Even before it began at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Scott Shawmeker signed up for membership in the Clear Registered Traveler program.
"I'd stood in line too many times," said Shawmeker, of West Chester, whose job as senior program manager for FEI Co. takes him on nearly 100,000 miles of air travel each year.
The promise of less time in line and, equally important to business travelers, of knowing how long he would be in line while checking through security for a flight were appealing enough reasons that Shawmeker paid the $99.95 annual fee to join long before Clear opened its special designated security check-in lane at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky. He said he's not been disappointed with the service provided by Clear, the New York-based business that has the contract for the Registered Traveler program at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.
"There's never really any real wait for me. I get right through," he said recently in a call from Portland where he'd just landed.
Members of Clear's Registered Traveler program across the country also are moving through airport security quickly in times that average from one to five minutes, said Allison Beer, senior vice president for corporate development.
Still, it's not the speed but rather knowing how long the wait will be that customers appreciate most, Beer said, because with that knowledge, they can plan and don't lose what she called "opportunity time" waiting in line.
"It's the predictability. It's not knowing necessarily what's going to happen at the security line, but knowing how long it's going to take," said Beer, noting that members may still face an extra scan with a wand, but won't be waiting in a long line first.
"We're seeing more and more that people cite the predictability of knowing how long it will take to get through security as one of the key benefits," she said.
Since Clear opened its check-in lane for the Registered Traveler program in January at the airport's Terminal 3, Beer said thousands have joined and numerous local businesses, including Fifth Third Bank, have enrolled employees. Across the country, some 59,000 have signed up.
To join, travelers sign up, complete background information and undergo pre-screening by the Transportation Safety Administration, which gets a $28 vetting fee out of the annual fee members pay.
Once approved, they are issued a special high-tech identification card by Clear in which biometric information -- fingerprints and iris scans -- are embedded. The card is used to gain access to the special Clear security line. Travelers still must walk through the TSA's metal detectors and have carry-on luggage examined by X-ray machines, but members are sped through.
"Sometimes I feel a little bit awkward because it's like, 'Who's this yahoo and why is he getting to the head of the line?'" said Shawmeker. "But hey, you pay for that privilege. I don't lose any sleep over it."
Each time Clear opens lanes at an airport, the membership becomes more useful, Beer said, since the card can be used wherever there is a Registered Traveler program. In addition to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Clear operates in Little Rock, Ark; San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; Indianapolis, Newark, N.J., Albany, N.Y., JFK and LaGuardia in New York and White Plains, N.Y.
"Orlando is a key pair city for Cincinnati. Obviously New York is as well. And with the West Coast airports, we're really closing a loop here," said Beers.
Even though he's only been able to use the lanes for flights at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, Bob Takac, of East Walnut Hills, said the service has been valuable.
"For 99 bucks -- if it was 300 bucks, I'd be in it," said Takac, who manages as sales force for a software company and travels about four days a week. "I live in airports."
What Takac said he hated about business travel was the anxiety of not knowing how long it would take to get through airport security, but the Clear lanes have removed that worry and made him a customer the Clear personnel can count on seeing regularly.
"They know my name," he said.
