Is Clear Worth the Cost? The Downgrading of First-Class Airport Amenities

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When Dan Alban goes to an airport, he sometimes scans the various lines to decide which one will whisk him to his gate the fastest. What makes that exercise unusual is that Alban, a public interest lawyer, pays for Clear, a $189-a-year membership meant to expedite the airport security process. But recently, Alban says, standard TSA lines at Washington, D.C.-area airports have been quicker than the supposed Fast-Pass-for-the-sky service.

“There was a line over 100 feet long, all the way back to the escalators, for Clear,” Alban recalls about a March 27 Dulles-to-Denver jaunt. “If you just skipped the Clear line—even if you were a Clear member—and walked into the regular line, it was much shorter.”

He adds, “Obviously that's a problem.”

Frequent fliers have long jockeyed for status, whether by booking first-class tickets or signing up for airline-branded credit cards. But the most elusive perk for any traveler has been dodging headache-inducing lines at airport security checkpoints. When programs to alleviate this pain point first emerged, they seemed poised to deliver customers to their gate in mere minutes. Now, for Alban and others, the once-promising world of pay-to-skip at airports has slowly withered like a scrunched-up napkin in a plastic cup on a tray table. Instead, long queues have come to define the premium airport experience, making the value of benefits like Clear—which launched in 2010 and services 57 airports across the United States—in some customers’ eyes, less clear.

“Something needs to be done,” Alban says. “I don't know if it's on the TSA side, if it's on the staffing side for Clear, if it's a combination of both. But certainly, service has deteriorated considerably in the past six months to a year.”

But travelers seem willing to continue shelling out dough even if the service doesn’t regularly meet their expectations. For Alban, Clear has transformed into a back-pocket, when-it-works-it-works perk.

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“If you show up at the airport and it's really crowded, sometimes Clear can get you through more quickly. But it's a lot less reliable than it was,” he says.

Others, like Alissa Blate Jessup—who pays for the Lennon and McCartney of airport expediency, TSA PreCheck, which allows pre-approved travelers to access streamlined security, and Clear—believe passengers signing up at kiosks for Clear’s latest technology, NextGen Identity+, which allows passengers to use facial recognition to waltz past TSA agents, might be slowing everyone down. Right now, all Clear passengers can wait in the same line, even if they plan on using the kiosks to upgrade to the new service. “I'm being penalized because I've already updated my credentials,” she says.

Jessup believes Clear should create a distinct line for those who have already upgraded to ensure the speedy experience Clear promises to jet-setters.

Clear, which also lets passengers use their eyes or fingerprint scans to cut security lines, said in a statement provided to Town & Country in part that it is “obsessed with the customer experience.” The publicly traded company said reliability will improve as its customers upgrade to NextGen Identity+.

“This free upgrade unlocks the Clear Lane of the Future–a series of technologies and automations that will enhance speed and security. Rolling out over 2024, the Clear Lane of the Future is designed to be seamless, where a member can verify with their face—delivering a more predictable travel journey,” a Clear spokesperson says.

TSA PreCheck, which gives passengers the privilege of leaving one’s shoes on whilst receiving a TSA pat-down, among other advantages, doesn’t fare much better in Jessup’s eyes.

“It's always long. Everyone uses TSA [PreCheck] now,” she says. Other government programs in airports, such as Global Entry, which allows passengers to use expedited lanes and avoid filling out paperwork upon returning from outside the U.S., remain exceedingly popular amongst travers.

TSA spokesperson R. Carter Langston pushed back on complaints about far-too-long lines, arguing that the agency moves passengers through both standard and PreCheck lines efficiently.

“TSA closely monitors wait times against a benchmark for standard screening lanes that is within a 30-minute tolerance. For TSA PreCheck passengers, that benchmark is 10 minutes,” he writes. “[W]e focus significant attention on wait times and achieve our benchmarks for 99% of passengers.”

But it’s not just congestion on the way to a TSA agent barking at passengers to take their laptop out of their bag (only for a different TSA agent to tell you to keep it in the bag). For many, airport lounges, once considered The Joy of Painting of airport spaces, have devolved into Lord of the Flies zoos. Gene Marks, a certified public accountant who gives lectures across the country, now eschews the American Airlines’ lounges in favor of finding empty gates with fewer people. “It's like Disney World,” he says of the lounges, which are typically open to elite status passengers and top-tier credit card members. Once past the welcome desk, some of the nicest lounges offer complimentary restaurant-level food and cocktails, as well as showers and mini spas.

Marks, who has traveled regularly for 20 years, describes recent experiences as standing “shoulder-to-shoulder” with passengers “yelling and screaming” on their phones. After initially using the American lounges to boost his productivity at airports, Marks says that they have become more packed in recent years, making it harder to get work done. In response to similar customer complaints, many airlines have now restricted access to its lounges by creating access cutoffs like flight distance or credit card levels.

“I've seen it get worse, particularly post-Covid, because the airlines are trying so hard to bring travelers back,” he says. “They're doing everything they can to attract more people into those lounges. But sometimes, I feel like it has the opposite effect for those of us that signed up for this access for a different reason.”

If moneyed passengers are willing to spend even more, these headaches could disappear for a price. At $4,500 a year, commercial passengers can arrive via private terminals at Los Angeles International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport thanks to terminal company PS. But at these prices, some may opt to book a single seat on a private-jet-esque carrier, like XOJet or JSX.

For most travelers, Clear and TSA PreCheck are luxuries. And even if those luxurious experiences happen less and less, customers aren’t willing to consistently suffer through long lines. “Half the time," Alban says of Clear, "it is still worth it.”

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