How to avoid airport lines

Applicants who are approved by the TSA are granted access to Clear lanes in addition to the regular security lanes. When they reach the front of the queue, Clear members must enter their membership card into specialized machines and offer their hand or eye (whichever they prefer) to be scanned for a match with the biometric information coded on their card. If the computer indicates a positive match, members may then proceed immediately to the security machines staffed by TSA personnel, potentially bypassing a lengthy line of regular passengers. “You blend right into the front of the line,” said Morgan. “Okay, you butt ahead.”

Although at this time Clear members still have to follow the same security procedures as other passengers — such as removing shoes and coats, segregating laptops and bagging liquids — they avoid the delay of waiting in a longer line with the ordinary traveling public. “The whole process takes five minutes,” said Morgan. “There have never been more than two people in the Clear lane, even with 30,000 members here in Orlando.”

But not everyone believes that Clear and its ilk are positive developments. “The ATA strongly opposes the Registered Traveler program,” said David A. Castelveter, Vice President of Communications for the Air Transport Association, the trade association of the principal U.S. airlines. “All this program does is get a customer to the front of the line — that’s what frequent-flier programs do today, that’s what a first-class ticket does today.”

In particular, the ATA objects to the use of TSA personnel to conduct background checks on customers of the Registered Traveler programs rather than to perform screening functions at airports. “We see no security benefit from the program, and we object if it’s going to take one employee away from TSA’s ability to look for security threats,” said Castelveter. “If customers want it, that’s their decision, but not at the expense of valuable TSA resources.”

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Joe Brancatelli, editor and publisher of the popular business travel web site Joesentme.com, is also skeptical. “This is only the second time in 23 years that I’ve agreed with the ATA,” Brancatelli said. He doubts whether customers genuinely want these programs. “On the list of things my readers want, the Registered Traveler program isn’t on it.” Brancatelli said that his readers, who are frequent business travelers, would be the perfect target audience for programs such as Clear and for whom the membership fee is relatively insignificant. But the programs don't offer enough incentive. Elites like business passengers are already getting to the head of the line,” he said, “and if the program doesn’t get them out of taking off their shoes, taking out laptops and taking off their coats, it’s a pig in a poke.”

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The TSA recently approved advanced kiosks that will be capable of screening passengers without their having to remove their shoes. “We have installed that equipment and TSA has approved it,” said Steve Brill, founder and CEO of Verified Identity Pass. “The fact is that in Orlando, customers have bought Clear, have renewed their memberships and are ecstatic about it.” The company is also pursuing technology that will allow passengers to be screened without having to remove their coats.

Read on to learn about how the Registered Traveler program works — at least with Clear, the only program currently in operation. Expect that to change by mid-2007, however; Unisys is planning on opening kiosks in Reno-Tahoe International Airport within the next several months.

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