One of our least used travel-related subscriptions right now is our CLEAR membership. If you’re still flying right now (and but for exceptional circumstances, why are you?), there’s no need for expedited security. Nationwide, less than 200,000 people are going through TSA checkpoints daily, while last year for the same week that number averaged 2.3 million/day.
It’s understandable to feel that you’re not getting anything for your money, and you’d be right. Even if you only previously used the CLEAR checkpoint 4 times a year, not going on 1-2 trips means you’re losing out on 25% to 50% of the value. The same holds for people who flew 2-3 times a week who are grounded for months.
To make matters worse, my CLEAR renewal date just passed and I saw the charge hit my credit card.
No one should be paying more than $119 for membership because just being a Delta Skymiles or United MileagePlus member gets you a discounted price.
The charge didn’t hurt because I changed the payment to Sharon’s American Express Green Card that offers a $100 CLEAR credit, which showed up almost immediately.
I looked at the CLEAR website and found it strange that they haven’t made any statement about what they’re doing for members now that no one is using their service.
My next stop was their Twitter account. No direct post from them, but I looked at their Tweets and Replies and saw many people complaining about being charged for a service they can’t use. Every response was the same, albeit personalized which is a nice touch.
I skipped the public tweet altogether and went straight to sending them a DM.
I replied with my email and I received a response shortly after confirming my new account renewal date.
Is three months a fair offer? Who knows? It’s going to be a while before we travel again, but I hope I’ll get more use out of my membership in April-June 2021 than I’ll get out of it for the next three months. When I finally get to use a CLEAR checkpoint again, I’m asking to use the retinal scanner instead of using my fingerprints, if possible.
So drop CLEAR a Direct Message on Twitter to get your three-month extension.
#stayhealthy #stayathome #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
