Skip to content
Pursuits
Travel

A $189 Airport Travel Hack Is No Longer Working Very Well

  • Customers ask if Clear fees worth it if TSA lines are faster
  • Company says it’s addressing problems, sees continued growth
Travelers use Clear Plus kiosks at San Francisco International Airport on Thursday.
Travelers use Clear Plus kiosks at San Francisco International Airport on Thursday.Source: Bloomberg

Few things are more tiresome than slowly shuffling forward in an airport line with one anxious eye on the ticking clock, especially as US travel surges with the end of the pandemic. 

That airport anxiety has become a lucrative business line for Clear Secure Inc. Customers pay $189 a year to breeze through to the front, using the company’s eye-scan or fingerprint technology to avoid the security backups that often develop at peak times.