Many of us get CLEAR Plus from statement credits by holding certain Amex credit cards, but is it worth it to pay for the service?

What is CLEAR Plus?

For those who are uninitiated, let’s first start off by looking at what CLEAR does. CLEAR is a company that stores your biometric data and uses that information to assist in bypassing the security lines at airports. There are also some potential time savings at stadiums to go with it, but I’ve never been to a stadium that supports CLEAR and can’t comment on efficiency there. When you access CLEAR at an airport, they call the service “CLEAR Plus”.

What are the CLEAR Plus benefits at an airport?

At an airport, you can think of the security process as two-fold:

• Identity check
• Scanning of belongings and person for items impermissible for flight

CLEAR Plus only helps you with the identity check process. From there, you either enter the TSA PreCheck line or the general screening line for your belongings to be scanned.

Signing up for CLEAR Plus can take some time. First you’ll apply online and then complete the process at the airport. If it’s your first time signing up for the service, you’ll need to have someone take your fingerprints and scan your eyes. Typically this takes place at a separate area away from the security line.

Additionally, note that each airport maintains hours of operation to use CLEAR Plus. For example, LAX airport has different hours depending on which terminal you’re using. This can be a bit of a pain if your departure time requires you to arrive outside the window. If you need to use CLEAR Plus and it’s closed at your terminal, consider walking to a different terminal to access CLEAR Plus if open there.

Concierge services available at some airports

At a subset of airports where CLEAR provides services, you can request concierge services at an additional price. To use these services, all adults 18+ must already be CLEAR members. What do you get?

• Express service: $99 for up to 4 people
  • Meet you at the curb when you arrive
  • Bring you straight through security
    
• Gate service: $179 for up to 4 people
  • Meet you at the curb when you arrive
  • Help you check in and assistance with bags
  • Bring your straight through security and escort to gate or lounge

At which airports is this service available?

Where else is CLEAR useful besides airports?

There are currently 9 sports stadiums that have CLEAR providing expedited entry:

• Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas, NV)
• Ball Arena (Denver, CO)
• Barclays Center (New York City, NY)
• Capital One Arena (Washington, DC)
• Chase Center (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
• Kaseya Center (Miami, FL)
• Madison Square Garden (New York City, NY)
• State Farm Arena (Atlanta, GA)
• Yankee Stadium (New York City, NY)

The company also boasts three other services via partnerships with other companies:

• Avis: skip the counter and go straight to your car
• LinkedIn: verify your identity so others know it’s really you
• Uber: verify your identity so others know it’s really you

We wouldn’t rate these as particularly useful benefits. The ability to skip the counter with Avis comes with any elite status level. And we haven’t felt any negative impact from not having our identity validated with either of LinkedIn or Uber.

The cost of CLEAR… and how to get it discounted

If you want to sign up for CLEAR, it will cost you $209/year. Whether you think that is worth it will heavily depend on how much you expect to fly in a year. Clearly (hah), if you only fly twice a year, it will be hard to justify dropping over $100 per trip to bypass the line. It also matters if your airport has CLEAR lines or not.

Once you’re a member, you can add other adults to your account (up to 3 others) for an incremental $125 each. Thankfully, kids 17 and under do not need a membership to join the line with you and are free. These adults you add to your account do not need to clear security with you to use the lines.

You can deactivate anyone on your account if you choose not to renew someone. It’s a simple flag to flip on their website in your account. Anything more complex (like having someone who wants to break off and create their own account) will require you to reach out to customer service.

What discounts exist for CLEAR?

Of course there are ways to get discounts.

• Delta SkyMiles members get special pricing:
  • Diamond Medallion and 360° members get a free annual membership
  • Platinum, Gold, and Silver Medallion members pay $169/year
  • Delta Amex credit card members (even the no annual fee Blue card) pay $169/year
  • Regular SkyMiles members get CLEAR for $199/year
• United MileagePlus members get special pricing:
  • Global Services members get a free annual membership
  • 1K members pay $129/year
  • Platinum, Gold, and Silver members pay $159/year
  • United credit cards members (even the no annual fee Gateway) pay $159/year
  • Regular MileagePlus members get CLEAR for $199/year
• Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards members get special pricing:
  • Regular members get CLEAR for $199/year
  • Elite members also get 1,500 miles for initial signup and 1,250 miles for renewals

If you already signed up for CLEAR without linking your loyalty account, you can always add it later on your profile page.

On top of this, you can also get CLEAR for free if you have the right credit cards:

• Amex Centurion cardholders get a statement credit of up to $369/year.
• Amex Platinum (consumer, business, and corporate) and Green (consumer) cardholders get a statement credit of up to $209/year.
• Hilton Aspire cardholders get a statement credit of up to $209/year.

What if you have multiple Amex cards that earn a statement credit?

If you’re like me and you have multiple credit cards that earn a statement credit, how do you take advantage of all credits? Unfortunately, CLEAR doesn’t let you split payment to make it easy.

Instead, what I do is have all adults under my account. When my account comes up for renewal, I disable all other adults until my card is processed with for just me. Then I change the credit card in my CLEAR online account to another one that offers the statement credit. Adding in the deactivated adults back one-by-one will then force CLEAR to draw from the new credit card. Rinse and repeat, depending on how many cards you have.

Who is CLEAR for?

At best, I’d say having CLEAR is akin to having insurance. This protects you from tail-end risk of security lines being incredibly long. But it might add no value when the lines are light enough.

It is probably more likely to add less value if you also have TSA PreCheck. They typically already get a shorter line that only contains those who registered for TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, or NEXUS. So some of the benefit of having CLEAR Plus will be muted. Thus, it’s a bit more impactful for those in the regular lane. However, if you get statement credits for CLEAR, you probably have TSA PreCheck too from those statement credits.

All this to say that if I didn’t have statement credits to cover CLEAR, I’d probably not do it. I have TSA PreCheck and the cost of the service doesn’t feel justified for the benefit received. If I didn’t have TSA PreCheck, I’d rather just pay for TSA PreCheck (it’s much cheaper than CLEAR).

Of course, if the government is shut down (like we saw in 2025 and 2026), having anything that can help wait times is very welcome. Even paying for the concierge service might make sense.

My experience with CLEAR Plus

I registered with CLEAR for a number of years, perpetually getting it fully covered with credit card statements. I’d say the best uses of the service were in the early years when there were fewer people using CLEAR to bypass the lines. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the fewer people who use the service that it makes it faster.

These days, I find the CLEAR Plus line tends to be quite lengthy about half the time. In these cases, there still is some benefit over the typical TSA PreCheck line, but of course it’s not exactly fun to wait when you’re paying extra to bypass lines. I recognize that I get it for free from statement credits–and many are probably in the same boat–but some people pay for the service. I’m sure they’re not too happy about their purchase.

However, lately it feels like nearly half the time I travel, the CLEAR Plus line is longer than the TSA PreCheck security line. When this happens, please don’t bother standing in the CLEAR line. Everyone doing this is just trying to insist on extracting some value from their membership, but it’s just providing negative value. It doesn’t have to work out every trip.

What are your thoughts on CLEAR?

Suggested reading:

• The Best Credit Cards for Airport Lounges for Families
• Keep or Cancel: How to Handle Too Many Credit Cards
• Pro Tip: Keeping Your Credit Cards Open With Five Simple Tasks