Posted by John McHale
Last week I commented the feasibility of personally scanning people at airports to determine their radioactivity and asked if you would mind being scanned.
If you don't mind being scanned for radioactivity, would you be willing to pay further to submit to more extensive screening just to get through security quicker?
It's a compelling concept. I traveled this weekend through the Southwest terminal at the Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) airport, and wasted no time in choosing the shorter of the two security lines. At the BWI Southwest terminal there is a line on either end of the long ticket counter.
Coincidentally the same day a friend of mine pointed me toward an article in this week's Fortune Magazine that investigated whether it was worth it to pay for a special pass through security. The authors of the piece used the Clear registered traveler system.
For the Fortune article one reporter used the Clear system and another went through security like everyone else does. According to the Fortune article the reporter using Clear saved "an average of 9.25 minutes per airport," but claimed he was much less stressed than he would've been following the normal security route.
It is relaxing knowing you won't have to wait. I acquired preferred status at a rental car company recently and it is quite a nice feeling knowing you can walk right to your car without having to drag your bags through one more line.
According to the Clear website ( www.flyclear.com) a registered pass is $100 plus $28 for a TSA (Transportation Security Agency) fee. Clear operates at 18 airports nationwide and is coming soon to Atlanta and Los Angeles.
While the Clear website claims the system is more hassle-free than acquiring a passport, potential registrants must still get their picture taken, submit to an iris and fingerprint scan as well as a background check.
While $128 might not seem like much if you travel a lot, fingerprint scans, iris scans, background checks, etc., might be too expensive for privacy-minded people.
Whether it's in the Constitution or not, Americans want to know they still have a right to be left alone.
However, it is sort of ironic that for a price even a journalist can get "security clearance."
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