Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Clear Service. Why?

FlyoverNurse
Explorer C

I am moderately furious at the moment. I pay for business select because I am a claustrophobe. The fly by lane is naturally a great incentive. Today at the Vegas airport I was bypassed by 24 people with the ‘clear’ service in the fly by lane. Every boarding pass I saw was from the c boarding group. 

 

These people apparently pay 179.00 per year to be first. Why is southwest allowing these people in the fly by lane? The difference in cost between the getaway fare and business select costs this PER TICKET on most itineraries I fly 

 

if they want to bypass the regular line, sure. Whatever. I don’t agree with it in any case. 

11 REPLIES 11

Re: Clear Service. Why?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

CLEAR is a separate service outside of Southwest, an alterntive to TSA PreCheck for instance.

 

Southwest doesdn't "own" the fly-by lane at the airport although in practice for those concourses they have all of the gates. But technically a CLEAR person would have this access for any airline at multiple other airports.

 

In Denver I've heard CLEAR is sometimes preferable to PreCheck for line length.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Clear Service. Why?

FlyoverNurse
Explorer C

Thanks for the explanation. I wonder who exactly is profiting from this and why it is allowed. We already have the TSA Pre-Check and Global Entry Programs active. An additional service to literally push ahead through the line seems ridiculous.

 

Why don’t they have their own lines? I was rudely pushed out of the way by a full grown man, and it did not make me happy. 

 

 

 

 

Re: Clear Service. Why?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm fairly new to Clear, but have used it in DEN, SLC, and LAX. At all those locations there is a dedicated Clear line so I'm surprised to hear they are using the Fly By Line at another location. Perhaps just a temporary thing while lines get moved around or setup?

 

Clear is not instead of PreCheck, but rather works well with PreCheck. Having Clear lets you pass the ID checking line, you then get dumped into the xray line for either PreCheck or regular security depending on what you have or what is open at the time. As PreCheck lines have started becoming longer and longer I found the additional membership is well worth the cost. If you provide a Delta Skymiles number during sign up at https://www.clearme.com/partner/delta it's $99/year, or less if you have status with Delta and an additional family member can be added for $50 (or close to $50, I can't remember exactly).

Re: Clear Service. Why?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

Clear is a private company, so they will profit the most for sure, I'm sure there is some revenue back to the airports. Not sure if TSA would is involved financially or not.

 

Curious - were you coming through Terminal 1 C gates or B gates? 

 

 

I have been using PreCheck, so I'm not sure where the Clear station is exactly, I have only flown to LAS since the time I had PreCheck there so I hadn't used the fly-by.

 

https://www.clearme.com/cities/las_vegas

 

Anyway - for $100 I recommend that you use Global Entry and get PreCheck if you have been purchasing Business Select tickets for that purpose, depending which airports you fly regularly. Midway for instance doesn't have Clear as an option, and PreCheck is usually better than fly-by. Sometimes the line is a little longer, but goes faster without the shoes and computers, etc.

 

There are also some similar discount options if you are interested through credit cards.

 

If you fly LAS very often, American Express Platinum gets you the PreCheck rebate plus access to their lounge which is very nice, includes food and drinks. The only downside is that it is in the D gates so you have to transfer terminals to get back and forth to Southwest's gates. Annual fee is very high, but worth it if you get the PreCheck and use the lounge four or five times, and $15/month uber credits.

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Clear Service. Why?

FlyoverNurse
Explorer C

C gates

Re: Clear Service. Why?

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

I was re-reading your response and maybe you already have PreCheck - in that case I'd use it instead of the Fly-by in most airports.

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Clear Service. Why?

LindseyD
Retired Community Manager

@FlyoverNurse

 

If any of these responses has been helpful, would you mind clicking the "Accept as Solution" button? You click it on more than one response if you like - it will just help any future folks who have the same concerns/questions find a thread with answers in it. 

 

Re: Clear Service. Why?

CareforNOLA
Frequent Flyer A

@FlyoverNurse,

Welcome!  Most folks that pay for Clear are very frequent travelers, so the C boarding passes were likely a last minute purchases/changes. I don't go to or through Las Vegas very often, but I do travel a lot, and a bad weather event will drive me to change my plans so I can make it to my destination to prevent me from hanging out in the airport for hours or being stranded overnight.

 

I am also not a Clear(ed) person because they are not in half the airports to which I travel, but if they were, I might buy it.

 

Happy traveling!

Re: Clear Service. Why?

FlyoverNurse
Explorer C

Lindsey:

 

Essentially, customer care just told me this isn’t their problem. I wanted nothing except for them to fix the ‘line problem’

 

I am not used to being battered by another passenger and having an airline shrug. 

 

So, nice knowing you.