Is it worth paying for Clear with less-busy TSA lanes?

WASHINGTON D.C. -- After grabbing a (mostly masked) girlfriend’s getaway in sunny Palm Springs and Los Angeles last week, I arrived at LAX prepared for a TSA nightmare despite having TSA Pre-Check.

There was no need to stress out, after all. I found myself oddly gliding through the TSA lane at Terminal 5 for my American Airlines flight with little hassle, except for two people who tried to get through with water bottles (yes, two different people!).

My girlfriend had the opposite experience. At her airline’s terminal, she grew so frustrated that she bought a Clear membership (cost: $179 a year) to speed her checkpoint experience. It made me wonder what’s happening with the private airport security fast-lane provider since its biggest pre-COVID customer base -- the road warrior -- isn’t flying like they used to.

Clear sees blue skies, for now anyway. Initially born out of frustration with post-Sept. 11 airport security measures, Clear says it now has about 8 million members, marking a record since early 2020 despite Delta variant-related summertime hiccups.

And on Nov. 15, the company reported that its membership in the third quarter jumped 27% year over year, despite volumes down at 60% of Clear's airports, executives told Wall Street analysts.

“While the traditional version of business travel road warriors has not yet fully returned, digital nomads are leveraging their newfound flexibility and taking to the skies,” said Clear’s CEO, Caryn Seidman Becker.

Gone are the old “road warrior rush hours” that you had to endure because you had to make a 9 am meeting in another city, like I used to when commuting between DCA and DFW. Per Becker, “We are seeing different patterns.” The Clear lanes are busy on different days and hours than they used to be before the pandemic disrupted travel and work.

She expects metrics to improve as international travel restrictions go away and travelers return, and as more road warriors resume their old ways. Of course, that’s not a given since many people have learned to be just as productive without travel or have learned to work differently and digitally.

Travel Junkies’ take: We’re OK risking a bit of a wait, chatting with the TSA person and saving the money, at least until January or February when it will be more -- err -- clear what’s happening with business travel. Whether they’ll pack the TSA Pre-Check lanes like the old days remains to be seen.