Comments on: A Clear Lane to Nowhere

By: Jai

Jai — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:11:49 +0000

I got my money back, I contacted chase my credit card company that I used to pay for clear. They gave me a prorated refund.

By: Maria

Maria — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:57:00 +0000

I worked very closely with Verified Identity Pass and they really screwed their employees as well. They were told on 6/22 at 5pm via a conference call that they were closing that evening. No severence, no vacation pay out…nothing!

By: Shawn Rapier

Shawn Rapier — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:32:59 +0000

One thing that may make more sense of the economics is that many of the 250,000 members did not pay for the service. I am a Platinum member with Marriott. They offered me a free one year membership as a gift. I assume that Marriot did not pay either. It was more likely a way for Clear to reach frequent travelers. It was great. I did renew for $200. I guess I can kiss that money goodbye. I talked to several other Clear members over the past year plus who also got their membership free.

By: Pat

Pat — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:31:50 +0000

So let me see if I understand Clear’s “great” idea:

* Federal government creates a mess with slow security lines and stupid useless “anti-traveler” annoyances like 5 people to look at your (fake) id and your (fake) boarding pass.
* Clear says “we will make the trip through the security process just as fast as it was before the Federal government Keystone Kops got a hold of the process.”
* Clear relies on the Feds continuing kabuki theater to convince the traveling public that they should sign up with Clear if they want to get through the line before next Tuesday.

How about this as a radical idea: Lets just speed up the security process for everyone?

By: msk

msk — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:20:14 +0000

I think the TSA should hold themselves responsible for this failure. How can you knowingly do business with a provider and not be cognizant of their financial picture?? How will we know that all of our private information is destroyed properly – the TSA should oversee this. How do you know a disgruntled employee will not take data?? The government should stand up and take some ownership of this issue – they sanctioned this organization and allowed them to usher folks to the head of “their” line!! Unbelievable!

By: Andy Abramson

Andy Abramson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:57:32 +0000

Om,

It was an enormous time saver, especially in SFO and San Jose on Fridays. It literally meant I had an extra hour of time to see clients, or could sometimes even make an earlier flight that may have been delayed at either airport.

For anyone who signed up in the last thirty days, i suggest they contact their credit card company, especially if they never used the service. Since the service wasn’t “delivered” there’s a good chance they can get their money back.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:40:28 +0000

Hear Hear ;-)

By: Marcio

Marcio — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:58:35 +0000

The enefit I saw in clear was that you could get the status w/o having to be loyal to one airline, that was worth something to me and I daresay a few hundred-thousand other folks. . .

By: Jai

Jai — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:32:51 +0000

I’m a little upset, I used this service often, there used to be plenty of people who use this service at my local airport. Why couldn’t they have offered it in fewer airports? Also not offering a refund? Are you kidding me?!

By: Clear member

Clear member — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:36:52 +0000

I have been a CLEAR member for two years, and if you travel a lot, and I do, the 10-30 minutes I save 1-4 times a week is EASILY worth $200. My company reimburses it happily, because the cost of one missed flight is WAY more than that. CLEAR was in all the markets I travel to/from: Bay area, DC, NY, ATL. I had renewed through 2011. Hopefully they will compensate the loyals.

By: Matt Liotta

Matt Liotta — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00:59 +0000

The service wasn’t actually valuable. From the WSJ, “But TSA never was comfortable with the notion of “trusting” any travelers, and so the security benefits of a Clear card boiled down to getting a special lane and some staff to help carry plastic tubs for you. For some people, moving to the front of a line was worth the price. But many travelers now receive that benefit with special lines for elite-level frequent fliers.”

By: Jenkins

Jenkins — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:24:24 +0000

The lesson here is crystal clear: Steven Brill must stop starting companies and failing so hard — please! The VC world cannot take another one of his spectacular failures. Geez.

By: Sonal Maheshwari

Sonal Maheshwari — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:18:12 +0000

That’s a sad end to a good idea. I think it was a good service but due to it’s limited market focus couldn’t recover it’s costs well. It could have been better if it would have received some help from the Airport authorities as it was adding onto the value of customer satisfaction.

By: Jose Domingo

Jose Domingo — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:52:48 +0000

Om, do you have some more details around their numbers? The numbers don’t make a lot of sense – 250,000 subscribers at $200/year translates to $50 Million/yr in revenue which is nothing to shake a stick at. It would be crazy to think their costs are anywhere close to that number – esp. since they were only operating in a limited number of airports. Assuming they’re growing subscribers/revenue at a rate of 10%/year (not hard to imagine) – I can’t see why this business wont be valued for AT LEAST $100 M? Thoughts? Guesses?

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:06:02 +0000

$54m total investment. 250000 subscriber paying $200 per year = $50m revenue per year. Is that bad revenue and need company shutdown?

By: Allen

Allen — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:35:50 +0000

Cynically one could say that the main purpose of more onerous security procedures is the perceived improvement in security. People like putting up with the process because they feel safer.

Their target market was limited to those frequent travels with the money to get around procedures they judged to make a marginal improvement in safety.