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Anyone use TSA Clear?

Curious if ya think it’s worth it..

It would run me and my wife $160 a year and we fly 3-7 times a year

I don't see the advantages of Clear over the regular pre-check personally. I will say pre-check is the best $85 I've spent!

My wife has clear for work and added me last fall. If you are dealing with long security like Denver was having during construction and you don’t want to wait in a long line it is worthit for sure.

Pre-check works fine for me.... even flying out of EWR (which I assume is your home airport.)

Pete

Pre check here, my understanding is Clear can also be used in places like sports stadiums. Other than that the lines I've seen at major airports, clear is shorter than pre-check, but mostly cause nobody has it yet.

More interested in global entry, but only if you leave the country regularly.

Oh and a down side to pre-check. I don't have to go through those phone-booth scanners, but I also can't go through a metal detector. Knee replacement sets them off, so I have to tell them that then either go anyway and get searched, or go through the phone booth thing where if it's a pre-check only line, then they need to find someone to man it for me.

Can you honestly tell me you believe it isn’t just a scam to take your money? I’ve seen the TSA make an obviously pregnant blonde woman with a 2 year old in a stroller go through a full search and then let a Muslim man in a robe pass right through. It’s Bullshit!

Shug, Since you posted on the Africa forum, I really don't see that much value to it compared to some of the other choices out there. Although, for stadium events it seems to have occasional uses. Global Entry is probably the best choice if you are indeed traveling to Africa and other international travel. It allows you to skip the long Customs lines when you return to the U.S. as well as giving you TSA Precheck. You can compare the different services available at the link.

“ More interested in global entry, but only if you leave the country regularly.”

There is a gov’t app called mobile pass into which you scan your passport which (at least in our local airport, SJC) gets you into the same line as global entry. Might be worth looking into as an intermediate step. Not sure if it administered similarly across all airports, but it saved us a bunch of time when returning from Mexico once upon a time.

If you have a travel credit card (airline credit card, some others), they often will reimburse you for the charges to apply for TSA Precheck or Global Entry.

We had ours reimbursed too. Nice surprise.

For those that are interested in applying for the Global Entry card, and collecting Delta SkyMiles (best for travel to Africa) at the same time, there is a much-increased welcome offer on the AMEX Delta SkyMiles credit card right now (up to 90,000 SkyMiles) - you can apply at the attached link (if you use it, I'll get a small number of miles for referring you). The instant reimbursement for the Global Entry fee of $100 will go a long way toward offsetting the $250 annual fee, and the 90,000 miles could completely pay for a round-trip flight to Africa! Last year, my flight was 84,000 miles (although it was a little less than normal due to Covid reducing the number of travelers). My friends and I have been flying to Africa for free this way for a number of years now.

What Matt said! I use it every time I come home internationally. I wanted Global Entry, but not very easy to get if you don’t live in a major city (interview process), last time I looked. But that free App is money, super easy and accepted at most major points of entry in my experience.

—jim

Jim,

The interview can be a bump in getting global entry. They do have an option where you can do the interview at the arrival airport when you arrive back from your trip. I don't know anyone that has done that, but they say that's the easiest way to do it.

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