To CLEAR or not to CLEAR...

[bauzkraut]

I am flying in solo soon and am considering trying the CLEAR free trial to reduce the wait time at MCO. Have there been any changes in the lines at MCO recently with the shut down?

How long does it take for CLEAR to become effective?

 

[The Pho]

It should activate quickly. I know precheck took about 2 days total for me from interview to usable. But I don’t have Clear so can’t say if it does actually go quick.

That being said, clear may not be really worth it alone. I just went through MCO a few days ago and waited all of 30 seconds in the precheck line, and the normal line was only about 10 minutes. Shutdown doesn’t seem to be causing trouble there.

 

[AngiTN]

I am flying in solo soon and am considering trying the CLEAR free trial to reduce the wait time at MCO. Have there been any changes in the lines at MCO recently with the shut down?

How long does it take for CLEAR to become effective?

It's free for 3 months so why not?
I signed up for it. CLEAR becomes effective immediately.
The reason I signed up is I'm traveling this weekend with someone without PreCheck. I'm crossing fingers, toes and everything else that she'll get it when the system sees her traveling with me (I have it). But, we've never had it given to traveling companions so I'm not counting on it. So I signed us both up for the Clear trial. While it won't give her access to PreCheck if she doesn't get it, it will at least cut any wait time we have down.
We can't finalize our enrollment until we get to MCO. So I plan to finish our process when we land on Saturday vs waiting till we leave on Tuesday evening. My thought is, I'd rather have as little to delay us at departure as possible. Taking a few minutes at arrival won't be a problem, no time crunch like there is at departure when you have to be somewhere at a set time. If that makes sense.

It should activate quickly. I know precheck took about 2 days total for me from interview to usable. But I don’t have Clear so can’t say if it does actually go quick.

That being said, clear may not be really worth it alone. I just went through MCO a few days ago and waited all of 30 seconds in the precheck line, and the normal line was only about 10 minutes. Shutdown doesn’t seem to be causing trouble there.

It can though, and the issue is you won't know if you happen to go through at a time when it is causing an issue. I normally have no concerns but it is on my mind this weekend

CLEAR will help even without PreCheck because they walk you to the bag check area. So you miss out on the wait to get to the point where they check your ID, which is where the long lines are. You still have to go through the regular security check but those lines are usually not so long