Last week, news broke that CLEAR is intending to increase the price of membership for those who have been getting a discount through United MileagePlus or Delta SkyMiles. While the cost of an individual membership will still be less than the reimbursement offered by some popular cards, the cost for two members will now exceed the reimbursement.
Previously, those with United or Delta elite status have paid $109 for an individual membership. That price will be going up to $149. General United or Delta members with no status previously paid $119 and will soon pay $179. Delta Diamond status will still include free CLEAR membership.
This isn’t a big deal for individuals with one of the Amex cards that offers an annual reimbursement for CLEAR membership as those cards that offer the reimbursement will reimburse up to $189. As a reminder, the Platinum cards (both consumer and business) and the Amex Green card (consumer version) offer up to $189 in reimbursements each year for CLEAR membership.
The larger impact here will be on those who have a second family member under the same membership. A second family member costs an additional $60, so when added to the new $149 / $179 price points, the total for two people will exceed the $189 reimbursement. In my household, my wife and I signed up for CLEAR separately on our own Platinum cards since we each have cards that offer reimbursement, so this change won’t really hit us (we will obviously “pay” more to CLEAR, but each of us will get reimbursed). At the time, we signed up separately in order to take advantage of a 3-month trial membership, but now I’m glad we did it that way because I’m not sure how convenient it is to “split” membership back up after you’re on family pricing together (hopefully it’s really easy).
I’m sure that some who only have one card offering CLEAR reimbursement will still find it to be worthwhile at what will turn out to be $20 or $50 for a year, but it’s still a bummer to have to pay for something that has been free.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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I have auto renew in May for 2 people. Can I cancel now and sign up again before rates increase? I will at least get another full year.
Yes . do it. call customer service
I don’t understand why TSA does not make CLEAR free for everyone. Big savings in reduced # employees.
Because CLEAR is a private company, TSA cannot dictate them pricing.
I meant why cannot TSA provide a CLEAR service for free? Other countries do it. Example, UAE. As an American, I can breeze in and out of immigration using electronic gates.
The potential reduction of jobs and cost is tempting but that’s one thing some employers aren’t willing to to take on.
why you want to subscribe TSA pre check paying dues every year? All they have to do is hire more TSA and make more lines but they keep it slow to get money off TSA pre check global entry and clear BS.
If you add a family member at a later date the $60 fee is reduced to a prorated amount. For example if the main clear member renews in January and you add someone in April you’d pay around $45. This might be a strategy to avoid out of payment cash if person 2 doesn’t need clear year round.
When does the change happen?
I’d like to know when this change goes into effect as well. Hopefully it’ll be after our renewal otherwise it’s really not worth it IMO. I’ve been on Clear lines that seem to move slower than pre-check.
My 3/2023 renewal still listed at the $119 renewal price, not the potential increased one….
There have been some questions around this on how to pay ahead of time for next year. This doesn’t seem possible however I added a family member and the confirmation email to my family members says “If you previously had an individual CLEAR Plus account, you will receive a prorated refund to the credit card that you have on file in 3-5 business days.” So I’m going to speculate that if you are in the two-player mode you could have your non-CLEAR person create a new account and pay the current amount as well as add you and you would get a pro-rated refund. However, I’m not sure if this would work if the person creating the new account is already listed on another account. I don’t think it’s worth the effort.
I am Delta platinum and have the family membership for my husband and myself on on my card. I was told my two younger sons are included in mine. We were just at the airport and my eldest son is now 18. He is an additional platinum cardholder on our account. The lady at the CLEAR checkin/signup place said his would be covered for the $189 under his card, in addition to ours being covered under my card, even though they are still under the same overall account. I find this hard to believe. Is it $189 per card, or per account?
From the terms, it should be $189 per account:
“Purchases by both the Basic Card Member and any Additional Card Members on the Card Account are eligible for statement credits. However, the total amount of statement credits for eligible purchases will not exceed $189 on the Card Account per calendar year.”
Just a note for those of you with families (I’ve got 4 people on my CLEAR) AND multiple cards that offer reimbursement. If you’re on auto-renew, you need to remove some members before it hits to get down to your reimbursement level for card #1, and only add them back on once you have switched the payment method to card #2. Sort of a pain, but all their info is retained, so it’s not too bad.
That’s a great tip! This should be added to the main article.
Do Platinum AUs not get their own credit like they do for GE/TSA?
The AU’s don’t get their own credits usually. In fact, their purchases could towards the primary card member credits in most cases.