Clear Lanes Close at Dulles, Reagan and BWI

Photo courtesy of
‘So. Now what do I do with this piece of shit?’
courtesy of ‘Mat Honan’

The Clear Card, once a frequent traveler’s best friend, is now kaput and will stop operating tonight at 11pm. So, all of you who ponied up extra money to get through security a little more quickly, I’m very sorry, but you get to wait in line again.

I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.

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11 thoughts on “Clear Lanes Close at Dulles, Reagan and BWI”

  1. I just renewed my clear pass less than 10 days ago. Do you know if they are giving refunds?

  3. No offense, but unless you are an employee of Clear or have some other insider information, you can’t say with say with any certainty that “refunds are not in cards.” A sudden shutdown of service like this is likely to resolve via a bankruptcy, in which case every cardholder would be given an opportunity to be listed as a credit holder, or a class action suit. There is another possibility, that someone else will sweep in and snatch up the infrastructure (there’s a lot of expensive hardware sitting in airports idle right now) and put the service back in order, in some other form. While it’s frustrating, it’s less than certain what will happen at this point.

  4. Now I want to know what and where my biometric data is going along with my $500 three year renewal I did six months ago? I’m more worried about the biometrics than the money.

  5. I’m calling my credit card company to dispute the charge and see where that goes. I’m sure there will be more on this. I think according to the agreement, we are entitled to a credit of unused months. But when you cease operations and go out of business………. We’ll likely need a class action lawsuit. But agree, what about the biometrics? How is our private information going to be destroyed and who’s going to oversee that? TSA?

  6. I am not surprised by this. I never saw that many people using Clear lanes at IAD, especially when the Diamond Lanes were right next to the Clear ones. Also, United allows PE’s and above to use the “Premium” security lane. Both negated the need for a Clear lane.

  7. I do some work in the bankruptcy process. Chris is right, we will become unsecured creditors of the company in bankruptcy and will get paid last according to our claims. A class action lawsuit will just cost more money and not get refunds any faster. What we need to do now is wait for them to formally file for bankruptcy and then submit the claim.

  8. In fairness to Tom, I think the average Joe would draw a distinction between refunds being issued and getting on the list as an unsecured creditor.

    Further, given that the reason for their shutdown is the inability to service their debt – which might be in excess of 44M – I think the chances that the unsecured creditors are going to get anything are pretty poor.

  9. If the company lost its major creditor, we can assume there is no money for refunds AT THIS IMMEDIATE TIME. This may still play out, though… remember the Iridium satellite fiasco, well someone bought those up for a song and put them to use. Someone may come in and buy up this hardware and service and get it going again. I really hope so, I use it out of Orlando MCO, and it’s an absolute necessity there. Security lines there are always a mess.

    Between almost being on the derailed Red Line last night, and now the Clear mess, I am thinking of staying home and hiding under my pillow for a while.

  10. From FlyClear.com:

    “Will I receive a refund for membership in Clear?

    At the present time, because of its financial condition, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. cannot issue refunds.”