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United Airlines is partnering up with CLEAR! If you're a member of MileagePlus, now's your chance to get your skip-the-queue ticket at airports and stadiums across the country.
What is CLEAR?
CLEAR is a biometric screening company founded in 2010. Using proprietary software approved by the DHS, CLEAR allows you to scan your iris and/or fingerprints at over 60 airports and stadiums across the U.S. in order to skip the security line.
CLEAR has already partnered up with Delta, Alaska Airlines and Hertz. Until recently, Delta only offered a CLEAR discount to flyers with at least Silver Medallion status. As we were working on this post, we noticed that now even Delta non-elites get a discount matching those being offered by United.
You can take advantage of the United-CLEAR partnership by signing up here.
SkyMiles members can sign up here.
What Get with Your United Membership
Using CLEAR comes with an annual cost. Full price is $179 a year ($15/month). Depending on your United membership plan, you can get one of the following options:
- All basic MileagePlus members – $119 for the annual CLEAR membership
- Premier Platinum, Gold, and Silver members, as well as most United credit card members – $109 for a CLEAR membership
- Global Services and Premier 1K members – A Completely Free Clear membership!
It's not guaranteed that the CLEAR lines will be the fastest at airports and stadiums, especially now that more and more companies are partnering with them. On the other hand, it does offer the peace of mind that you'll almost never get stuck in an absurdly long queue frantically hoping you don't miss your flight or the opening play.
Currently, American Airlines has resisted working with CLEAR, making it the only one of the big three U.S. carriers not to work with CLEAR. Again, with more partnerships comes more CLEAR members, so we can only hope to see more CLEAR stations installed at existing and new airports and stadiums across the country.
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Any CLEAR discount for United Explorer Plus cardholders?
Even though the home airport I use the most (ONT) does not have Clear, I could not recommend it more, especially at the discount United is offering. Since Clear is mostly in busier airports, it really does save a tremendous amount of time, especially, if, you also have pre-check.
It’s nice that United is giving a free or discounted membership.
I wish one of the premium cards would include clear. Having multiple premium cards and nothing to do with all the GE credits is a bummer!
This is good news obviously. But I swear one day the other programs (Pre, GE, Clear) will eventually be as crowded as the standard lines. Though obviously even then there are perks that make it faster, I know.
Hmm I’m not sure why anyone would use CLEAR when TSA-Pre sounds so much better.
Am I missing something?
My bad, with Clear you actually skip the interaction with the agent all together. So with Clear + Pre-check you skip the first part of security and have a faster time in the second.
CLEAR has definitely made our way through the security lines much faster! Glad to see more ways to get free/discounted memberships.
Awesome! I love anything that would help ease the hassle of flying!
If I already have global entry isn’t Clear redundant?
Sometimes the Clear lines are shorter. Some will get extra value out of having both, but it may not be worth the cost if you don’t get free CLEAR as an elite.
Very creative… to copy Delta about 2-3 years later.
Why don’t United just do the mile bonus with both Lyft and Uber instead? I would use that promo more.
It’s not only a promo tie in: both UA and DL took ownership stakes in Clear. It seems like a possible outcome is for it to become entirely driven by airline partnerships.
I wonder why American Airlines is resisting working with CLEAR. Do they have a good reason or business case for not working with them?
This is good news. Anything that helps minimize the pain of airport security while still not compromising safety is a good thing.
Thanks for striking the right balance and not just complaining about security lines! 🙂 Although they are certainly thoroughly frustrating at times, mostly due to staffing issues, if you take a moment, you can find the right perspective on this.
Is there any benefit to Clear if you have TSA Precheck?
Sometimes the Clear lines are shorter. Some will get extra value out of having both, but it may not be worth the cost if you don’t get free CLEAR as an elite.
I’ve been perfectly happy with TSA Pre-check 95% of the time, so I’m not super enthusiastic about CLEAR.
The NEXUS program, for $50, gets you access to the expedited line too. Not worth it in my opinion.
Since I had MileagePlus card, United paid for me to join TSA Pre for the next five years. That works well. Is Clear clearly better?
I see what you did there 🙂 Not clearly better. Just a hedge against long TSA Pre lines, but YMMV.
Is clear really worth paying for (unless you have the United status tat gives it free) when you can get Precheck and Global Entry free with multiple credit cards?
I prefer the old kind of fast lane, with a person checking your id, rather than a biometric scan. But it looks like the trend everywhere is to reduce the number of staff members and replace them with self-serve kiosks.
Good to know there are alternatives to the standard TSA lines.
Overall i guess this is a good development. However, i think Clear should now just set their price to 119 per year. This 179 per year is just a fad as virtually anyone can get the 119 pricing by either being a united or delta member.
If everyone signs up for this, the premium line would be just as slow
Nice that there is a discount for almost anyone that belongs to those frequent flyer programs. It makes it almost worthwhile, even for those who don’t habitually travel through CLEAR airports. I might actually try it.
I keep wanting to try CLEAR but its too expensive. I wonder if TSA or CLEAR is faster. Since CLEAR isn’t at every airport, I would think that TSA is the better option. I have seen that at some airport security is better. I’m hoping that it gets better with security. TSA is different at every airport and that’s very frustrating.
I also am happy with my TSA PreCheck as my trip last week was quick both in and out. I personally don’t have much interest in Clear.
I’ve already used & have been onboard with CLEAR. It was a small blessing for me. It’s worthwhile.
Clear plus TSA-Pre is really fast and I definitely recommend it. The cost is quite reasonable if you fly a lot (or travel with someone who likes to get to the airport late). Since TSA Pre comes with Global Entry, I recommend both. I discovered (or rather was told I qualified for) the United discount when I called Clear to pay for my renewal. Good customer service.
Even at $109 for having status still not saving a ton of time at IAD. Never seen the TSA precheck line at more than a 10-15 people in line max. I’m sure it has been worse at some times, but really don’t see the need for Clear in most circumstances.
A great way to get through lines at the airport. I have TSA pre-check, but have found many colleagues using Clear to get through the lines and home, especially flying out of La Guardia in NYC.
Clear is amazing! I have been using It for delta flights ever since it was rolled out and it really makes the lines so much shorter
Glad to see united moving ahead with clear as well!
Yeah, I like the CLEAR system and UX but the price point is too high. It needs to half to be worth it for me. And if they expand like they seem to be they can afford to drop the price so fingers crossed.