We’ve had a membership with CLEAR since 2018. Initially, I thought the service was excellent but not worth the money. We didn’t travel enough to justify the membership fee.
I’ve since changed my mind.
The security lines at Orlando Airport have gotten worse, and even the TSA PreCheck line can stretch past the queue ropes. The only lane without long lines is CLEAR. In addition, many of the airports we visit have CLEAR lines shorter than TSA PrecCheck.
I know there are some airports where this isn’t the case, like when I visited Atlanta and the CLEAR line was longer.
This tends to happen at airport hubs for CLEAR partners Delta and United since those airlines provide free CLEAR memberships to their top-tier loyalty members.
I hadn’t seen this happen at Orlando Airport and didn’t expect it at the new Terminal C checkpoint. But that’s what happened on our last flight on JetBlue.
We didn’t have any checked bags so we went directly to the checkpoint. We walked toward the CLEAR lane, which was the farthest line to the right. While we’re usually the only ones in this line, we noticed at least 8 people waiting for two CLEAR agents. At this checkpoint, after having your ID confirmed, the agent has to walk each passenger to the TSA agent, so it’s already an inefficient system.
We looked at the TSA PreCheck line and it was empty. Sharon and I took our ID’s out of our bags and walked to the TSA agent. We did have to be reminded how the process went because it had been a while since we used a non-CLEAR line.
This one instance isn’t enough for me to give up on CLEAR because it’s saved us time on all our other trips. However it’s a reminder to not wear blinders when heading to the security checkpoint. Just because you have CLEAR, doesn’t mean you have to use that line if the TSA PreCheck line is shorter.
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2 comments
Clear at LAS is a joke. Pre line is almost always faster
Happens all the time at DEN. Sometimes the shortest line is the Premium/First Class line at DEN.