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Airport Service 'Clear' Goes Bust, Keeps Charging Customers

by Leila Brillson on June 23, 2009 at 05:01 PM

Frequent fliers, get back in line. Verified Identity Pass's (VIP) Clear, a subscription service that amazingly allowed travelers to bypass security checkpoints for a yearly fee, recently announced that yesterday would be its last day of operation. Despite having pulled in nearly 260,000 users at $199 each, Clear has shut down all 18 of its hubs, citing financial strain as its rationale.

If that wasn't frustrating enough for users who have gotten accustomed to zipping through lines, it appears that VIP continued to charge customers up until the day of that announcement, CNet's Matt Asay reports. While travel safety is important in an era of global terrorism, business travelers and frequent fliers often have to dash daily from airport to airport, so Clear's ability to quickly read fingerprints and verify IDs certainly endeared VIP to consumers. Isn't it remarkable how charging for a product that is no longer available can quickly change all that? [From: CNet and LATimes.com]

Tags: airport, clear, economy, flying, top, travel, tsa, verified identity pass, VerifiedIdentityPass

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