by admin | June 24th, 2009
For several years now, a select group of people have bypassed the normal security lines and breezed right through. These were members of pre-screened clearance services. They were mostly frequent travelers who plunked down from $99 to $199, went through a thorough background check, had their irises read, fingerprints registered, and various other security measures. Once they were registered, and got their “Clear” or “Flo” cards (the major identity pass issuers), they were able to breeze through security.
Well, here is the latest for members and prospective members of Clear. It’s over! The home page of clear now reads as follows.
Clear Lanes Are No Longer Available
At 11:00 p.m. PST on June 22, 2009, Clear will cease operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.
How will this effect you? Flo serves over 15 airports. Clear served over 20. In some cases there was an overlap, but passengers at the following terminals prior to this decision were only served by Clear. It is unclear (no pun intended) whether Flo will take up the slack in all of these.
Boston Terminal A; Louisville; Newark-Terminals B1 & B2; New York-JFK Terminals 1,2,3,4 & 7; and New York-LaGuardia, Central Terminal B & Terminal D. It is likely that Flo will be coming to all of these shortly.
Meanwhile, for those 150,000 plus members of Clear, you are left holding the bag (literally), as you will now have to wait in line with everyone else.
