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Clear doesn't skip screening... It skips to the front of the line to be screened.

Everyone still gets screened.

It's not only theater, since Americans can't be trusted to remember they have loaded guns on their person

So many loaded guns.

You are right, but having a system like Clear also incentivizes the whole system to be worse to increase sales. While it's not a whole solution, it's a good move, imo.

Yeah, but the best way to get something like this to improve is to make rich people suffer through it too. Letting them bypass a system like this allows them, and the politicians who cater to them, to ignore the issue.

Its like when segregation ended and white kids were being sent to the black schools and tons of money poured into the schools as the white parents realized the conditions there kids would have to suffer through. Like tsa the ultra wealthy just went to private schools/jets but the broad middle to upper middle class still has a lot of sway politically and can change broken systems like this, if it effects them.

You don't like security theater and micro transactions to bypass annoyances?

TSA Precheck involves a background check and interview. This allows the actual screening process to be lighter.

The real rich

What some lower-middle class Americans don't realize is that to the great majority of people in this world... we are the rich.

In the US we look at someone making $75,000+, $100,000+, $150,000+, $250,000+, 500,000+, 1,000,000+, 1,000,000,000+ as rich... depending on what our current income level is. The reality is that even making 30k in the middle of nowhere is still better than 85% of the world's income and quality of living.

If you can save $10,000 a year you can save more than 60% of people in the world actually earn.

When I point this stuff out though I get a ton of downvotes. Imagine buying a car, a plane ticket, or personal electronics when your total pre-tax pay is 10k or less... that is most people's situation who are alive today (but less than 30% of Americans!) As a bonus, imported goods are typically cheaper in the US then almost any other country. Hair Gel that is $5 here is easily $20 USD in Santiago, Chile.

There should be way more taxes on the highest earners and more mechanisms that siphon wealth away from those with extreme excess. Just be aware that Americans overall have the most to lose if this goes to a global scale. A lot of things we take for granted and expect are luxury for billions.

Clear and precheck are two separate things, clear only let's you skip to the front of the line. If you want to enjoy the benefits precheck brings to the table with clear then you have to purchase both. It's worth mentioning that most people do not pay for clear as it's usually given out of a benefit for some credit cards and even some jobs that fly a lot.

Precheck actually increases throughput by relaxing the scanner requirements. Clear is literally just paying to skip the line.

Clear doesn't bypass TSA. It just skips you to the front of the line.

The company runs a background check to verify that the person isn't a terrorist. Then at the airport they use biometrics to verify their identity.

I came to say exactly this. Fuck those stupid lanes. Carpool was just fine. The fact that these were approved by Democrats is really disheartening. They also just approved speed cameras which should be up soon enough. These are blatant cash grabs along with the gas tax increase Jerry Brown shoehorned in before he left. We already have the highest income tax in the country. WTF does the state do with all our money? Everything is crazy expensive here, and shit like this doesn't help the working class that the Democrats are supposed to represent.

I believe there was a study for the highways outside of Washington DC that had toll lanes. The fees were variable and higher during rush hour. This effectively was a small fee for the wealthy to pay in order to get to work on time and left everyone else to sit in traffic. As far as I know, the lanes still exist, but there is no variable charge.

This is my exact question, too. I have Pre-Check and I love it because it is like travelling prior to Sept-11.

Pre-Check is cheaper than Clear because it’s like $100 but it lasts for 2-3 years, so again, it’s a separation between those who can pay and those who can’t. Also, what’s next? Every airline removes First, Business, Basic Economy “classes”?

Banning Clear doesn’t resolve the “class” issue. What would be better is to just improve the entire TSA process so that it’s not so miserable for everyone, or let’s get more of those high-speed rails built so we have more travel options and airlines have enough competition to force improvement.

TSA Precheck involves a background check and interview performed by the government. This allows them to make the actual screening process lighter, because they've deemed you to be low risk.

With Clear, you still have to go through the full security check. And it also costs significantly more.

• Precheck: $14/y
• Clear: 190$/y

The cost of TSA Precheck is $70 for 5 years, so $14 per year (plus an additional $8 for the initial enrollment). If you travel internationally a lot you can upgrade to Global Entry for $100 for 5 years. Or if you travel to Canada frequently, you can get Nexus (a superset of Global Entry) at $50 for 5 years.

It's hard to make the money privilege argument with Precheck at that price.

Kind of. TSA Precheck is <$100 for 5 years, so it's significantly cheaper. That amount is a lot more accessible to average travelers than CLEAR.

That would defeat the business model - they don’t want to pay to do security, they want to be paid to walk you to security. If they did security and took the liability associated, this would be a great service.