Delta - Clear Membership

[gizmo]

Another way to make more money!

 

I just recieved this from Delta:

 

Make your dash to the gate a smoother experience by purchasing a membership with Clear. Your Clear membership will give you access to additional express security lanes in 19 airports.

Enroll now and you'll receive 1,500 miles with your purchase of a one-year membership!

 

In addition to the 19 cities already served, Delta is partnering with Clear to expand your security access options in other key Delta markets, including Boston. See Clear website for full launch schedule.

 

Platinum and Gold Medallion® members along with Crown Room Club® members and customers traveling in First or Business Class or BusinessElite® will continue to have complimentary access to frequent flier security lines as they do today.

Cost - 128.00 per year.

 

[paul929207]

I would be shocked if you got anything from an airline that wasn't intended to increase their revenues.

[greatam]

Another way to make more money!

 

I just recieved this from Delta:

 

Make your dash to the gate a smoother experience by purchasing a membership with Clear. Your Clear membership will give you access to additional express security lanes in 19 airports.

Enroll now and you'll receive 1,500 miles with your purchase of a one-year membership!

 

In addition to the 19 cities already served, Delta is partnering with Clear to expand your security access options in other key Delta markets, including Boston. See Clear website for full launch schedule.

 

Platinum and Gold Medallion® members along with Crown Room Club® members and customers traveling in First or Business Class or BusinessElite® will continue to have complimentary access to frequent flier security lines as they do today.

Cost - 128.00 per year.

 

 

Clear is a GOVERNMENT program. Delta doesn't get the money. Delta only sent out the email because Atlanta is one of ONLY 19 airports that is OK'd for Clear.

 

If you want the government to have ANOTHER database with YOUR info, sign up. You have to provide a fingerprint or iris scan before you can even get in the Clear line.

 

Another stupid, stupid government program, specifically designed for FF. As noted above, elite members of FF clubs already have access to priority security lines, priority check in lines, etc. And at a whole lot more airports than 19. Why you would pay for further government intrusion into your life for a check in line that is already available to FF is beyond me????

[FlyerTalker]

Actually, Clear is part of a private corporation - though all of the data they receive is shared with, and compared to, government databases. So you have both the government AND a private company with your data. Even worse than just one having it. From the Clear website:

 

Clear® is a subsidiary of Verified Identity Pass, Inc. Verified ID was started in 2003 with a simple idea: In the post 9-11 era we had to take new measures to protect ourselves yet not destroy our way of life by strangling the free flow of people and commerce. Somehow, we had to find common sense solutions to security bottlenecks that make everyone a suspect. To be blunt, that meant we needed a fair, sensible way not to treat everyone the same when it comes to terrorism protection.

 

Today's airport security, like the security at other public places, is marked by greater scrutiny but less efficiency. That's why Verified ID created Clear®, the first branded consumer product in what we call the voluntary identity credentialing industry.

And in further info about the company:

August 20, 2008 12:01 AM

 

Verified Identity Pass, the New York-based company that operates the Clear "fast pass" system for airport security lines, has raised a $44.4 million round led by Spark Capital.

 

Also participating in the round were Syncom Venture Partners, Lockheed Martin, GE Security, Baker Capital and Lehman Brothers. Clear founder and CEO Steven Brill, best known as the man behind CourtTV and The American Lawyer trade pub, also invested. The company has raised a total of $116.4 million.

 

Each of Clear's estimated 200,000 members is pre-screened through a background check, iris scan, and fingerprinting, allowing them access to fast security lanes at 18 U.S. airports. For a $128 annual membership fee, the service aims to take some of the hassle out of travel (unless something bad happens to your data).

As for what that "bad" was (from Wired):

Registered Traveler Company Frozen After Losing Flier Data -- August 05, 2008

 

The Transportation Security Administration suspended Verified Identity Pass from enrolling any new passengers in its get-through-security-faster program on Tuesday, after the company lost (and then oddly found) a unencrypted laptop containing personal information of 33,000 people who had applied for the so-called Registered Traveler program.

 

The company learned of the loss of an unencrypted laptop from the San Francisco airport on July 26 that included enrollees' names, addresses, dates of birth and some drivers' license numbers. TSA suspended new enrollments in the company's Clear Pass program until the company complies with rules requiring that such data notifies all of the affected enrollees.

 

Current lanes and participants are not affected.

 

But just hours after that TSA announcement, the company found the laptop, which normally fits in an enrollment kiosk, in a filing cabinet in the same room it was thought to have been stolen from, according to spokeswoman Allison Beer. The TSA, the airport police and the San Mateo county police are still investigating, according to Beer.

 

While it's not clear whether the laptop had ever actually left the room, a preliminary investigation showed that the laptop powered on since it had been reported missing, according to VIP's chief technology officer Jason Slibeck.

 

The laptop contained only a portion of the online enrollment records, which are stored on a separate server, according to Slibeck. Instead, it contained a subset that was used to verify people's identity when they came to the airport to have their iris or fingerprint scanned.

 

The kiosks communicate with the server but keeps a local copy of some of the data so that the kiosk can be taken to places such as a company's cafeteria where there may not be a data connection, according to Slibeck.

 

The company is now installing full disk encryption on the mobile kiosk computers and hopes to re-open enrollment soon once the TSA approves.

 

Registered Traveler is a set of negotiated standards that lets private companies contract with airports to set up screening lanes and issue biometric cards to participants. All the companies must recognize cards from the other companies, but VIP's Clear program, run by former journalist Steven Brill, is by far the largest program with lanes in airports in Orlando, New York, Denver and Los Angeles, among others.

 

The loss, or potential loss, of the data is ironic, since the collection of the data is purely security theater, meant to make a convenience program for frequent fliers look like a security solution.

 

Under the program, travelers willing to undergo a background check by the government and pay $100 a year get to go to the front of the security line. But enrollees still have to go through all the same screening procedures as any other traveler and could still be singled out by computers for extra screening.

I wouldn't give my name, let alone anything else of importance, to this bunch. As for Delta's role....they are just giving you miles for your "purchase", similar to a hotel stay or a car rental. Another "partner" offer from those good folks at SkyMiles.

[greatam]

Actually, Clear is part of a private corporation - though all of the data they receive is shared with, and compared to, government databases. So you have both the government AND a private company with your data. Even worse than just one having it. From the Clear website:

 

Interesting info. I truly thought it was a TSA implemented program. But knew I wouldn't participate, so didn't do much research. I thought from the first info about the program it was a stupid idea.

 

If the capitalization is 116 mil, they are really going to have to sell a lot of memberships. Dumb idea from the beginning, IMHO, but if 200,000 people signed up, it sure verifies PT Barnum's famous saying. I just bet most of the members are infrequent fliers sold a membership at the airport.

[FlyerTalker]

They had to get TSA authorization, as well as "sharing" their data with the TSA. There are a couple of other companies doing the same, but Clear is the largest and/or most widespread.

[number5858]

For me, Clear is great, but your home airport or an airport you travel to frequently should have it, or it probably won't be worthwhile for you. If you can use it, however, then it can save you SO much time. I have used it a number of times at say SFO when the regular and even elite lines were very long. I walked up to clear, took out my card, and had to wait behind maybe 1-2 people. They walk you right up to the scanner and eh voila, you are through much faster than normal if it is prime time.