My US Tour (Confessional #07: I'm A Points Junkie)

In the past two months, I have been to Indianapolis, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Houston and Boston. The reasons for all these trips vary from work to acting like Roger Federer while playing in tennis tournaments to unexpected layovers to chasing my precious Hyatt status. I'm a total hotel and airline points addict and so my recent trekking across the country has only added to my addiction.

But the best benefit to all my recent travels is a free membership to CLEAR. I became a free member through a Hyatt promotion, and was curious about it. You fill out a questionnaire and then complete an in-person biometrics scan of your retinas, fingerprints and other identification checks. As a total aside, apparently, a life of crime is not in my future (as I've realized before) because I scored extremely high on BOTH the fingerprint and retina scans meaning that I have very distinctive features for both attributes.

I passed all the background checks and am the proud holder of the Clear Fast Pass card. It kind of sucks so far because it's not really available at too many airports yet. But at least it's available at all three of the NYC airports (except it's conspicuously absent at the US Airways terminal at LaGuardia) and San Francisco airport. It saves so much time.

However, what I love most about it is the dirty looks I get when I'm escorted by the cheerful Clear concierges to the front of the line.