CLEAR is testing curbside bag drop at DEN airport for CLEAR Plus members. Here’s what to know:
- Bag drop area is located outside Door 600 West
- You can fill out a form before arrival to expedite the process
- Open from 5AM until 5PM
- Available for domestic departures on United & Delta
- Must arrive at least one hour before flight
- No additional fee for this service
Looks like a really good additional service. I can’t see this being rolled out further without either the price of CLEAR increasing or an additional fee being added.
Hat tip to Thrifty Traveler
Clear is dumb, and if it wasn’t fully reimbursed by a credit card I wouldn’t have it. As a corollary, I wouldn’t pay the annual fee on a premium credit card for the Clear benefit.
The last three times I’ve flown out of an airport with Clear, the Clear line took longer than the TSA Pre-Check line that Clear eventually merged into.
It was helpful to get into DC’s arena and stadium quicker than the standard lines, but even for a season ticket holder that is not a reason to pay $189 a year (or $550+ for the credit card).
With the deployment of TSA’s facial recognition system, Clear is becoming irrelevant.
So, your saying that lines are going to move faster for the commoners? (not willing to pay $200 per year for someone else to check their bags) So, when the TSA facial scans me at the door I am going to be asked to check my bags sooner? They have my DNA… what more do they want?
I’m aware of biometrics, but I thought it was solely being used to find people not wanting to be found, and not anything positive for the average person. Tell me more.
I’m not a big traveler, so I never looked into CLEAR. I am assuming there is a credit card that gives a discount for CLEAR?
As Eric V states below, anyone can use a skycap or not. Whether rich or poor, the service is free but a tip is appropriate. The key point is that it is certainly not a unique benefit of Clear. I use skycaps frequently and I skip the normal bag check line inside.
Biometrics use facial recognition, fingerprints, and iris pattern. Not DNA. (Las Vegas casinos have been using facial recognition for over 20 years. The second you walk in, a casino knows more about you than you know about yourself. And, they track you throughout the entire property.)
Clear uses biometrics to establish a subscriber’s identity then escorts the individual to the front of the TSA identification checkpoint line and affirms that identity to the TSA officer. The advantage of Clear has been time savings via front-of-the-line access at the TSA identification checkpoint.
Yes, certain Amex cards offer a credit that covers Clear’s annual fee. For those who are going to hold one of those Amex cards anyway, the Clear membership is a no-incremental-cost perk.
Now, TSA is rolling out facial recognition at security checkpoints. (Not DNA.) At locations with the technology, the time-consuming manual ID check is gone and the line moves at a reasonable pace. The time-savings advantage of Clear is evaporating. For me, there’s no meaningful time advantage and I discontinued using Clear about six or eight months ago.
As for DNA, for the past 20+ years, the US Government has collected DNA from every baby born in the US for the purpose of medical research. (Conspiracy theorists might argue this was the doing of the Deep State. But, this was instituted by the Bush 2 Administration and a Republican Congress.)
Concur. My last trip a couple airports had already deployed the tech and it was my first chance to use it. Pretty quick. The only reason to use clear is because you don’t want to dig out your ID and since they screwed up you still have to dig it out half the time.
How is this different than the skycap that literally every airline offers for curbside bags? just tip the sky cap $2 per bag. No clear membership needed
Best money spent. I wish sky cap was available all the time.
At least at DEN they’re really only not available if you are flying really early or really late
$5 a bag or its going to Honolulu
lol at the Clear price increasing even further……..