Speeding Through Airport Security: a Guide

Go ahead, stand in an airport security line moving an inch a minute, juggling your bag, shoes, belt and ID and constantly eyeing your watch as the boarding call draws nearer. They have a word for people like you: suckers.

Every day, thousands of people look at that security line and laugh as they breeze to their destination unmolested. What separates them from you? A little bit of cash and a whole lot of motivation.

Members of Clear pay $199 a year to swipe their card through kiosks at airports and go immediately to a security checkpoint.

Members of Clear, for example, plunk down $199 a year to swipe their card through kiosks at 21 airports across the country and go immediately to a security checkpoint. Granted, before they get their card, Clear applicants need to provide background information and have all 10 fingerprints and both irises scanned before their information is sent to the Transportation Safety Administration for a threat assessment. For 250,000 customers, however, the payoff is worth it.

"The beauty of this is that people are spending a predictable amount of time at checkpoints," says Cindy Rosenthal, a spokeswoman for Clear's parent company, Verified Identity Pass. "They can join Clear and know they'll be through in under five minutes."

Clear is a byproduct of the TSA's Registered Traveler pilot program, which went into place just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was first tested by government contractors in 2004. The government got out of the business after a similar Verified Identity Pass program at Orlando, Fla.'s tourist-choked airport proved a resounding success. In 2007, the government issued guidelines for airports to sponsor programs like Clear and former contractor Unisys'(UIS Quote) FLO ($99 for its base service), which now offer private kiosks at airports in Denver, Atlanta and all major airports in the Washington, D.C., and San Francisco Bay areas. Service has spread to Boston's Logan Airport and all three major New York City airports, but is limited to Delta(DAL Quote) and certain United(UAUA Quote) and Continental(CAL Quote) flights for now.