No refunds, says Clear, the Registered Traveler vendor

Fliers who paid $199 in annual fees to Clear, a Registered Traveler vendor that fast-tracked them through airport security until it suddenly shut down late Monday, shouldn’t expect refunds.

“We’re not in a financial position to offer any refunds,” said Jason Slibeck, chief technology officer for Verified identity Pass Inc., the New York-based company that ran the program until, it said, talks broke down with its senior creditor.

What do to? A couple of options:

Go with another company: At least one other Registered Traveler vendor, called Preferred Traveler, said it would accept Clear cards, but only in Jacksonville (JAX), Fla.,  and Louisville (SDF), Ky. Another vendor,  FLO Card,  hadn’t posted its intentions as of Tuesday night.  (A plan to install Clear at LAX fell through last year.)

Even at the same airport, Registered Traveler programs, which usually provide access to special lanes at security checkpoints, may not be accepted by all airlines. So you’ll need to check.

Get a charge-back: Under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act,  if you buy a product or service with a credit card and fail to receive it, you are entitled to ask to have the charge removed from your bill. For details, check out the Federal Trade Commission’s online guide, “Billed for Merchandise You Never Received? Here’s What to Do.”

One catch: You’re supposed to send the credit-card issuer a letter that’s received “within 60 days after the first bill containing the error was mailed to you,” the FTC says.  So if you paid your $199 fee in January, are you out of luck?

Not necessarily.  When tour operators have shut down in the past, for instance, some card issuers have waived the 60-day requirement. They recognize there’s a Catch-22: You can’t know the billing is an “error” until after you fail to get the service.  So it’s worth a shot.  It already seems to have worked in this case for one person, “Brian,” who commented on my earlier blog post. I’d recommend calling the card issuer first and asking for a supervisor.

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Photo: Airline passengers line up Tuesday near a vacant Clear kiosk at the San Francisco airport.  Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 7:40 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Airline travel, Business Travel, California, Frequent Flier, Los Angeles, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.