A few months ago I wrote about the Clear Pass coming to the airports I use the most (DIA and DCA). Things happened, I got busy, and I never actually went down to complete my in-person enrollment, consisting of fingerprint and iris scans. That ended up working in my favor, as Frontier has a deal for all of their Summit members giving them a free year of service (Ascent members get a free month).
On February 22nd I swung by the local Hyatt to complete my in-person enrollment. They scanned all of my fingers and then attempted an iris scan. I say attempted because after 7 or 8 tries the kiosk was unable to get a clear shot of my apparently shaky eyes. This didn't phase the Clear attendant who shrugged and added a note to my account saying I opted out of the iris scan. Opted out? Nowhere on the Clear site does it say that's even an option, but it's always nice to pretend that I still have some privacy. All told the entire process took about 15 minutes, and the Clear employees at the booth were very friendly.
When I completed the in-person enrollment I was told it would take 3-4 weeks for my membership to be approved and my card to arrive, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received an email on March 5th notifying me that I'd been approved. My card showed up a few days later, and I'll have a chance to try it out when I fly to Vegas for NAB in April. Hopefully I have a better experience than Steve did.
If you want to earn a free month of Clear service, drop me a line on Twitter and I'll give you my referral (promo) code.