The Secret to Making CLEAR Useful Again – Skip Long Lines And Save Precious Time At Security – View from the Wing

Airport security can be quick, or take a long time. That variability is a problem. Having to show up extra early to the airport, multiplied across all passengers and all days, costs the economy about $80 billion per year not to mention the annoyance. And nobody talks seriously about it as a problem to solve.

You may get PreCheck, but even those lines can be line. CLEAR is another paid program that’s supposed to solve this but the more successful CLEAR becomes, the less useful it is. CLEAR has long lines, too!

So here’s a little trick that can get you through security much faster at some airports, and make CLEAR useful again.

In Austin, and some other airports, there are two different queues for CLEAR.

• CLEAR + PreCheck
• CLEAR + Regular security

CLEAR checks your identity and takes you to the front of the security line you’re eligible for. Most people with CLEAR also have PreCheck. Unless you’re somehow turned down for PreCheck, it’s odd to pay the more expensive fee for CLEAR and not also get PreCheck (whether standalone or through Global Entry, SENTRI or NEXUS).

If you have PreCheck, you queue in the longer line at CLEAR. If you don’t have PreCheck, you get in the shorter line and will get taken to the front of regular security. With the line for PreCheck-eligible CLEAR passengers stretching down the length of the terminal in Austin this week, there was not a single person in line to go through CLEAR and then regular security!

The line for PreCheck without CLEAR wasn’t great, either. Once you had your ID checked it was still at least 15 minutes to get through the checkpoint thanks to the volume of passengers, that not every lane was open, and the new slower Analogic scanners.

But this is the trick.

• CLEAR won’t let you go through regular security if you have PreCheck
• But you can remove your Known Traveler number from your reservation and refresh your boarding pass
• Then skip that whole line for CLEAR
• And CLEAR escorts you to the very front of the regular security line, which in this instance meant a 15 minute savings even compared to going to the front of PreCheck

You do have to go through the shoe carnival and walk through the full body scanner, but in this scenario it is much, much faster than CLEAR plus PreCheck, or PreCheck alone.

Here’s another shortcut through security to look for: priority lanes.

I’ve run into PreCheck lines backed up through the terminal, while general security was long too. And yet there is sometimes still a “priority” security line for first class and elite frequent flyers. I’ve run into situations where no one at all was using that line and I could walk straight to the front with no wait.

And even though it isn’t a PreCheck line, I’ve been given a printed PreCheck sign that flagged I wouldn’t need to take anything out of my bag, take off my shoes, or go through full body imagining. TSA also may not even check eligibility to use that line.