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CLEAR Overview
CLEAR is a service that uses your eyes or fingerprints to confirm your identity. This is used at many airports and some stadiums to help you speed through security checks. CLEAR isn’t available at all airports in the US, but thanks to partnerships with Delta and United, CLEAR is widely available at many airports across the United States.
At supported airports, CLEAR makes it possible to skip the sometimes very long ID check lines (just before security). Instead, of waiting to show your ID, you can go to the CLEAR aisle (where available) and simply scan your eyes or fingerprints.
This benefit is complementary to TSA PreCheck. The main difference between CLEAR and TSA PreCheck is that CLEAR lets you breeze past the first line at security: the place you line up to show your ID. TSA PreCheck then speeds up the second part because you don’t have to remove your shoes, laptops or liquids, and you usually go through a metal detector rather than a body scanner. The best is to have both CLEAR and TSA PreCheck so that you can zoom through both parts of security every time.
How to get CLEAR for less
By default, CLEAR costs $199 per year, but there are easy ways to reduce the price:
- Active Duty Military & Veterans: $119
- Government Rate: $119. Federal, State, and Local Government employees are eligible for a discounted rate. Contact memberservices@clearme.com for more information.
- Delta & United members (both are free to join): $189 per year
- Delta & United credit card holders and elite members (not top tier): $159 per year
- Delta Diamond, United 1K, and United Global Services members: FREE
- Family Plan: Add up to 3 adults for $119 each per year (log into your CLEAR account to add family members).
- Pay with an Amex card that offers a rebate for CLEAR:
- AMEX Centurion Cards: Statement credit up to $398 per calendar year.
- AMEX Consumer Platinum Cards, Small Business Platinum Cards, and Corporate Platinum Cards: Statement credit up to $199 per calendar year.
- AMEX Consumer Green Cards: Statement credit up to $199 per calendar year.
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Statement credit up to $199 per calendar year.
FAQ
Do I need CLEAR if I already have TSA PreCheck?
At airports, CLEAR is complementary to TSA PreCheck. The main difference between CLEAR and TSA PreCheck is that CLEAR helps expedite the first line at security: the place you line up to show your ID. TSA PreCheck then speeds up the second part because you don’t have to remove your shoes, laptops or liquids, and you usually go through a metal detector rather than a body scanner. The best is to have both CLEAR and TSA PreCheck so that you can zoom through both parts of security every time. Note that sometimes CLEAR lines are slower than regular TSA PreCheck lines so be sure to assess the situation before picking which way to go!
Who can become a CLEAR member?
CLEAR is pretty clear about this, so I’ll just republish their words:
Who can become a CLEAR Plus member?
Individuals 18 years of age and older can enroll in CLEAR Plus. To enroll, you must have one of the following forms of photo identification:
U.S. Passport Book
U.S. Driver’s License
State Issued IDAll forms of identification must be valid, unexpired, not amended, and have a photo.
Children under 18 can use the CLEAR Lane for free when accompanies by a CLEAR Plus Member—no enrollment needed.
What about kids?
CLEAR is only available to adults 18 and over. Kids under 18 can go through the CLEAR lane when accompanied by a CLEAR member (the CLEAR member doesn’t have to be a family member).
If you are under 18 and traveling alone, you’re out of luck.
What about free CLEAR from Hertz?
This version of CLEAR has been discontinued.
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For those of us with multiple CLEAR credits, is there a way to (ideally) sell it, and, if not, gift it to strangers?
not really. You have to enter in your credit card information as a reoccurring payment method when you set up a Clear account, so unless you want to give strangers your personal credit card information, you’re SOL. I’d only gift your extra credits to people that you absolutely trust.
Good point!
The last and final time I walked through the CLEAR line, they then shuffled me to the TSA precheck line where I again got my face scanned, saving approximately 0 minutes. CLEAR is dead.
For the regular line, often yes. If you get it in combination with TSA PreCheck, it can save you a TON of time. I usually get through the Clear + PreCheck line at ATL in less than 5 minutes. I also have Digital ID and Regular PreCheck, so I just choose whichever line is less. However, I have been in airports that just have a regular Clear line that was significantly less crowded than the general line. It is completely dependent on the airport that you’re at and the time of day you’re traveling. If you’ve got a credit card which gets you Clear for free, there’s no point to not having it so that you at least have it as an option.
regards to AMex business platinum, cardholder p1 has already got credit for the CLEAR on 2023. Can we use the card on 2024 to pay for p2 and get another credit for 2024?
Yes
I believe it’s now $99 per family member, and the student discount no longer appears to be an option.
Looks like it’s $70 not $60? Might need to update.
Fixed that. Thank you
I had no idea about the military veteran discounted price of $99, so you saved me a nice chunk of change, Greg! (AGAIN!) Thank you for the great site, from a long-time reader but rare poster.
Greg, thanks.
$99 Veteran discount
$60 Wife
$159 Total
Neatly tucks into the Amex statement credit.
Regarding point 3, government rate. I emailed them in September, this is the response. Haven’t needed it so far (already had 2 platinum cards to cover myself and spouse so didn’t care what I paid), but will possibly revisit in September, as I’m down a platinum
Thank you for your inquiry.
At this time, CLEAR has a discount for newly-enrolling government officials at the annual rate of $99 annually.
In order to receive this rate, you must enroll/show your Government ID at the airport with your Government ID and .gov email address.
If you are already enrolled, Please have the CLEAR agent from an airport send us a ticket from the POD stating that you have shown your ID.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you soon about how you’d like to proceed.
Thanks! I added the $99 rate into the post.
I’ve only seen Clear be faster than precheck once, at the awful SFO airport (where precheck is longer wait then regular TSA, thanks to the dumb scanning equipment they have.. ) And even in this case, it just cut the line to wait to get your ID checked. I would estimate that a clear person saved about 5 minutes in our wait to get through. Note, at SFO, a line of about 50 took an hour to get through. Some system!
So, don’t use it.
I appreciate the useful, real-life quantitative data point. Thanks.
Looks like Delta & United (general) members are now $179
Yep, thanks for the reminder. Fixed.
Looks like it needs to be updated again. Everything went up. Family members that were $99 are now $119 and the Delta and United memberships are $189.
Can this article be updated with 2022 information?
Add family is now $60 each.
Would appreciate what to expect after initial enrollment for the plus option with Airport Services.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve updated this with current pricing.
I’m not sure what you mean about the plus option with Airport services, though?
[…] ago, so I figured I would reactive my CLEAR membership. Frequent Miler has a great resource on 5 ways to get CLEAR for less and one of the ways is to be an AMEX Delta credit card holder and add a family member for less than […]
[…] We flew through Seattle on our way to Kona and had time to exit security to enroll Laura in CLEAR. Thanks to the new American Express Business Platinum Card benefit of $179 CLEAR credit, I was able to reactive my old CLEAR account, get the discounted rate of $109 because I am an AMEX Delta Credit Card holder and add Laura as a family member for $50. I will provide more details of our experience in a future post, but the basics are covered in this Frequent Miler CLEAR Guide. […]
Does the membership date start at the time of payment, or at the time of in person verification? Wondering as my home airport does not have clear (but my most common destination airports do) so have to wait for an upcoming trip to do the verification. so not sure if I should pay now or wait closer to the verification date to get the most time out of it.
Sorry, I don’t know
[…] The next 2 changes introduce the $179 CLEAR Credit which is an annual statement credit. I have had CLEAR in the past but didn’t think the service was worth pay $179 every year. Now that I get a $179 statement credit for CLEAR, I plan on reactivating my membership and adding my wife. Follow these steps to get 2 members for the price of 1. […]