(EXPIRED) CLEAR offering chance to share free holiday guest passes [Targeted]

CLEAR is offering the chance for some users to share guest a free 3-month guest membership with up to 5 friends or family members. This could make for a really nice gift to family members flying during the busiest time of year.

The Deal

• CLEAR is offering some users a code to invite up to 5 friends or family members to enjoy a complimentary 3-month CLEAR membership when they sign up for the free membership by November 30, 2022. Note that this membership will set to auto-renew at the annual rate of $189, but the new member cancel any time before the end of the 3 month free membership and owe nothing.

Key Terms

• Targeted to some users (check your email if you’re an existing CLEAR customer to see if you’ve received the promo)
• Your friend or family member must sign up by 1/1/24
• Available only to new CLEAR Plus Members.
• After your free trial, CLEAR Plus Membership renews at $189/year. Family Member accounts renew annually at $99 each per year after initial free trial term and are billed to the Primary Member account.
• Cancel anytime before your free trial ends.

Quick Thoughts

This is a nice promotion for those targeted. CLEAR is sending an email to some members giving them a code that they can share with up to 5 people (or you can forward the email so they can click through the link in it to sign up). That code/link will give the person with whom you share it a free 3-month CLEAR membership.

Note that the free membership will be set to auto-renew after 3 months at the full price of $189 for a year. You’ll want to encourage anyone with whom you share this to set a phone reminder to cancel before the 3 months is up because even if they decide they want the service, there’s no reason to pay $189 when you can sign up for $119 through United or Delta (or $109 if you have low-level elite status with those airlines). You can add an additional adult or two to your membership for $60 per person — so you could get a membership for two adults for only $179. CLEAR increased prices this year for United and Delta members, so there is less advantage to going through your frequent flyer account unless you have elite status with Delta or United.

However, we often see incentives to sign up — United has offered as much as 15,000 miles for signing up for CLEAR and we’ve alternatively seen $100 in United Travel Credit or $75 in Uber Eats credit for signing up for a paid CLEAR membership. I definitely wouldn’t want to both pay $189 and not get one of those incentives.

Keep in mind that a number of cards will reimburse up to $189 toward CLEAR membership, so if you have an Amex Platinum card (consumer or business) or an Amex Green card, you would want to be sure you paid for the membership with one of those cards to trigger reimbursement if you haven’t used the annual credit yet.

Again, I think this is a cool promo given how many people fly at this time of year and we all have someone (or many someones) in the family who don’t fly often and might get flustered by long airport security lines. Being able to give someone the chance to get through security faster during the holiday travel period is a gift of reduced stress that may be very much appreciated.

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