Registered Traveler's broken promises
— -- In retrospect, it looks like I made the correct decision when I decided forgo the $199 to renew my Registered Traveler membership before Verified Identity Pass went belly up last week. The original "trusted traveler" program was envisioned to carry a $50 to $75 renewal rate, so when Verified raised their fees substantially late last year, I decided it was no longer worth the extra cost.
With Verified gone, the Registered Traveler program is on life support, available at only three airports — Jacksonville, Louisville, and Reno — operated by Verified's much smaller competitors. While the National Business Travel Association and others would like to see Registered Traveler revived, I believe success is unlikely in the long run.
Registered Traveler is a great idea, but the implementation hasn't worked well in the real world. I spent $99.95 to obtain a Verified "Clear" card and bypass the regular security lines, but I found the Registered Traveler program fulfilled few of its promises. Registered Travelers were asked to submit to fingerprint, eyescan biometric and background checks to bypass airport security lines across the country. Registered Travelers were promised they could then pass into the secure zone without being subject to long security lines or removing their shoes and laptops.
The most glaring problem is just who qualifies to be a trusted traveler? Even if a traveler passes a government background check and has no previous criminal or violent history, that is no accurate predictor of future behavior. At least some 9/11 hijackers were frequent-flier program members. A first-time terrorist could be silently waiting in a sleeper cell for years, or that terrorist could be homegrown, or just some unstable criminal who has decided to extract vengeance on a plane load of innocents. Because of these real possibilities, everyone must be scrutinized at airport security, negating a major advertised benefit of Registered Traveler.
Verified and other Registered Traveler proponents initially promised the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would obtain new scanning equipment to allow Registered Travelers to wear their shoes and belts and keep their laptops in their carry-on bags as they passed through security. Fraught with technical issues, such scanners never materialized at most airports, and if those new scanners really worked, it is likely TSA would offer that technology to all airline passengers.
To be really useful, Registered Traveler must be ubiquitous or at least available at most major airports. This hasn't happened. Living in Northern California, I was able to use my Clear card at all three San Francisco area airports for outbound flights, but with only a handful of participating airports, I was rarely able to use my Clear card for my return home.
I suspect San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport adopted Registered Traveler to remain competitive with nearby Mineta San Jose International Airport, which was an early participant in the Registered Traveler program. When I interviewed airports about Registered Traveler for a column several years ago, many cited costly implementation expenses or inadequate space requirements to implement the program.
Another promise of dedicated security lanes for Registered Travelers was never fulfilled. Registered Travelers shared the regular security lanes at almost every participating airport. This meant Verified staff would ultimately insert you and your tubs full of laptops and clothing in front of other travelers who had no idea why you were privileged enough to jump the line. On more than one occasion, other travelers became irate with me for cutting in front of them and one angry traveler almost pushed my computer and other belongings off the belt when my Verified escort placed my belongings in front of him.
Along with those contentious shared lanes, Verified had to employ several staff members at every security checkpoint to check and assist their customers through the security maze. With only 250,000 Registered Travelers system wide, most every time I used my Clear card, those Verified people were just standing around waiting for their next customer to materialize. Employing an army of people to assist a very small proportion of the flying public must have contributed to Verified's financial woes.
I also wonder how many people actually paid to obtain Verified's Clear card. At every business travel conference I attended in the past few years, Verified seemed to be offering free or substantially discounted memberships to entice travelers to sign up.
Perhaps very frequent fliers saw no value in Registered Traveler if they were already using the special security lines open only to frequent travelers with elite status at many airports. And the widening TSA Diamond Lanes experiment with "casual" and "expert traveler" security lanes at many airports may have alleviated the impetus for others to embrace Registered Traveler.
Midway through 2008, I began receiving e-mail messages from Verified admonishing of an impending renewal rate increase and offering me a "special" rate of $128 annually for up to three years if I renewed early "to avoid Clear's fall price increase." They said that "special" renewal rate "is considerably less than we will be charging this fall."
Over the course of the next six months I received no less than 11 e-mail messages from Verified urging me to renew early and beat the price increase. The renewal rate jumped to $159 and then $199 by year end. When it was evident a price increase was unavoidable, I decided to rejoin the ranks of ordinary travelers navigating the regular but "free" security maze. Perhaps many other Registered Travelers arrived at the same conclusion, assuring Verified's demise.
With every communication, Verified advertised "You can always get a pro-rated refund on any unused portion of your membership, should you no longer need Clear," or a similar refund promise, "If you don't continue to be satisfied with how Clear moves you predictably and quickly through airport security." Unfortunately, for those who renewed there's scant chance of obtaining that refund now. Verified's website simply states that they "cannot issue refunds due to the company's financial condition," although Verified "has not commenced any proceedings under the United States Bankruptcy Code."
For those travelers due a refund I would suggest contacting your credit card provider as they would have the most clout in these situations. But even those companies may be unable to fulfill Verified's last broken promise.
Send David your feedback: David Grossman is a veteran business traveler and former airline industry executive. He writes a column every other week on topics of interest and concern to business travelers. E-mail him at travel@usatoday.com.