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As I was perusing the internets the other day, I found a discussion on Reddit from a while ago that brought up something I’d been thinking about, albeit in a different context, for a couple of years already.

It was written by user wjustice721 in the Delta subreddit. They said:

CLEAR has officially jumped the shark

By far the longest wait of all three options. Regular TSA Precheck faster, and today, the Standard line (with dogs) was the fastest. CLEAR was the slowest of all options. I get it free, but won’t be using it again… they should remove it from airports altogether.

That started a conversation that got close to 300 replies (heads up for NSFW language if you click on the link).

Opinions varied from “I like CLEAR” to “CLEAR sucks” and everywhere in between, including which airports fall on either side of the spectrum in terms of suckage and non-suckage.

For you youngin’s out there, “jumping the shark” actually has a very specific meaning:

The idiom “jumping the shark” or “jump the shark” is a pejorative that is used to argue that a creative work or entity has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with, or an extreme exaggeration of, its original purpose.

The phrase was coined in 1985 by radio personality Jon Hein, in reference to a 1977 episode of Happy Days where Fonzie, wearing his trademark leather jacket, literally jumped over a shark while on water skis. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Yes, this actually happened:

Anyway, back to CLEAR…

Has CLEAR Jumped The Shark At Airports?

I can certainly understand why some people might think so.

CLEAR’s whole appeal at airports was pretty simple: give the company your biometric information, pay for a membership (or have a credit card that pays for it), and potentially get through the identity-verification portion of airport security faster.

Except sometimes…you don’t.

CLEAR has certainly had its “moments” over the years, particularly when it comes to long lines, multiple price increases and security issues that resulted in increased scrutiny from TSA.

And when you walk into an airport and discover that the regular TSA PreCheck line – or, heaven forbid, the regular security line – is moving faster than CLEAR, it’s not unreasonable to wonder what the point of CLEAR is anymore.

But I don’t think CLEAR has necessarily jumped the shark.

I think CLEAR has been quietly turning itself into something else.

CLEAR Isn’t Just About Airports Anymore

CLEAR was established in 2003 but declared bankruptcy in 2009. The biometric technology company was purchased in 2010 and relaunched at airports a couple of years later.

More than a decade later, CLEAR is still available at only about 60 U.S. airports. Granted, plenty of smaller airports probably wouldn’t generate enough demand to justify the service, but CLEAR is still nowhere near being a universal airport-security option.

But CLEAR apparently wasn’t planning on putting all its eggs into one airport-shaped basket.

Over the years, the company has been finding plenty of other places where it can use the same basic premise: Prove that you are who you say you are, quickly and electronically.

And once you look at what CLEAR has been doing outside the TSA checkpoint, you realize airport security is only part of the picture.

Entry To U.S. Sports Arenas

In August 2015, CLEAR was installed at Yankee Stadium.

It was the first time the company used its biometric technology at a sports venue to help CLEAR members get through security more quickly.

Purchases At U.S. Sports Arenas

By August 2018, CLEAR was doing more than just getting people through the door.

Seattle sports fans enrolled in CLEAR could use biometrics not only to enter sporting events but also for identity and age verification when purchasing concessions at Seahawks, Sounders FC and Mariners home games.

Speed At U.S. Car Rental Counters

In December 2018, CLEAR partnered with Hertz on a biometric rental-car experience designed to let participating customers get their cars without the usual stops along the way.

Entry To U.S. Concert Arenas

In February 2019, CLEAR expanded to Madison Square Garden, allowing members to use dedicated CLEAR lanes to enter the arena.

So by this point, CLEAR wasn’t just something you used to get onto an airplane.

COVID-19 Screenings

Then COVID happened.

In May 2020, CLEAR began offering its Health Pass technology, which could be used to link someone’s verified identity with COVID-related health information.

It was another example of CLEAR taking what it had built for airports and finding an entirely different use for it.

CLEAR Reserve Begins In The U.S.

In October 2021, Orlando International Airport began a pilot program for CLEAR Reserve.

And funny enough, you don’t even need to be a paid CLEAR member to use it.

CLEAR Reserve allows travelers to reserve a time to enter a designated security line at participating airports. The program subsequently expanded to airports in Canada and Europe, as well as additional airports in the United States.

Commercial Real Estate

In January 2022, CLEAR partnered with Kastle Systems, a major security and property-technology company, to integrate CLEAR’s Health Pass into building access and management systems.

Again: not an airport.

Hotels

In September 2022, hospitality technology company Virdee announced it was adding CLEAR’s identity-verification technology to its platform.

The idea was that participating hotel guests could verify their identity electronically, process payments, customize their stay, receive a digital or physical key and head to their room without stopping at the front desk.

So now the same basic technology that could verify you at the airport could potentially verify you at your hotel.

LinkedIn And Online Identity

In 2023, CLEAR moved further into digital identity verification, including a partnership with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn users could use CLEAR to verify their identity and display a verification on their profiles.

And THAT is a pretty big departure from getting somebody through an airport security line faster.

You don’t even have to leave your house for that one.

Partnering With Uber

In November 2024, CLEAR partnered with Uber as part of an enhanced rider-verification program.

Participating riders could use CLEAR’s identity-verification technology to help verify that they were really who their Uber account said they were.

Another industry. Another use for the same basic technology.

International Expansion

In August 2025, CLEAR expanded eligibility for CLEAR Plus enrollment to residents of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

That didn’t suddenly put CLEAR lanes in airports all over those countries. Instead, it expanded the pool of international travelers who could enroll in CLEAR and use the service where it’s available in the United States.

And Now: Corporate Memberships

And CLEAR is still expanding.

In August 2026, the company announced CLEAR Corporate Memberships, which it described as:

“an industry-first enterprise offering that gives companies a seamless way to support business travelers through the entire day of travel.”

In other words, CLEAR now wants companies to buy memberships for their employees.

And notice the wording there: “the entire day of travel.”

Not just the TSA checkpoint.

So…Has CLEAR Jumped The Shark?

If we’re talking specifically about CLEAR at airport security?

I can understand why some travelers think it has.

If you pay for something that’s supposed to make the airport experience faster and then stand there watching TSA PreCheck passengers—or even people in the regular security line—move past you, eventually you’re going to start wondering what exactly you’re paying for.

But CLEAR as a company? That’s a totally different story.

CLEAR has spent years expanding into sports venues, entertainment, rental cars, hotels, office buildings, online identity verification, ridesharing and other areas. And now it’s selling memberships directly to corporations for their business travelers.

So maybe asking whether CLEAR has “jumped the shark” misses what’s actually happening.

The airport security line may have been where most of us first met CLEAR.

But CLEAR increasingly appears to want to be the company that verifies you are who you say you are, wherever you happen to need to prove it.

At the airport. At a hotel. Online. Getting into an event. Using another company’s service.

And if that’s where CLEAR is headed, getting you through TSA a little faster may eventually be just one small part of what the company does.

Whether you think that sounds incredibly convenient or just a little creepy?

Well…that’s an entirely different discussion. 😉

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