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With a quick iris scan or finger tap, you can now skip the long airport lines and jump into our bold future—for a fee.
Reagan National and Dulles airports are now host to CLEAR, a biometric identity platform that lets subscribers expedite the whole hand-over-your-ID-and-have-a-TSA-agent-confirm-it’s-you part of the process. Because why rifle through your bag for your driver’s license when you’ve already got your eyes wide open? The local hubs bring the service to a total of 15 airports nationwide, in addition to some baseball stadiums. It was already available at BWI.
To bring in new members, CLEAR is offering one free month to enrollees. The yearly cost for the service is $179. Compare that to $85 for a five-year membership with the TSA PreCheck, another service that promises shortened airport wait times. However, rather than cut the line altogether, PreCheck puts its customers on a shortened queue.
Unlike the TSA, CLEAR is a private company that partnered with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for this expansion. The service currently has 2.5 stars on Yelp.
Updated to reflect that TSA PreCheck costs $85 for a five-year, not one-year, membership.
Rachel Kurzius