What CLEAR Announced
CLEAR pitched Concierge as a response to capacity pressure rather than a luxury upgrade, citing the FAA forecast that U.S. airports will absorb roughly one million additional travelers per day by 2030. The service has two tiers and one delivery model.
Departure Service starts at $99 per use. A CLEAR Ambassador meets the member at the curb, walks the party to the front of the CLEAR Plus security lane, and assists with carry-on bags through the document check. Arrival Service costs $199 per use and adds airline check-in support, checked-baggage handling at the right counter, and a personal escort from the front of security all the way to the departure gate, plus help finding a lounge, a restaurant, or any other airport amenity along the way. CLEAR launched the two tiers in April 2026 as Express and Gate Service; the names and the upper price have since changed, and the figures above are the ones on CLEAR's own Concierge page.
Every adult in the party (anyone 18 or older) must be an active CLEAR Plus member to use either tier. Children 17 and under are covered as add-ons under a parent's CLEAR Plus account at no additional CLEAR Plus fee. Bookings are placed through the CLEAR app or website at least 10 hours before scheduled departure; same-day reservations are not available. The service works on any airline operating from a participating airport.
Where It Operates As of April 2026
The 14 launch airports are Austin (AUS), Dallas Love Field (DAL), Denver (DEN), Detroit (DTW), Houston Hobby (HOU), Milwaukee (MKE), Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP), Orlando (MCO), Palm Springs (PSP), San Juan (SJU), Salt Lake City (SLC), Tulsa (TUL), Washington Dulles (IAD), and Reagan National (DCA). CLEAR has confirmed Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson as the next station to onboard but has not committed to a public live date for ATL or for the next wave behind it.
Two notable absences from the rollout list are New York's three major airports and the major California hubs. CLEAR has not publicly explained the sequencing, but the operational reality is that the airports where the standard TSA line is the worst pain point (JFK, LGA, EWR, LAX, SFO, ORD) are not yet on the Concierge map. For travelers based in those metros, the service is currently only available at out-of-network destinations.
Why This Matters for Travelers
The value of Concierge is a function of how stressed the airport experience is on a given trip rather than how often the traveler flies. The clearest cases are families moving with multiple bags and kids, travelers with mobility needs, and same-day connections through unfamiliar hubs where an escort short-circuits the wayfinding problem. For solo business travelers who already hold CLEAR Plus and TSA PreCheck, the marginal time savings on Departure Service shrink to single-digit minutes at most launch airports, which is a tougher case for $99.
Arrival Service is the more interesting product for award-travel readers. The $199 fee sits well below the cash value of most of the airline-branded VIP escort products (United Global Services-style assistance is invitation-only; American's Five Star service runs a comparable price tier and is the closest direct comparison). For families redeeming points for international premium-cabin departures from one of the 14 launch airports, an extra $199 to remove the document-check bottleneck and the gate-finding scramble is a defensible spend. For routine domestic coach trips, it is not.
What to Do With This Now
The first move is to confirm the underlying CLEAR Plus membership is fully offset by an existing card before adding any Concierge spend on top. The Platinum Card from American Express, the Business Platinum Card from American Express, and the Hilton Honors Aspire each carry a CLEAR Plus statement credit that covers the $219 annual fee in full. The American Express Green Card carries one too, but American Express no longer offers the Amex Green to new applicants, so it only counts if you already hold one.
Failing a card credit, airline pricing is the cheaper route. Holding a Delta SkyMiles American Express or a United U.S. credit card gets you CLEAR Plus at $179 with no status at all, and Atmos Rewards, the Alaska and Hawaiian program, prices its members the same way: $129 at Titanium, $179 at Platinum, Gold and Silver, $209 for general members. Confirm the current rate inside the CLEAR app before enrolling.
For travelers who do not yet hold CLEAR Plus and are evaluating it on the Concierge case alone, the math is harder: you are paying for a year of CLEAR Plus on top of the per-use Concierge fee for what may be a single trip. That is a stretch unless the party is large or the airport friction is unusually high. The cleaner path is to bring CLEAR Plus into the mix on a card that already covers it, or at the discounted airline rate, then layer Concierge selectively for the trips that warrant it, such as holiday departures, family vacations, and unfamiliar transfer hubs.
The forward-looking question is the rollout pace. Atlanta is confirmed; the rest of the schedule is not. Travelers based in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Francisco should not plan around Concierge being available at home in 2026. For everyone else on the launch map, the product is operational today, books in 10 hours, and works on any airline. The decision is per-trip, and that is the right way to evaluate it.
Updated October 4, 2026: CLEAR pricing.
