California could ban Clear, which lets travelers pay to skip TSA lines
California could ban Clear, which lets travelers pay to skip TSA lines
A "concierge service" that lets paying members bypass airport security lines is unfair to other travelers, California lawmaker says.
A new bill, the first of its kind in the U.S., would ban security screening company Clear from operating at California airports as lawmakers take aim at companies that let consumers pay to pass through security ahead of other travelers.
Sen. Josh Newman, a California Democrat and the sponsor of the legislation, said Clear effectively lets wealthier people skip in front of passengers who have been waiting to be screened by Transportation Security Administration agents.
"It's a basic equity issue when you see people subscribed to a concierge service being escorted in front of people who have waited a long time to get to the front of TSA line," Newman told CBS MoneyWatch. "Everyone is beaten down by the travel experience, and if Clear escorts a customer in front of you and tells TSA, 'Sorry, I have someone better,' it's really frustrating."
If passed, the bill would bar Clear, a private security clearance company founded in 2010, from airports in California. Clear charges members $189 per year to verify passengers' identities at airports and escort them through security, allowing them to bypass TSA checkpoints. The service is in use at roughly 50 airports across the U.S., as well as at dozens of sports stadiums and other venues.
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Improve TSA? Nah. Let's ban the better system instead.
This is 100% political pandering. It has nothing to do with fixing a real problem.
California is not able to set policy for a federal agency. What they can do is end the "relief value" that lets people skip the bad policies for money.
At that point, the people with money may start putting pressure on the federal government to improve the TSA.
So they are doing exactly what youre asking them to, in the only way they can.
No, they're manufacturing outrage by saying "look at those people that are skipping the line, don't you hate that." They're just trying to get popularity points. It's a completely manufactured problem, and they're wasting time and resources that should be spent on real problems.
If TSA lines are a genuine problem that these politicians feel need to be fixed, then they can do plenty of things without Federal TSA policy changes.
So since youre personally a fan of broken govermental systems that private companies use to generate profits at the expense of the the citizens of California, you think state reps should just "shut up and work on the things I think are important" while fully ignoring that this change might have been a direct request from their constituents.
Gotcha.
First off, waiting in line at TSA while some people get to skip should be pretty far down the list of problems to fix for any reasonable person. It's unfair, but it doesn't hurt anyone. There are finite resources available to fix problems, so why not fix the problems that actually hurt people every day.
Second off, even if you decide TSA wait times are a high priority problem, this proposal does nothing to fix it. Again, why not spend these resources on reducing wait time for everyone?
All this does is draw attention to people spending their way around an inconvenience, without actually fixing the inconvenience to for ordinary people. It's generating outrage without fixing the problem.
Wait till I release “Even Clearer,” and my customers will skip in front of the Clear people.
Is it actually better security, or just a better experience for the people that are willing/able to pay for it? Maybe we could actually improve the TSA instead of allowing a "skip the line" fee that goes to a private for-profit company?
That's 100% my point. Why not fix the problem for everyone instead of banning a solution.
It's not a solution. It's just an alternative ID check currently offering a way for people with more money to skip to the front of the line. They still have to go through the same TSA screening. If everyone used the service it would offer zero benefit. So no, it's not a solution.
You've just described how it is a solution; it's additional ID verification capacity.