Here in the People's Republic of California we like to keep things fair. And two of our legislators have had enough:
A pair of Orange County state senators from opposing parties — who frequently fly between their districts and Sacramento — are both boosting a first-in-the-nation proposal critics say would ban the expedited security screening company CLEAR from state airports.
“The least you can expect when you have to go through the security line at the airport is that you don’t suffer the indignity of somebody pushing you out of the way to let the rich person pass you,” Josh Newman, the Democratic lawmaker who authored the bill, told POLITICO.
The bill would force CLEAR to have its own security lanes or else get out of town. The problem, you see, is not that the affluent get perks. It's OK as long as they're discreet. The problem arises when their perks are a little too obvious, and in the case of CLEAR they could hardly be more annoying if they tried. It's no surprise that ordinary working schmoes get exasperated when a CLEAR agent comes by yelling "make way" while escorting some rich guy past everyone else in line.
So get your own lane, rich people! Come on.
POSTSCRIPT: There's actually something a little odd about this. I don't travel a lot anymore, but I do travel some, and my experience has been that TSA lines aren't really very long these days. I'm usually through in five or ten minutes.
Now, it's true that most of the time I travel during off-peak hours, so that might make a difference. What's been your experience?
As a frequent traveler, I have CLEAR and Global Entry which includes pre-check. Recently Pre-Check lines have been shorter. Also I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but with the amount of time I spend in airports CLEAR is worth the money and easy enough to find discounts on or get for free if you look around
I also travel a lot for business and couldn't disagree more. I find CLEAR conceptually offensive, always reminding me of Jared Diamond's of how poisonous it is when elites are able to successfully insulate themselves from the consequences of their own choices.
This goes double whenever there is a storm or other problem at airports and the TSA line is longer than expected, and CLEAR staff is aggressively trying to pressure stressed-out travelers to sign up for their service so that they can budge in front of all of the other stressed-out people who are late for planes. I'm amazed that they haven't sparked a riot, to be honest.
100% agree. I've had TSA Pre Check for quite some time, it's never that long but well worth it if you travel a lot. CLEAR just pisses me off.
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In my recent experience, TSA lines aren't too bad these days. I do have TSA PreCheck but at my airport the PreCheck and non-PreCheck lines are comparable. The wait certainly isn't long enough to make paying for CLEAR every year remotely worth it, but then I'm not made of money.
Sometimes I'd fly to a regional airport, many times be the only one going through security and every now and then be randomly selected to for TSA Pre-....which took longer--my shoes would set off the alarm.
Came to say the same thing, the last few times I’ve flown the regular lines and the pre-check lines were about the same. And both were reasonable. It seemed like a couple years ago things were really bad and getting to the airport insanely early was a must, but they have been fine for at least the last year or so as far as I can tell.
Rich people? For what appears to be $189 a year depending on credit card?
I'm way more interested in whether the entire nightmare of getting on an airline flight is really just performance art -- so much so that some private company can do it so much faster than the actual government agency which has nothing else to do but verify that someone is not using a false identity.
It really says a lot to the ridiculous conspiracy minded that the actual, big scary government can't even identify people quickly enough so that an entirely private company can do it, and then, with the irony so thick you can't even cut it with a knife, the actual government then is sort of "jealous" (on the part of the constutuants, of course) of the private company and proposes a law to limit it!
CLEAR is doing nothing of the sort. The actual identification still happens at the TSA agent -- which is the government.
Well, that's what I get for posting when I don't really know what CLEAR even does. It looks from their website that they invested in the facial recognition scanners that also exist for Global Entry (at least they existed at LAX in January when I went through them). I just assumed the Global Entry ones are actually owned and run by TSA.
So is that it? CLEAR is just renting out hardware?
My basic point is that what is a private company doing in the middle of what is supposed to be an extremely uptight airport where any traveler is a potential danger?
They simply cut the line
TSA does not check your identification when CLEAR presents you, unless you're selected for random ID check, I've flown dozens of times and was carded only a few times.
Otherwise, what would be the point of the service, which is not to "cut" but to expedite the flow of passengers through security (which CLEAR is much more proficient with because can identify you by eyes or fingerprints)?
They don’t like CLEAR but how do they feel about TSA Pre?
How do they feel about separate lines in ticketing for first class passengers?
It is my experience (also limited) that TSA varies by airport. SFO is great. LAX is ok. Burbank is a dream. Newark is a nightmare.
And then there's Denver. Bring a chair for the PreCheck line and a bed for the regular line.
SFO is okay, not great, and it heavily varies by airline/terminal. my last two trips through terminal 3 (United) were awful. the first involved missing a flight as result of screening being slow (admittedly i was a bit late, but i likely could have made it if United's "premier access" lane weren't a slow-moving joke). the second time i made the flight, but that was no thanks to United's checkpoint staff, who were repeatedly redirecting passengers to a CLOSED checkpoint further down the terminal, and ignoring passengers who tried to inform them of this fact.
I don't find it offensive to pay a fee for faster trips through security, but we already have that - TSA Pre-Check, which is both reasonably priced and run by the government. They do actual background checks and then set the regulations for what happens going through security to match the supposed threat (how much of this is theater is up for debate, of course).
The offensive bit is that Clear has *nothing* to do with security. They're a private company that does NOTHING except let you break the line for money. They have a contract with airports that lets you skip the line to the *actual* security - the TSA agent, the checkpoint, etc. It's not that it's expensive, it's that it's offensive to the very concept of fairness and security.
Yeah, this is my take on Clear too. You pay more to go through their private security to be able to go immediately through the actual security.
Yes. Some time back, there was a WaPo column that addressed CLEAR. Apparently, their "service" consists of leading their clients to the front of the standard TSA line, shoving aside the travelers who have been waiting and taking off their shoes etc, and inserting their clients in front of them.
People have complained about the rudeness and the apparent unfairness. I would. CLEAR doesn't provide any extra security, or background checks, or separate lines. They just push other people out of the way for you.
CLEAR does identify you, eyes or fingerprints, you do not normally have to show any ID at security, which is the whole point of service, and why it speeds the overall flow of people through security, since TSA verifying ID's manually is generally slower procedure (and less secure since I've been at airports that didn't scan every ID to see if legit).
Strong agree
You'd think they'd have entire different airports for the wealthy, in entire different cities, with streets that you can't find from any street you can drive on, discrete and safe.
I have Global Entry. Where it really pays off is in returning from overseas, when I can turn a typical 20-minute wait to go through immigration into a few seconds.
I don't really get the point of CLEAR. The lines may be short (often nonexistent), but in most cases the PreCheck lines are very short, too. The bottleneck is invariably after the PreCheck/CLEAR point, where you and your carry-ons are scanned, and everybody, even rich people, go through that.
Actual rich people take private planes. Semi-rich take shared charter.
Call it the "Fuck Ted Cruz Security Act"
Most airports have gotten better, but there are some, like SEATAC, my home airport, that can still have very long lines at times. When I travel I haven to noticed that the lines everywhere else are generally much shorter.
Why bother being rich if you don’t get perks?
I fly in and out of San Diego about twice a year (grandchildren) and notice the the TSA precheck line generally takes longer than the regular line, but you don't need to remove your shoes. As far as CLEAR, its faster and likely used by frequent flyers as possessed to rich people. Rich folks use the First Class line or have no line with private jets.
Global Entry saved us from the hell hole that is the JFK Terminal 4 Passport Control and Customs (JFK Terminal 4 is a literal Hell on Earth).
Airport security is becoming worse than local sports packages. Blech.
So, these same two state senators willing to sponsor legislation eliminating Lexus lanes in the state…?
I think Lexus lanes are fine as they remove traffic from the regular roads so everybody benefits. But paying to jump the line- yeah I have a problem how Clear is being administered - it sounds more like someone is racking some dough without actually creating an overall improved situation.
CLEAR is much more efficient at reliably identifying someone than TSA security scanning IDs, so there is an overall improved situation for those however many % of travelers who otherwise would be also clogging the slower line, greater throughout and security as ID's unless manually scanned may be fake.
Only thing stopping CLEAR from being even more efficient is them having to walk you to a TSA lane rather than just having dedicated lane where machines are very close (which would be a better idea and of course regular folks could queue in that line too since CLEAR customers won't always be queueing since identification so efficient).
Not once when I've gone through an airport has the choke point been the person checking IDs. It is always the line waiting to put your stuff on the conveyor to the scanner, and then waiting for it to come out. The aggregate amount of time that a more efficient method of identifying people would have saved over all of my trips is zero.
I've flown out of dozens of airports and once you're set identification you're going to be through in 15 minutes unless there's a malfunction, people like to exaggerate and I'm sure around holidays when everyone travels at the same time it's worse but that's just several days a year (and if you don't come really early you're just a dummy, but lots of people are dummies and don't think ahead).
Boston, Chicago, Orlando are total effing nightmare.
I would rather they pass an airport usage tax on top of any fees charged for services rendered at airports, then use that to pay for free high speed WiFi and 2x more power outlets.
I have Global Entry which includes TSA Precheck for less than $200 for five years. At my home airport of MSP the Clear line and Precheck have one area and regular TSA another right next to it. Clear passengers only cut in front of us folks in the Precheck line, and honestly there are so few of them it never really bothers me.
Btw Global Entry is worth every penny just for avoiding the lines at passport control coming back to the US. At DFW I walk past lines with literally hundreds of people waiting to have their passport checked and just pause for a couple seconds in front of a facial recognition camera then I’m on my way. I’m guessing the lines I avoid are at least 30 minutes.
Exactly like the at JFK Delta. Not sure about Jetblue. Never had a problem with Clear. I have it and have never bothered to use it ( free with my Credit Card).
People are annoyed by all the nickel-and-diming that is part of flying these days. Legislators can't do much about the millions of extra fees the airlines charge, but they can go after this minor annoyance.
It depends. One day it five minutes, the next you show up at the airport 3:15 early and miss your flight (screw you, SeaTac!).
The problem is not the slightly better off getting a better deal.
The problem is that the very rich simply don't use the airlines - they use their own private jets.
If those very rich people had to travel on the airlines then things would rapidly get better for all of us peons.
And the reason that they fly their own jets is that changes to the tax laws make that a cheaper option than it used to be.
What's next, not letting people buy better seats? Faster boarding tier? Or even buying deliberately overpriced items at airport and in plane, which clearly is easier to absorb for the weller-off?
One could say the entire flying experience is predatory on those who are not in the upper classes, and is fully enabled to be so by the federal and state governments (the latter of which enrich themselves on this predatory pricing of concessions at the airport).
Back to CLEAR, an annual membership between $100-200 is hardly the domain of the "rich". As others have mentioned in the thread, if you fly frequently then the annual fee is actually a great deal for anyone on the income scale, and if you only fly a few times, probably a foolish investment considering how airport security lines have improved in recent years (maybe the rich can choose to throw away some money here, while sensible folk arrive at least an hour early).
I fly dozens of times a year, mostly for work and on budget airlines, my average cost to LA for instance is $50-60 round-trip, so the time saved by my having CLEAR adds up to probably at least a day or two all told, while if you only fly a few times a year you may lose only an hour or two by not having CLEAR.
Time is money, and any analysis should include lost time as a consideration, not only per trip but multiplied by how many trips per time period, and those who fly more should most definitely have CLEAR, it's an excellent service and costs about as much Amazon Prime membership, which last I checked has never been exclusive to or somehow representative of the "rich" (or even "privilege" for that matter).
CLEAR also increases overall security throughput at the airport, by whatever % of folks are using it, since identification process is much faster. If anything, airports should have a dedicated lane where CLEAR's equipment is much closer, and regular folks could still use this queue as there's not that many CLEAR people coming through each minute.
The TSA process manually checking ID's (either eyeball or machine) is inevitably slower, so putting all the CLEAR people back in the slower line will reduce service for everyone (perhaps not intuitively unless you understand CLEAR currently increases throughput with more reliable security), and scanning IDs if just eyeballing is not nearly as secure as CLEAR using eyes or fingerprint (so more reliable security with CLEAR too).
More efficient time and security, for the price of Amazon Prime, not the province of the "rich", and makes no sense to phase out more efficient method for a slower one because on the surface seems unfair, especially when there are so many other examples of people "buying up" in the flight experience (seats, boarding tier, airline fast security lanes, etc.).
I feel like the premium-ification of the economy is akin to all of us losing the prisoner's dilemma.
If everyone pays for CLEAR, we all end up with the exact same security delays except that we've now paid an extra $189/year premium that penalizes us if we ever stop.
DoorDash used to deliver hot pizzas to everybody at a reasonable price. But, even since the introduction of express service, failure to pay the premium rate results in being bumped to the end of the delivery schedule for all the premium users, resulting in a cold pizza.
This is late stage capitalism in a nutshell: taking away something that used to be free or part of a default service, and selling it back to us wrapped in shrink-wrap as "premium."