Urban Thought Collective

As you can imagine, a travel-holic like me was all smiles the first time I saw the Clear booth at the airport. For those that don’t know, Clear is the “fast-pass” of sorts that helps you skip the long security lines at the airport and go right to the gate. Well, it’s not exactly like that. You still have to go through a security check, but it’s an exclusive line that is, by virtue of this fact, much shorter. Of course, I didn’t immediately rush over to sign up. I had to properly vet it first. Translation: I had to let some other people be the guinea pigs and make sure that nothing detrimental would happen to me.

As it turns out, something did happen. It was about a year ago now, but apparently, there was an incident involving a certain laptop that went missing for several hours while everyone frantically searched for it. Naturally, it turned up, sitting right on a table as if somebody had thrown a newspaper and a jacket on top of it. Big deal, somebody lost a laptop. Actually, this laptop contained all of the personal information of everyone that had signed up for the program to that point. No one knows if any of the data was compromised, and surely they have taken some extra security measures to ensure that such a travesty ever puts the confidential personal data of so many in jeopardy again.

Just to be sure, I waited about a year after that before going “all-in” and getting my own Clear card. (I wish I had exercised such patience with my Blackberry Storm, but that’s another story). I had some time on my hands and was also about to have my passport re-newed, so I figured it would be a perfect time to do it. Clear is authorized and regulated by the Transportation Safety Administration (not that these guys are above Keystone Kops half the time, but…) so it’s supposed to be a legitimately secure place for my personal information to be stored.

So here’s how it’s supposed to work. Once in possession of your Clear card, you are to bypass the long stationary line of folks that is the security check point and proceed to the Clear kiosks. Once there, you will insert your card, have your fingerprints scanned and your iris (eyes) scanned and verified. Once you get the green light, a friendly Clear Agent will meet and greet you and shuffle you through while your carry-on is x-rayed. If you’re like me, you wondered how they know that the fingerprints are yours. Just like I’ve always wondered how they determine who is a suspect by lifting a print off of a weapon. It’s not like they just have a copy of everyone’s fingerprints lying around for just such an occasion. Well, naturally, you have to provide the prints. In my case, it was voluntarily in order to complete this process, but in the back of my mind I had a twisted daydream that I was caught out there like Sandra Bullock in “The Net” and some evil villains were manipulating the personal information that I provided to the Clear people. But I got over it.

If you decide to pursue a Clear card, you’ll first take a few minutes to fill out the application online. Once that portion is completed, you must visit a Clear location so that they can verify your picture ID and fingerprint you and scan your retina. Luckily for you, the kiosk is made for folks of more average stature, so you won’t have to bend down like you’re doing the limbo to line up your eyes for the scan. I chose to go to the Oakland Airport location about mid-day, well after the morning rush was over and took care of everything in no time flat. I got my card in the mail about a week later.

At this point, I wouldn’t say that rushing out to pay the $199 annual fee is absolutely critical for the majority of people out there. If you are traveling quite frequently, it’s a nice-to-have to ensure peace of mind and save some time at a handful of the nation’s airports. The folks at Clear are working to add more airports and other venues as well (some stadiums like San Francisco’s Candlestick Park and Denver’s Invesco Field are among the early adopters). I’m slated to try it out soon, so I’ll have to let you know if its all that it’s cracked up to be.

Destah Owens is a single father of two from Northern California and proud UCLA Bruin who travels the world for his job as a computer engineer. His blog, “Soufflés in Saigon,” is exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.