If they enable me to cut the line, they have earned the money. ^

Given who's on the board of directors, I suspect the company will thrive this time around. If it ends up becoming a quasi-government service (something along the lines of Global Entry), that wouldn't surprise me either.

Between the "lost laptop" at SFO and the sudden ceasing of operations, I'd hoped my data was safely destroyed at the same time the company went under. But I fell for Lucy asking me to kick the ball again and I went ahead and "reactivated" my CLEAR membership with the new group. Only to find out they want money for a replacement card for an operation that only serves 2 airports at plan today. No thanks. Sorry I reactivated.

Money?????? It's only five bucks. Five bucks. Just enough to cover their production of the card, shipping, and handling and it is only required of numbnuts like us who do not keep anything like that around.

Franny the pack rat still has hers and is gloating that she now has five bucks that I do not. :D

I sent an email asking if our Clear Cards can now be used as official ID as they were last time.

The response was crystal clear. Yes, hang on to your card no need for a new biometric scan.

Gee thanks!

The first time I sent it - I got an automated response saying I would have an answer in 24 hours. When I sent it again in even simpler language, the automated response was I'll get an answer in 72 hours.

Anyone here already know the answer?

How long did it take for Clear to activate your new account once you completed the form online? I did mine several weeks ago and have heard nothing from them.

Can't wait for Clear to reopen in Denver. Security lines have been horrible, especially Monday mornings. I am happy to pay to cut in line!

EDIT: It appears that I too tried to activate before I was in their system. I was able to successfully reactivate my account today.

I fly out of Orlando and I've never had clear. My buddies swore by it.

I have a basic question. Why do they have to run through all that biometric and ID stuff if they're going to search you regardless? Why not just have a dude collect 5 bucks from anyone who wants to bypass the lines, or build it as an optional feature when you check in at the airline kiosk? After all, it is like slipping the bouncer 5 bucks to get into the club w/o having to stand in line.

Excellent question; since they are never going to create an actual trusted traveler program, they should just drop it.

There's both a dignified and a not so dignified answer. The dignified answer is that the company actually set out to have a system where members would not be searched, or at least not so intensively, because of the certitiude of their biometric data. They did their part by collecting the data, but the TSA never did their part, by coming up with a procedure to give relaxed special handling to the "trusted traveler." The undignified answer is that once it was obvious the TSA could not deliver their half of the program, CLEAR could hardly stay in business by advertising "give us $5 and you can jump the line" -- that's so, well, unAmerican. So the "let's pretend having this data makes a difference, even though we all know it doesn't, and since you agreed to give up this data, that's why you get special treatment" pretext began.

I don't see it ever happening either. You don't worry about the mal-intent of the "trusted" traveler as much as that of folks who could slip something into their bag... or the case where the trusted traveler unintentionally carries a banned object.

I'm sure the suits studied this, but I would be curious to see if they would ultimately open it up for anyone who is willing to pay on the spot - at check-in for example. Or would that be too unAmerican.

Certain airlines charge more for access to their elite lines.

Yes, but the TSA lines "belong" to the taxpayer, not a private company, and there is not a lot of precedent for public enterprises where you get to line jump if you pay more. Can you imagine the IRS trying to say "if you pay $20 extra we'll push other tax refunds to the back of line, and your refund comes faster?"

TSA checkpoints themselves belong to the taxpayer. The lines for those checkpoints belong to the airport, and are delegated to those that lease space from the airport. If you want an example of an airport where all are treated equally badly, look at MCO. In fact at every airport the elite lines dump into the regular lines after the ID check.

Actually, there's plenty of precedent for paying for better treatment. Starting with passport/visa brokers at the Federal level to car dealers that get to skip DMV lines at the state level. Global Entry allows you to buy speedier access.

And as for your tax example, IIRC the electronic filing system (that speeds up refunds) is run by a private company. I know I pay a CPA to file mine and it's done electronically.... the refund arrives in a matter of a couple of weeks where it used to take 8-10 weeks when I did it by mail.

Sure, I can. As already noted, the original electronic-filing system did exactly that. Now, it's free for everyone, but not originally.

Bruce

I am surprised that this is not being discussed more, or maybe it is somewhere else...

CLEAR was supposed to re-open in MCO on Nov.9. Has anyone tried it out yet? I will be going there on Thurs. Just wanted to see if it was indeed up and running....

I went online and reactivated my account and was given my full term.