS and 1ks.

'Wah, he just walked up and is getting your attention while I've been standing in this long line.'

Or like the high roller cutting the queue at the Vegas sushi bar.

This is America. Money/status talks, others wait...c'est la vie.

Is that true? I've seen Clear cut its members, specifically at DEN, cut into more than one line, other than the line with signs saying Clear members have priority.

I don't think you've distinguished the differences I mentioned earlier.

I have found that most airports have an elite pass through. You often have to ask the agent at check in. Often there is a a back door or handicapped elevator that will wisk you to top of line.