The Registered Traveler Slides By Easy

The Registered Traveler concept is one that makes many frequent fliers jealous. That’s because most of us hate waiting in the lines and feel intimidated by the uniformed and usually harsh TSA officials who make us take off our shoes and remove all items from our pockets.

I always feel like I am a guilty prisoner reporting to jail instead of a traveler about to embark on an exciting trip. In Atlanta the airport officials are gearing up to institute the program. Atlanta’s Journal Constitution had more details on how it works.

” Passengers pay an annual fee and undergo an extensive background check by TSA (Transportation Security Administration). Unique biometric information (usually fingerprint and iris data) is encoded into a high-tech card. At the airport, passengers enter a specially designated security lane.

At a kiosk, the biometric card is inserted into a reader. Passenger is prompted to place finger on the fingerprint reader or look into the iris reader, and biometrics are checked against the card.
Attendants assist passengers with laptop computers and other items that must be X-rayed.

The company that runs a registered traveler program at nine airports across the nation will propose a Hartsfield-Jackson lane with special shoe-scanning equipment that allows travelers to keep their shoes on. Steven Brill, CEO of Verified Identity Pass Inc., said his company’s CLEAR program is also testing equipment that will let passengers retain their coats — equipment he hopes to have in place by Labor Day. CLEAR runs airport programs at JFK International, San Jose, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Newark, Westchester, Albany (N.Y.) and Cincinnati.

Unisys Corp. last month launched registered traveler lanes at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, its first airport operation. Unisys spokeswoman Lisa Meyer said the company has signed up “several hundred” Reno customers in its first month of operation and plans to bid on the Hartsfield-Jackson program.”