My days of espousing CLEAR are pretty much done.
The service that uses biometrics to identify airline passengers and usher them to the front of their appropriate TSA qualification (PreCheck or standard) is no longer the premium product it once was.
I once loved CLEAR because it saved me a considerable amount of time waiting in airport security lines.
But growing services such as Delta and United’s Digital ID, CLEAR’s seemingly clunky technology, and a strange way of managing employees have all left a bitter taste in my mouth.
A trip from which my family and I just returned put the nail in the coffin.
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How We “Pay” for CLEAR
My wife and I each have our own CLEAR Plus memberships. The standard price is $199 per membership. Both of us are Delta SkyMiles® America Express Card members (She: Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card. Me: Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card). Because CLEAR offers discounts for Delta Amex card members, the cost is reduced to $159 each. (United offers something similar for their their cobranded cardholders.
Four American Express cards allow members to earn up to $199 each year in statement credits for CLEAR Plus membership fees charged to their eligible card:
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
- (All information about the American Express® Green Card was gathered independently by Eye of the Flyer. It was neither provided by nor reviewed by the card issuer.)
- American Express® Green Card
- (All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card was gathered independently by Eye of the Flyer. It was neither provided by nor reviewed by the card issuer.)
I hold both the Amex Platinum and Amex Business Platinum. So, we aren’t really out of pocket for our CLEAR Plus memberships. The statement credit is part of the “Amex Coupon Book” model that’s becoming status quo.
Our TSA PreCheck memberships are covered by one of the many credit cards offering statement credits for application fees. (I charge my Global Entry — which comes with PreCheck — to my Amex Platinum. Mrs. Carley’s TSA PreCheck is courtesy of her Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.)
Strike One: Not Able to Split Payment
So, this seems like bad business on CLEAR’s part. Considering they’re in the biometrics and security business, it’s also a little concerning their technology isn’t better, either.
CLEAR recently upped its membership rates. I don’t have a gripe with that. That’s business. In fact, I’m shocked my sweetheart-of-a-deal Family Membership lasted as long as it did. I paid $179 a year for myself and two other adults!
But my new cost was $393: My primary membership was $159, the first adult was $117, and the second adult was $117.
That’s fine. Because of the statement credits, my Amex Platinum and Amex Business Platinum cards should’ve covered that. I planned to charge $199 to my Amex Platinum and the remaining $194 to my Amex Platinum.
However, CLEAR’s technology is not capable of processing split payments.
This company, trusted with scans of your retinas and fingerprints, can’t handle splitting charges across multiple cards — a process grocery stores, restaurants, bars, and retail establishments handle easily.
Well, that’s because those businesses use manual transactions, you might say. When I called CLEAR and asked about splitting payments, they couldn’t do it manually over the phone. As I’ve written in this space, Dell Technologies happily accepts multiple forms of payment. But, again, a company trusted with your biometrics apparently can’t invest in something like split payments.
So, I signed up my wife for a new CLEAR membership.
Why not just use her existing account on your family membership to create her account? you might wonder.
Excellent question.
Well, we didn’t have Mrs. Carley’s CLEAR password in our files. That’s on us. We admit it. So, we followed the reset password procedures and waited for the email.
And waited.
And waited.
I don’t know if it ever came because we had a trip the day after my membership renewal (and subsequent account changes). Time was of the essence, so I ended up signing her up for a new account.
I don’t know what kind of deal CLEAR has with Amex regarding how the statement credits are reimbursed. But my wife and I are now charging $318 to my Amexes for our CLEAR memberships, versus $393 if we were able to split payments (the other person is no longer on our plan and wasn’t exactly heartbroken to volunteer giving it up).
Is CLEAR leaving money on the table?
Strike Two: Stand Around and Wait
We knew Mrs. Carley likely needed to re-scan her retinas and fingerprints for her new CLEAR account. So, we arrived a few minutes early at LAX for our trip to Colorado.
We saw four CLEAR ambassadors (the company’s terms for airport employees). One was busy seemingly helping register new customers at one of the several kiosks. The other three stood around talking. I approached them and explained that my wife registered for a CLEAR account and needed her biometrics scanned.
“Go to the other end (of the terminal) and have one of the ambassadors there do it,” one of them said. They weren’t pleased I interrupted their non-work-related conversation — and couldn’t bother helping a paying member.
“But she just needs to complete her registration,” I said. “You can’t do that?”
They said they couldn’t.
Lovely.
And here’s where CLEAR’s boots-on-the-ground management is especially confounding.
Many of us have waited while one or two CLEAR ambassadors scramble to help lines of 10 or 20 people. But others — probably salespeople — stand around and can’t be bothered to help current customers.
We walked to the CLEAR kiosks and it took us 10 minutes to get my wife’s identity confirmed — because CLEAR got her confused with, well, her. (Her previous account and her new account caused problems.) A supervisor had to be brought in to help solve the issue.
You guessed it: more CLEAR passengers waiting to be screened were slowed while our issue was resolved.
Again, had any of the stand-around ambassadors taken a few minutes to complete her registration, everyone would’ve been through CLEAR faster.
Strike Three: Twice As Long As PreCheck
A couple of days later, we flew home from Denver International Airport (DEN).
I’ll be upfront: this was Labor Day Friday. That was one of the busiest travel days all summer.
There were four of us in our group: Mrs. Carley, our daughter, and I returned to LAX. One of my stepbrothers headed to a meeting in another state.
My stepbrother has TSA PreCheck — but not CLEAR.
The PreCheck line in Denver looked Disneyland-ride-line-long-stupid. But we initially decided to wait with him in the PreCheck line — even though we have CLEAR. We figured the CLEAR line would be faster. But we don’t get to see him very often, and we wanted some more quality time. Plus, he would join us at the Capital One Lounge (more on that major letdown in another post).
But our daughter and her cousins had a sleepover and stayed up very late the night before. A long TSA PreCheck line would not help matters.
We decided to use the CLEAR + PreCheck line. We wanted to get through security ASAP and get her a treat. We’d wait for my brother until he went through PreCheck.
The PreCheck line practically did laps around the CLEAR line. It reminded me of the time a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) line proctor warned travelers they’d “regret” using the CLEAR lines.
Our family entered our respective lines at 4:26 PM. My stepbrother was through security at 4:48 PM.
We didn’t finish going through CLEAR until almost 5:15 PM.
There were multiple standstills during this period.
Why? you ask?
Well, the CLEAR kiosks had difficulties reading people’s paper boarding passes after the eye or finger scans. That required the whole process to be repeated. Once or twice again in some instances.
Then, of course, there are the increasingly “random” photo ID verification checks.
After we “cleared” at the kiosks, everyone’s identities needed to be verified again. This time, a CLEAR rep worked with TSA for another scan.
So, what is the point of even having CLEAR? Isn’t supposed to be faster than just PreCheck in situations like this?
“The convenience of CLEAR’s services seemed like a no-brainer at first glance,” my friend John wrote to me when I told him about this post. “The idea of bypassing the chaos and stress of security checkpoints sounded like a dream come true. But reports of long wait times, technical issues, and inconsistent service left me wary of CLEAR’s reliability.”
Final Approach
CLEAR is no longer a must-have service for us. We’ll keep it as long as it’s an Amex card statement credit benefit. I’m sure it’ll come in handy here and there. But I’ll be blunt: there is no way in Hades I’d pay $159 per year out of pocket for CLEAR.
I’ve written a couple of posts about how much I monetarily value my Amex Platinum and Amex Business Platinum cards. I’ve factored in CLEAR as a substantial cost savings. Those posts will be revised in the coming days. The CLEAR benefit’s value will be significantly reduced. I haven’t yet decided if it’ll be $0 or somewhere in that range.
CLEAR’s questionable technology and management of employees are not worth it to us anymore. I sincerely hope they get better.
What are your thoughts about CLEAR? Are your experiences good or bad?
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Green Card, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business American Express Card, please visit this link.
For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card, please visit this link.
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CLEAR is a clear advantage in ORD, SFO and SJC where I most often depart from so there’s still a ton of value for me. Perhaps part of that may be that I’m traveling on Delta out of non-hubs so there’s not a huge customer base in the Delta terminals (i.e. Terminal 5 in ORD) but it’s a big time saver for me. Some of the employees at SFO are pretty rude and think all high and mighty of themselves and I’ve seen the standing around of certain CLEAR employees but I’ll deal with it for the convenience of being able to show up to the airport 30-40 minutes before my plane departs (basically arrive curbside at the airport a few minutes before boarding starts). I’ve made it through to all my flights with no issues as I haven’t had a wait of more than 3 minutes traveling 2-3x monthly this year using the CLEAR lines.
The few times I’ve been able to use Clear in BOS, ORD, JFK, and LBC it’s been faster, but I did notice that I had to scan my eyes a few times since it would error out if I had my glasses on.
I have an upcoming international flight that puts me into ORD at 9AM so I’ll have to see how fast I can get through CBP and TSA back into T5 for my domestic flight. Debating if I can make an 11AM or if I should play it safe and keep my 5PM flight..
In PHX Clear is pointless (short lines fro TSA regardless), but good to have if needed
You can “split up” payment
1) remove family member
2) renew for yourself
3) $159 charge to CC 1
4) wait a day and change teh card on file to CC2
5) wait another day for the system to use the new card (safety as you could always cancel if that isn’t the case)
6) add family member for $119
rinse and repeat if you have more family members and cards
When you add the family member in point #6, do they have to re-register with CLEAR in person even if they were previously on your account?
Cancelled as well. Long lines so no benefit. Also, half the time we have to show our IDs which this service is supposed to help you avoid the additional step. Also, only really good at certain airports around the country.
We’ve experienced the same during this so called technology change and frankly I agree, it’s no longer worth it. As with you as long as we get it for nothing we’ll evaluate pre-check only vs Clear and pre-check and go with the line moving the quickest. They have clearly lost their touch and are woefully understaffed at the gates. We primarily fly out of MSP.
Clear has been slower than Pre-Check in many airports lately! You wait for an ambassador, then you get random ID check then you must merge into the pre check line and get ID check and a picture taken.. way more timer wasted!
CLEAR has been invaluable for us when re-entering the US from an international flight.
Really saves time and hassle.
What airport are you transiting through that offers Clear for inbound international flights?
Are you thinking of global entry?
Clear is totally pointless. The lines are almost longer than just vanilla Pre. The kiosks are often down/rebooting/nonfunctional. And even once you pass through the Clear security, you often get shunted straight back into the Pre line ANYWAYS. Then the TSA oftentimes still checks your credentials.
The whole process is goofy and awkward.
TSA should just axe whatever licensing Clear is paying and expand available Pre lines to more people with more agents and more security.
It’s been hit-or-miss for about 2 years. My membership is super simple and AmEx Biz Platinum still covers it. However, I routinely skip the CLEAR queue because of those same random ID checks. I am sure you have noticed the conspicuous absence of the old marketing signs and posters, “You are your ID”. I will hang on for now because this option will help me from at random. As for the time comparison, I would hasten to add that TSA has improved the processing speed of PreCheck queues in parallel with the loss of quality at CLEAR.
I just cancelled my Clear. I fly Delta and the Clear and TSA Pre lines are usually about the same length, so there is no time savings and Clear sometimes takes longer with their “Random” ID checks (I seem to be picked randomly every time) and having to fiddle with the kiosk and have an employee walk you to TSA. I was just at MSP and the Clear line seemed a little shorter there, but the TSA Pre line moved quickly without the hassle of Clear.
Clear in Denver is NOT worth using. It is much slower than Pre-Check and even when it is not a busy travel period, it always takes longer.
Many other airports it is definitely worth it, but not Denver.
I totally agree with this. It used to save gobs of time in Denver, but not anymore. I always play roulette with which line I get into, precheck or clear and lately I have chosen precheck.
They really need to make the Clear kiosks completely self service, akin to the Global Entry kiosks. A big part of the delay is that the kiosks require employee intervention to use. Why? We’re not idiots. If it works for Global Entry, then it should work for Clear. You can of course have one employee on standby in case someone needs help, but aside from that, open those suckers up to self service.
Just went through the same thing with my P2. Because we were on a “family” membership, we couldn’t use 2 different cards for payment. P2 had to re-enroll, which was just stupid. We fly from IAD, DCA, and BWI. Once in a blue moon it makes sense from BWI, but never once at IAD or DCA. Honestly cannot imagine anyone paying for this without credit card reimbursement.
I flew out of Phoenix last week. Used Clear. I had to do the usual biometrics check with Clear. But PHX has TSA checkpoints with biometric cameras. Like JFK, they require you do a biometric check even though you just went through Clear. Other than cutting the line, what is the point of Clear if I now have to do TWO separate biometric checks?
Everything you describe is true in my experience. Long waits. Indifferent/rude employees. Clunky tech. You can add to your list poor, confusing signage (espacially @ SEA-TAC.) Odd b/c doesn’t Delta own Clear? (DL bought them out of bankruptcy as I recall…You’d think DL would want it to be better. Or, maybe with Digital ID it doesn’t matter to them anymore. TG for Delta’s Digital ID., BTW. The government already knows everything about us, including our whereabouts (everytime you use your phone or debit card,) so there really is no privacy to protect anymore. At least Digital ID works and is fast.
using clear out of miami on american which is the largest number of gates is useless. clear is at the E concourse which is a very long walk to any american gates. forget the aa lounge or the centurian club unless you have a lot of time and need the exercise. still had to wait 15 minutes at clear.
CLEAR at JFK is an abomination.
You summarized my experiences quite well. They have upped their prices, presumably to help pay for all the employees that stand around doing nothing all the time. Every time I go to CLEAR, there seems to be a wait even when there are open kiosks because the process is so screwed up they require you to have an employee walk you through what could easily be self-guided. And like you, I seem to frequently be randomly selected for verification.
I use CLEAR any time I have time to do so, usually to get a chuckle. My wife also has it, and sometimes one of us will go Pre-check while the other goes CLEAR just to see who gets through faster. I’d say it splits pretty evenly.
And like you, I place somewhere between $0 and $20 of value on it. Part of me will be relieved when I no longer have it as then I won’t feel like I’m paying for a premium card with a benefit that really isn’t a benefit. Much like AmEx’s other perks that keep getting worse and worse as they keep jacking up the annual fees to higher and higher levels.
Clear in Austin (AUS) has been terrible for over a year now. They have 10 kiosks, though I’m not sure why, because there’s never more than 2-3 employees using them. Every time we’ve traveled with someone who went through the TSA Pre line, they went through much faster than we did, and laughed at us at the other end. We have it for our whole family, and it recently renewed, but I do not believe we will renew again, because AUS is our home base, and it’s really useless. I have recently decided to just skip the Clear line and go through the TSA line. How can they raise the price when the service and value has declined so much? It used to be a great alternative, but it just isn’t anymore. Sad.
Literally the only reason I go through it anymore is so I can get the survey and rate them 2/10 due to how long the Clear lines are. My 10-year-old kids laugh at me because they can count and know PreCheck is a shorter line than Clear at Denver (and many other cities). Too bad.