The California bill to ban CLEAR from airports has been pulled.
- The way the bill would have killed CLEAR is to require dedicated TSA screening lanes for CLEAR passengers, which means that the TSA would have to decide to offer these and staff them.
- The proponents of the bill argue that it’s about equity – no one should get a better screening experience, everyone should have to wait. Except the bill would have allowed PreCheck and priority screening lines for first class and elite passengers.
CLEAR passengers flying coach without status would be relegated to longer lines than customers paying for first class, but equity.. putting the lie to the claim that this was something other than an attack on CLEAR masked by fake concerns over equity and while making security worse for everyone rather than improving the security experience for everyone.
Of course CLEAR members tend to travel more than the median passenger, and therefore wait in security lines more than most people… not less. So this is only about optics – watching someone who gets to go in front of you. Meanwhile users of the p.s. terminal at LAX still get private screening and rides across the tarmac to their flight and those flying private can generally skip queues and even TSA security screening entirely.
Airports and airlines opposed the bill. They generate revenue from CLEAR. TSA employee and flight attendants unions supported it.
In April, CLEAR dropped its opposition to the bill when it was amended to simply limit their ability to expand in the state. They renewed opposition when it was amended again to allow airlines to still offer priority to their own customers while CLEAR couldn’t offer it to theirs. That issue, along with the conclusion by transportation committee staff that if the TSA went along with dedicated screening staff for CLEAR, that “the dedicated TSA agent could not help with screening the non-CLEAR security lanes without violating the provisions of this bill” caused the committee’s chairman to oppose it.
(HT: @crucker)
CLEAR should get priority access but shouldn’t get their own TSA people to just do CLEAR people. Those TSA people absolutely should help everyone when there aren’t CLEAR people waiting. That’s just common sense and being efficient.
None of this would have made sense when you have TSA collaborating with the largest Texas airports to renew Precheck, and finish enrollment.
If I’m reading this right it would have killed PreCheck for all but elite/1st class fliers. I’m not even sure that would have been legal given the federal exemption on how PreCheck works. It certainly is a phony “equality.” While I’ve long thought that PreCheck does divide people into 1st and 2nd class citizens, and my opinion is that everyone should automatically have it until proven otherwise. But in any case the whole CLEAR thing seems like taking a miserable situation and milking it for profit. Anyway, it sounds like a stupid bill, just let the marketplace decide and if enough people don’t want this “service” it will go away.
I have CLEAR, Global Entry /PreCheck. I rarely use Clear. I do get really annoyed with Clear pushing their customers to the front of the PreCheck line I’m standing in.
JFK after they close the PreCheck at 8PM before all the international departures is especially bad.
CLEAR is a For Profit venture. I think they should pay the cost of having a dedicated TSA agent/lane or just get at the end of the line.
Everyone in the PreCheck line paid for that. CLEAR shouldn’t trump that without covering the cost of a dedicated lane.
I was actually hoping this would pass…just so the next round would be “well, since we won’t allow special lines for those who want to pay extra for the service, we’re going to eliminate paid Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Disney.”
Land of Moran and Idiots. . .we want to build a wall in AZ to keep the Californias out!
Should worry more about the lawlessness and rampant child groomers in their states
Eliminate the full time
Legislature and you eliminate a lot of stupid lawmaking
It annoys me when people claim that PreCheck and Clear passengers are elitists and the rest are second-class passengers.
I have both PreCheck/Global Entry and Clear. This means that I paid for and permitted a background check to be done prior to flying, primarily to ease the screening process for both the TSA and myself.
The problem with Clear is they shove their customers in front of others’ lines. If they pay for establishing their own lines, then they can do whatever they want. Instead, their “model” is parasitic.
@sunviking82- We Californians want to build a wall to keep you Zonies out and away from our beaches, especially this week, so that we can enjoy what we pay our taxes for. Enjoy the heat you chose to live in!
@steve & @doug- I too was hoping this would pass for 3 main reasons. 1) I already have to pay for PreCheck and Global Entry, why should have to pay the Clear owners (e.g. United & Delta) an additional fee above and beyond their fare? 2) When Clear went BK the last time, I got burned as an “unsecured creditor” and got nothing for the remaining subscription that I paid for, and 3) If there is just a single Precheck line (as there are at many California airports), Precheckers get delayed too often by a Clear member with multiple kids plus the flight crews, making the process annoying.
They suceeded in killing this bill, now Clear should pay for their own dedicated TSA lines, imo
California politics are entirely about virtue signaling and have nothing to do with results.
I guess that the next step would be to ban first class cabins on planes. Then next ban economy plus. Welcome to California. The lane of everyone gets a participation trophy.
Let’s play “my state’s better than yours” on an aviation forum. It doesn’t look good for your (entire lol) state. Fools…
Why on earth would the Flight Attendants Union chime in on this? There’s a handful of FAs that LOVE nothing more than to jump the line at every single checkpoint & push their way to the front of not only the line, but also the screening line. I won’t sAAy which AAirline I’ve seen this hAAppen with more thAAn AAny other cAArrier’s flight crews – but its AAnnoying and wrong. I’m all for allowing crews access to dedicated lines and KCM, but when you get to security, you can enter the screening checkpoint with the rest of us. Carrying your 8 gazillion carry on bags with Starbucks in hand and pushing people out of the way is just inconsiderate. And I’ve heard ALL the arguments – some of my best friends are FAs, and all but ONE will “jump” the line but get in queue to place bags on the belt, etc. My ONE friend is adament they are entitled to push everyone else out of the way “I have a flight to work!” is his excuse. Well, rebecca, then show up on time like everyone else, including passengers.
Props to Alaska & Delta – I’ve never experienced your crew members ‘pushing’ their way to the very very front. Including pilots.
@AndyS That will never happen. The Catholic Church is too wealthy and powerful. That’s how they’ve gotten away with it so far.
If the Clear system was set up ideally a passenger wouldn’t even have to encounter a TSA employee. I mean WTF is the TSA guy/gal doing anyway? They look to see you have a ticket and that you are the one who matches the photo on the ID. Clear ID’s through fingerprints or Iris and scans your ticket, at this point they should proceed directly to the belt. If a person doesn’t want big brother to have their fingerprints, then they can stand in line, your choice.
Agree Randy, but I didn’t create this system. I got Precheck mainly because of being tired of refusing to enter the grotesque scanners, something not even the Soviets dreamed up. As said, I think everyone should be treated as elite unless they show they are really on-board problems (fighting, acting nuts and so on). But don’t expect that from the airlines, which see passengers as mobile cargo and the feds who see everyone as a threat. In that sense Clear only puts a band-aid on a lousy condition.
Only in California. Taxes going up, insufficient infrastructure for water and electricity, a failing public education system, rampant retail crime, record numbers of homeless on the streets and businesses and people fleeing the state. “Hey, I know what we can do! Let’s make everyone miserable at airport security in the name of equity! Then voters will know we are getting stuff done!” God forbid pretty boy Newsom becomes the Dem presidential candidate.
@bbn I agree, and can’t wait for the day California grows the balls to tell all the taker states to shove it where the moon don’t shine so we can fix all the problems you listed.
Aww, your dam broke/grid failed/hurricane did you in? Best I can do is thoughts and prayers. We got our own issues.
Anyone who truly cares about equity and equality would call for a ban on premium cabins – first, business, extra legroom, everything. Why should anyone be able to pay to get a better experience?
Hey C.r A.P.
Sticks and stones, no one is Calfornia dreaming anymore except to leave that nightmare of a state.
Oh and thanks for all the tech jobs we are not taking and the high wages that comes along with them. I am sure thoses left behind will find $30 an hour working fast food to be as satisfying.
Oh and beaches, I fly over your state and hit Hawaii. . . way, way better. . .no sewage contamination from Mexico to deal with.
Yep, the way to solve all the problems in California is by allowing their government to waste taxpayers money versus the Federal government. Sounds like a plan.
Why on earth would the FA union care — except union supporting union…?
Hah! I need to read all the comments before posting next time — haolenate literally said the same thing alread…
Everyone loves to compare Clear to PreCheck but they forget that PreCheck reduces everyone’s wait times. Since PreCheck screening is faster, fewer resources are required for those passengers and the wait time of the standard screening lanes decreases. Clear on the other hand is a line cutting pass that increases the wait time for anyone who is not a clear member by letting people cut them. Elite lines do this too, but they’re not really an issue these days since there are no elite lanes for PreCheck and all the elites use PreCheck instead.
And so the line cutting in front of PreCheck will go on.
Maddening.
How much bribery is going on?
California will always be…. California lol. We pay $200 a year out of pocket to crowdsource an extra screening lane. Nothing wrong with deciding what to do with my hard earned $$.
Just Democrats democrating and California being California. Greasy Gavin turned paradise into a sewer and another third world Dumbfu*kistan.
I don’t begrudge Clear passengers having a dedicated line but what does grate is that they cut the TSA Pre line. This is a giveaway to a private company who is deriving part of their value from having priority access diminishing the experience for TSA Pre passengers. If airports want to do this, Clear should have a truly dedicated line with its own dedicated TSA agent. They could bill Clear for it.
Jake, you can pay for it just like anyone else. It isn’t line cutting, as Clear customers don’t need to have their identity checked by TSA – they’re not even in the line for identity verification to begin with – they just happen to have to pass by the end of the line to the security checkpoint.
Private companies should not be allowed to profit off government monopolies.
Otherwise open CLEAR lanes to multiple companies, have them compete for cheapest way to do background checks. But thats not how security works.
Hmmmm….I quote, ”CLEAR members tend to travel more than the median passenger, and therefore wait in security lines more than most people… not less. So this is only about optics”. So, to that, apply basic logic rules: does the idea make sense in another context? Example: a morbidly obese guy in a beeping power chair eats 4X that of a normal person. So, at the supermarket, he deserves a dedicated fast checkout lane….B.A.L.O.N.E.Y. But, $$ wins and logic loses, as usual. Welcome to humanity.
@Andrew Gray, I agree. @Jake “And so the line cutting in front of PreCheck will go on. Maddening. How much bribery is going on?” I’m pretty sure the “bribery” is out in the open. Clear pays the airport to operate there. TSA claims they have no control of how passengers are put in order leading to the initial TSA agent. It’s all about the airport making money.
My home airport only has about 8.5 million passengers per year. It means a lot of destinations require a connection, and there are no European non-stops. But, while Clear exists there, my wait at PreCheck is short and has never involved Clear queue jumpers.
As the TSA is now using biometrics in many of its own Pre lines, Clear is now no faster than Pre at those locations. I can’t see any reason to buy it.
Make these lawmakers stand in regular lines and strip search them every time. They carry a dangerous weapon– an idiotic mind.
Search them at the airport, Disney, movie theaters, grocery stores, bathrooms,….
They are a menace to society.