A new company plans to revive the Clear registered-traveler program at Denver International Airport that gave prescreened airline passengers priority access to the airport’s security checkpoints — for a price.
In June 2009, Verified Identity Pass, the company formerly operating Clear at DIA and more than a dozen other airports around the country, shut down, leaving up to 200,000 people who had enrolled in Clear nationally without the service or refunds.
VIP charged up to $199 a year for the priority screening service. Those enrolled in registered-traveler programs have their own lines at airport security checkpoints, and the amenity can give them much quicker access to screening lanes.
In early May, a New York firm, Alclear LLC, said it had bought VIP’s assets out of bankruptcy and planned to resume the service, also under the Clear name.
Officials estimate about 22,000 users at DIA enrolled in the old Clear program, which required customers to submit to fingerprinting and iris scans as biometric identifiers.
VIP “left members holding the bag,” Caryn Seidman-Becker, chairman and chief executive of Alclear, said Wednesday.
“We will be making customers whole; we will honor existing membership terms,” Seidman-Becker said.
For instance, if a customer still had six months remaining of Clear registered-traveler service with VIP, Alclear will restore six months of service, she said.
Seidman-Becker said her company soon will contact existing Clear members in the Denver area and try to convert them to the new plan. DIA will likely be among the first two airports where the new Clear service will be implemented this fall, she said.
Biometric data and other member information have been stored securely since the shutdown and bankruptcy of VIP, and that data will be released to Alclear with members’ permission, Seidman-Becker said.
Members also can opt to withdraw from Clear and have their biometric data expunged, she said.
The new Clear plans to charge $179 a year for the registered-traveler service, and for an extra $50, members can convert to the “family plan” — which extends the service to a member’s spouse and their children, Seidman-Becker said.
Customers are urged to keep their existing Clear cards for use on the new system.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
