RIP Clear Card

By

Bryce Longton

June 23, 2009

Without much fanfare, the Clear Traveler program -- the card that let you jump airport security lines -- shut down yesterday. This is the message posted on their website: "At 11:00 p.m. PST on June 22, 2009, Clear will cease operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.” And no one is answered the company’s phone last night , which simply carried the recorded message, “You’ve reached Clear Registered Traveler.” Not really, you haven't.

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It seems that their credit line has run out, perhaps due to their lackluster customer base and lousy, horrible service. Their target demographic was the frequent business traveler—but if you’re a frequent traveler, most likely you’re a part of a membership club with one or more airlines who already offer you separate, faster security lines, rendering the Clear Card useless. In addition, Clear never made it to hubs like Las Vegas-McCarran or T5/T6 at JFK, where it might have made a real difference. Smaller airports just don’t have enough traffic to warrant a special, faster (paid for) line.

The writing was on the wall in the past year when they jacked up their prices from the original $99 to a $199 (or $179 to renew) and started aggressively renewing old cards automatically. There will most likely be a class action lawsuit in play for all those who recently renewed their card, and my guess is that it might be lead by one Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, who apparently bought his Clear Card the same day they announced bankruptcy. Buried!

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Travel, Bryce Longton, Kevin Rose

Comments (7)

Posted by Jay M. Jaffe on Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 01.38 pm

#1

I may be in the minority, but I actually used and loved using my Clear lines. I am a 1K traveler on United but the folks at the Clear lines in Denver and Dulles sure did make my life easier. I will miss the Clear Card experience and am sorry that they didn't make it.

Posted by maurice gunderson on Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 01.42 am

#2

I found Clear Card to be well worth the $200 per year price, and I'll certainly miss them. They did a good job at my most used airports (OAK and SFO), from where I fly five or six times a month. I'm in the Venture Capital business, so I certainly understand how innovative businesses can sometimes fail. Clear Card was a noble experiment, and I hope someone will take the idea and improve upon it.

Posted by moveleft on Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 03.19 am

#3

No, Jay, you are NOT in the minority. Clearly the author of this article has some misplaced anger towards a service that actually worked as advertised. While it's easy to throw around insults, it would be nice if there was one shred of evidence that Clear's sudden closure was the result of alleged "lousy, horrible" service. I might also point out the lackluster writing skills of someone who uses two adjectives that mean pretty much the same thing but that would assume I think this author has skills worth critiiquing. While I don't support the way this shut down was handled (even I got a renewal offer email two days before things went south), ALL of my experiences with the service and interactions with the staff were exceptional. I used to travel frequently for business but that changed two years ago. With the loss of status on United, Clear became my savior. For less than $200 a year, flying to and from some of my regular travel destinations (Boston, JFK, San Francisco) became much less dreadful. I'll miss Clear and would support any program the revives the service AND makes it available system wide.

Posted by Bruce on Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 07.03 am

#4

I often fly out of Orlando. Clear was the best thing going there. Orlando is a high tourist (read inexperienced) airport. Getting through the lines behind the family of six was a challenge as the best of times. Clear lines were efficient, staff were pleasant and always seemed to enjoy their jobs. I can only hope that TSA will immediately hire the Clear staff, TSA could use people who understand customer service in the travel industry. I hope that the Clear Program manages to return as a viable operational business.

Posted by Ari BlackBook on Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 02.20 pm

#5

Clear was great. much faster than the "faster" security lines. i hope someone picks them up so we can get back online!

Posted by Joe on Wed Jun 24, 2009 at 09.34 pm

#6

You can thank Lockheed Martin in Orlando for this. They are the ones that ran this into the ground. I heard this from a very reliable source. Also they mishandled a lot of people's data including credit card information. I agree, it is a good business model for someone much smarter and more honorable to run with.

Posted by MG on Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 09.17 am

#7

I fly at least 4 times per month through the Orlando airport and always use my Clear card. The staff there was great as other posters mention here already. I was a little bit alarmed by the increase in their prices which at the time seems to me that everytime they added a new airport to the service the prices were going up. I renewed for a year since even though the service was pricey, it was a blessing for me. I'm the type that will do anything to make my travel life easier. Wonder what is going to happen to all the customers that renewed their cards for 2 years or more in a row. Hmmm?