Is CLEAR Worth the Cost Anymore? A Review of the Security Fast-Pass Program

When it comes to getting through airport security faster, there are a few options. There's TSA PreCheck, a government-run program, and then there's CLEAR® Plus, a privately operated service. And they serve drastically different purposes.

CLEAR® Plus allows you to cut to the front of the line: On its own, you can skip to the front of the standard security line. In tandem with PreCheck, you can skip to the front of that shorter, faster line – keeping your coat and shoes on and keeping electronics inside your bag, too.

So what's not to love about CLEAR Plus? For one thing, the price: After yet another increase, it now clocks in at a whopping $199 a year – though fortunately there are a handful of ways to cut that cost (or even make it free with some travel credit cards). Even so, that can be a tough price tag to swallow.

And it's gotten even harder for many travelers to see the value lately. As more and more Americans have signed up, long lines have formed in CLEAR kiosks at airports around the country, leading to longer waits than even PreCheck lanes. To make matters worse, CLEAR members are regularly being subjected to random ID checks, negating the service's major selling point of speedy, touchless travel.

From signing up to getting through security, here's our review of using CLEAR® at the airport.

CLEAR vs TSA PreCheck: The Basics

CLEAR Plus is a privately run trusted-traveler program that takes both your fingerprints and iris scans to confirm your identity before security screening. Once you've signed up (more on this shortly) and finalized your registration, you simply head to the CLEAR® lane, confirm your identity at a kiosk, and get whisked away to the front of the TSA line by a CLEAR ambassador.

There's no need for another ID check once you make it to the front of the TSA lane – at least for now. Just flash your boarding pass to the TSA agent and you're on your way. If you've got TSA PreCheck too, you'll head to the front of that line – otherwise you'll cut to the front of the standard TSA line.

Read our full guide on how CLEAR works!

The one hitch with CLEAR® Plus is that it's not available at every airport – but its presence is growing fast. It's available at nearly 60 U.S. airports and counting, with more locations at even small airports added seemingly every month. Scan through the list and you'll find plenty of Delta and United hubs, thanks to close partnerships between the companies.

There's also a growing list of professional sports venues offering CLEAR®, too, helping you get into the stadium or arena faster.

TSA PreCheck works a bit differently. 

For starters, it's run by the federal government. And it's drastically cheaper: Just $78 for a five-year membership compared to the nearly $200 annual price tag for CLEAR® Plus. Much like CLEAR, there are a handful of travel credit cards that will cover the entire cost of PreCheck (or Global Entry, which includes PreCheck benefits).

With a paid membership required, the lines for PreCheck are always shorter (and faster) than the standard security queues. But it’s not just the shorter line that makes TSA PreCheck so valuable for travelers.

You also get to leave your shoes, a belt and a light jacket on. Your laptop and the carry-on approved liquids in your bag can also stay put as you put them through the baggage screeners. Your first time using TSA PreCheck, you’ll wonder why you didn’t join the program sooner.
 

One catch is that TSA PreCheck only partners with specific airlines, so you may not always get that quick pass through security. However, all of the major domestic airlines and even many small U.S. carriers are included. More international airlines are joining the program each year.

All told, nearly 100 airlines currently participate in TSA PreCheck. A few notable exceptions include European budget carrier PLAY Airlines, EgyptAir, and major Chinese airlines China Eastern and China Southern.

Signing Up For CLEAR Airport Screening

Signing up for CLEAR Plus at the airport is easy. It's the price tag that's scary.

Head to CLEARme.com to register for your membership. At $199 per year, it's a steep cost – especially considering a TSA PreCheck membership costs less than half that … for a five-year membership.

But there are easy ways to cut that cost … by a bit.

For starters, all Delta SkyMiles members can save $10 and enroll in CLEAR® for $189. So even if you're not flying Delta, you can quickly sign up for a free SkyMiles account to save $10 a year. But if you've got status with Delta or hold one of the co-branded Delta SkyMiles American Express, that drops to $159. And the lowest pricing of all is reserved for top-tier Delta Diamond status holders (and invite-only Delta 360), who can select an annual membership as a free perk.

United has also partnered up with CLEAR® to offer similar pricing to its own members. Flyers with Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines can also get discounts.

These discounts don't go nearly as far as they did just a few years ago after CLEAR® raised these “special partner pricing” rates, then raised prices again this year.

Not sold yet? CLEAR® occasionally offers free two- to three-month trials, which allows you to give the program a test-run before ponying up for a full membership. We've also seen some worthwhile promos to sign up for CLEAR® Plus, like an offer to get a $75 Uber gift card when you signed up last fall.

Want to bring family members or friends with you? Or give them their own CLEAR benefits for less?

CLEAR's Family Plan

The CLEAR® Plus Family Plan is a little-known but excellent feature of a CLEAR membership.

CLEAR allows you to add up to three adult “family members” to your account – though there's no requirement that they're actually family (or even share an address). Best of all, members on your Family Plan can use CLEAR anytime they're flying: You don't have to be traveling with them to unlock that benefit. 

Got kids in tow? No need to worry: Children under 18 can always join adult CLEAR® Plus members for free.

But the cost of adding other adults to CLEAR has grown, too. After previously charging just $70 per adult less than a year ago, it now costs $119 a year to add each adult to your CLEAR Family Plan. 

That's significantly cheaper than purchasing a membership outright. But if you (or your travel buddy) has another credit card that comes with CLEAR® Plus credits, that's a much better course. 

Cover CLEAR Plus with Travel Credit Cards

*amex platinum card* got a huge overhaul a few years back, with a higher annual fee and a slew of new benefits – some better than others. But one great benefit is an annual credit of up to $199 a year that covers CLEAR® enrollment.

If you've already got this card, just pay for your membership with it each year and voila: A statement credit will kick in automatically to cover the cost. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express also has an identical CLEAR Plus perk.

Learn more about *amex platinum*.

But you don't need to pay a $695 annual fee (see rates & fees) for a premium travel credit card to cover the cost of CLEAR Plus. The *Amex Green Card* also carries an annual $199 credit towards the cost of CLEAR® membership after an update to the card's benefits a few years ago. The Green Card charges an annual fee of just $150 (see rates & fees).

Learn more about the *Amex Green Card*

After signing up, you'll need to finalize your enrollment at the airport before your flight. Don't worry – it's not hard.

Finalizing CLEAR Enrollment at the Airport

After you've signed up and received a confirmation email from CLEAR®, you're all set. Just head for the designated lanes at security checkpoints – with bright neon signs, they're hard to miss – as if you're ready to go through security. Tell a CLEAR ambassador you need to finalize your enrollment, and they'll guide you toward a kiosk.

You won't need anything but your boarding pass and an ID. A CLEAR ambassador will help you finish everything up. That includes getting fingerprints, thumbprints, and an iris scan. They'll take a quick snapshot of your face and scan your driver's license or passport. And that's it. The whole process of finalizing enrollment takes about five minutes.

How to Use CLEAR Plus to Cut to the Front of TSA Security

Once you've finalized your enrollment – or if that's already taken care of – you're off.

Just head for the CLEAR Plus lane at the security checkpoint with your boarding pass in hand. An agent will once again bring you to a kiosk for a quick scan of your eyes or fingerprints, glance at your boarding pass (or, in some cases, scan it at the kiosk), and then escort you to the front of the TSA line. Most CLEAR Plus members don't currently need to show their ID – that's the point of the service … at least in theory. But even paying CLEAR members are increasingly being subjected to random ID checks.

From there, you're ready to go through TSA security.

Over the course of the last few years, I've used CLEAR Plus about 60 times, maybe more. And it's a mixed bag.

Early in the pandemic, I routinely made it through airport security in five minutes or less thanks to the powerful combo of CLEAR and TSA PreCheck. When it works well, a quick, touchless trip through security is unbeatable.

But as travel demand has grown, lines have grown much longer, too. That's true of the standard security lines, TSA PreCheck queues, and CLEAR Plus too.

Some airports are better than others. Atlanta (ATL), for instance, is notoriously awful for CLEAR® Plus members with bloated lines that mean heading straight for TSA PreCheck is almost always a better yet. But even at my home airport of Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) CLEAR Plus lines that were once short have become lengthy on a regular basis, too.

The Growing Problems with Using CLEAR Plus

Americans are traveling in record numbers. And thanks in part to credit cards that cover the entire cost of CLEAR® Plus, more travelers are flooding into CLEAR lanes than the company can handle. 

As American Express has added CLEAR Plus credits to more of its credit cards, CLEAR®'s enrollment has exploded – especially in markets where travelers are more likely to have these cards. As cardholders have signed up for CLEAR in droves – might as well if it's “free,” right? – it has added fuel to the fire, overwhelming the company's capacity to keep queues moving smoothly. 

The service was designed to speed up security by replacing manual ID checks at TSA queues with fingerprint and iris scan verification, yet CLEAR members have been increasingly subjected to random ID checks over the last year. And while a big upgrade to facial recognition technology will supposedly speed things up, that hasn't happened yet … in fact, the looming changeover has arguably made things worse by requiring members to re-verify their identity in line. 

Add it all up, and it feels like a coin flip as to whether you speed through security using CLEAR … or wind up standing in an even longer line, watching travelers with PreCheck alone speed pass you. Those are unacceptable odds for a service that costs close to $200 a year.

The company's CEO, Caryn Seidman-Becker, admitted it herself earlier this year, telling investors: “In 2023, we did not consistently deliver the in-lane experience that our members have come to expect.”

Read more: What Went Wrong with CLEAR (& When Will It Get Better)?

Bottom Line

Is CLEAR® Plus worth it for everyone? Hardly. It depends on how much you travel – and how much you'd wind up actually paying for CLEAR.

At $199 a year, it's hard to make sense of paying for CLEAR Plus for the occasional traveler. Flying five-plus times a year, you might be able to justify the cost. And of course, signing up using credits from the Amex Platinum or Amex Green Card makes it free?

But the sheer amount of travelers using CLEAR Plus these days combined with looming changes to the program spell trouble for CLEAR®. And that could change the math on whether it's worth signing up or not.

Lead image courtesy to Career Employer