It's the line that adds uncertainty more than precheck vs normal. I can have my electronics and liquids out, and shoes off, in 30 seconds or so. As I'm frequently travelling internationally, I need to be prepared for the combination of different rules, and so can't rely on precheck to let me pack differently.

Clear does often have a precheck/non-precheck distinction, but when I had precheck (and not clear), I had enough trouble with miscommunications between different TSA agents about a line being one or the other that resulted in delays and secondary bag screening, at least at LAX, that it did not seem particularly useful. I did not appreciate being told by one person not to remove anything from my bag, then shouted at by another person for not having removed anything from my bag.

Is it actually worse if you get to skip the line? As the person you responded to mentioned, TSA PreCheck is now so saturated that the TSA PreCheck line will sometimes be longer than the regular line.

At most large airports in the U.S., there is a separate CLEAR line for PreCheck from the CLEAR line for standard security. CLEAR is a benefit to skip the queue, but it doesn't usually have an impact on the level of scrutiny.

Not if you have TSA precheck as well.

Most US airports I’ve been to have 4 types of queues:

* No TSA precheck, no Clear

* TSA precheck, no Clear

* No TSA precheck, Clear

* TSA precheck, Clear

They all work exactly as you expect (you get the benefits of either precheck or clear or both at once, depending on the queue).

To me, the only way to really do it is Clear+Pre. Clear "bypasses" the ID verification step, and then you get inserted into a Pre line, which at most airports, under normal circumstances means: shoes stay on, remove any metal and jacket and just walk through an X-ray. Laptops, iPads, etc., stay in bags and go through X-ray too.