craz

with an extreme limited amount of airports covered and not all Terms in those Airports where they were covered either. Im very surprised Clear didnt go belly-up way before this

I dont know a single person who actually paid $$ for being a member.Do know many that joined due to the 1st yr being free via some Elite status they had with a Hotel program, but then again not a single person that was gonna pay to continue membership

Since they never were able to make it a going concern via fully paid membership with an extensive map of most Major Airports being covered, what should the banks have done, thrown more Good $$ after Bad $$?

HLS2002

Apparently, Clear offered value to some people in some airports, but it looked totally worthless in all the airports I frequent. DCA and JFK (T2) were two of my favorite Clear outposts: they had some aggressive marketing, but there are never significant lines to cut.

I turned down the SPG Plat offer for comped Clear. I'll won't give up my biometrics voluntarily.

GUWonder

Yes. Some people never learn, and others only learn from making their own mistakes. Those who cannot admit their mistakes are more likely to never learn.

dlfrflyer

I was/am a very big supporter of Clear - - It's a GREAT program and I am very upset to learn of its demise. Like others, I am also concerned over the security of the data and think we should talk about what can be done from a regulatory and/or legal perspective to make sure the data is safe or destroyed as part of the bankruptcy. That is why I logged on to Flyertalk today -- I hoped to find a good dialogue and possibly some solutions.

For all of you who didn't think Clear was a good idea and believe this forum should be clogged with your inane, "I told you so's," it is easy to see that your decision not to use Clear was a very limited stroke of luck -- and not, by any means, a stroke of genius! Go yell at the people speeding by you in the easypass lane and let the rest of talk about something important.

MemphisQueen

Got this in my inbox this morning...

At 11:00 p.m. PST today, Clear will cease operations. Clear's parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.

After today, Clear lanes will be unavailable.

Sincerely,
Clear Customer Support

Also the only thing on their website: https://secure.flyclear.com/cs.htm


Could peeps going to the CLEAR sponsored event this week ask them if that means I'll get my second year that I paid for in advance refunded??

Spiff

It wasn't luck that kept many of us from being extorted for our personal information and money.

RadioGirl

You started to go wrong, about, umm, here:

where you assume that TSA has anything to do with "monitoring", "oversight" (as in "supervising", not as in "missing something"), and "integrity of the security information". You're kidding, right??

Not a chance.

magiciansampras

LOL I was just about to use it for the first time, too (for free, not paid). Oh well.

LessO2

Clear said they had 260,000 program members. Assuming every one of them paid $150, that's $39 million a year of revenue.

The manpower, let's say 20 people on the payroll per airport at $30,000 a year. That's $600,000. That puts the payroll at a little over $10 million annually. Then add in....

• R&D (those shoe machines didn't come cheap)
• Rental space at the airports
• Cost of background checks
• Cost of producing cards
• Cost of support staff (phone ops, ones you didn't see at the airport)
• Executive salary
• Equipment (scanning machines, laptops at airports)
• Radio ads
• The fact that many of the 260,000 might just be people from Marriott or Hyatt promotions who didn't renew
• A business model that was reduced to a glorified line-cut
• Promotion that did not match the actual product.

Plus, the TSA was never a big fan of Clear and Steven Brill left in March.

The fact that Clear was never able to get the TSA to reduce the "security" measures, ever, for Clear members should have been a red flag in itself. It was for me.

Yeah, there's a little "I told you so" in here. But I decided to look at the whole picture rather than buying into the hype. And I have a few extra hundred bucks in my wallet for that decision.

squatch

sorry, but i'm not going to feel sorry for those you who paid money to entrust sensitive personal data to a shoddy private company just so that you could cut in line.

this entire scheme was ludicrous from the beginning and i expect it will all end poorly for you clear customers. with luck perhaps some agency will step in and see that all information is destroyed after the financial wreckage of the company is cleaned up.

let's hope that happens.

EasternTraveler

I told you so!

DLATL777

Third post on this announcement in 12 hours, the other 2 have already been moved.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ns-merged.html

jfulcher

They won't do a darn thing - and you know it. I've written my senators several times in the past about the TSA.

chrisdeaner

Just saw this email and it's definitely a bummer. I did get my membership for free via Hyatt (or was it *wood...?) but definitely was getting used to using it every Monday morning at SFO. The elite line there is getting pretty out of hand so this was a nice option. The one thing I didn't like was when the secuirty line right next to the Clear booth was backed up one of the reps would walk you into the other lines and cut you in front of someone (in the regular pax lines). I never heard any push back but especially if I was cutting it close for a flight I wouldn't be happy. Oh and I never got to use the cool retinal scanners...only the right thumbprint was ever asked for Oh well, sorry to those who paid recently but such is the world we live in.

stfarm

Clear in ATL has saved me a minimum of 20 minutes EVERY time I used it (twice a week).

With clear I was through security within 2 minutes, EVERY TIME!!

The Clear personnel was always very friendly, something I can't say about the TSA.

It was the best setup, anybody saying it was not worthwhile obviously NEVER traveled during peak times where the security lanes are OUTSIDE baggage claim.

I would have paid $300 for this service.

Anybody who is an hourly will understand that every minute is very costly when standing idle in some lanes when we can sit down and be productive in our profession.

Clear was perfect. I hope ATL will come up with some setup for frequent travelers to make up for the loss of Clear!!

Steve