Legal Commentary

All I can say is "Wow."

To be honest, I really didn't have high expectations about the new Clear airport security service, mostly because so few of the airports where I regularly travel have it. For example, it's not (yet) available at the United gates at LaGuardia, my primary "home" airport.

But after my fiasco in Orlando (well documented to regular readers of this blog) I figured, "Why not try it?"  Clear does operate at Orlando, where I unfortunately regularly travel and have never once had success with checked luggage arriving with me. So I figured it was worth a hundred bucks to even slightly increase my odds that once, just once, I could travel through that airport without trauma. And it does operate out of Terminal 7 at JFK, which I use when I go to California.

Besides, Clear is run by my former boss, Steven Brill, so I figured I'd support his cause, because, well, he supported ME for so many years when I was at The Recorder in San Francisco. (Good karma).

Let me sum it up like this: The first time I used it, it was worth every penny I paid for it.

I arrived at  JFK Terminal 7 on 12/18 at about 6:10 a.m., to start my schlep to Kauai. I was scheduled for the 8:30 a.m. flight to LAX, but United was able to put me on the 6:50 for the first segment of the trip. I got my boarding pass, and casually walked into the normally-quiet security area -- only to find it absolutely mobbed with hundreds of people.

It took a minute to find the Clear lane, but once I did, I was whisked through the huge crowd and through security in literally about three minutes. I didn't even have to race to the gate, in fact, I had time to buy a magazine.

Not only was it fast, the customer service was flat-out awesome. A helpful, professional agent assisted me not only with the process of using the machine that scans your fingerprint, but then she escorted me right to the front of the TSA line, (while being polite to those I was  leapfrogging) -- and she didn't leave until she was certain I had retrieved all of my items from the other end of the TSA conveyor belt.

Wow. So worth the $99.95 a year (and you can get a discount if you use your corporate AmEx).  Let's put it this way: If I had not signed up for Clear, there is not a chance in hell that I would have made the earlier flight. And it might have even saved my connection, because -- as usual -- there were nasty delays at LAX, so being on the earlier flight may well have saved the day.

I'm drinking the Kool-Aid on this one, campers! Clear rocks.