Your Amex CLEAR Plus credit already pays for the membership. Stack it with FoundersCard and the same membership gets you a personal escort through security, curb to gate, for $0 out of pocket for 12 whole months.
If you hold the Platinum Card, Business Platinum, or Hilton Aspire, you get up to $219 back on CLEAR+ charges every calendar year. Most cardholders put the card on file in their CLEAR account, see the credit post, and stop there. That leaves out the VIP tier that CLEAR sells separately for $99 to $179 per booking – and I’m going to show you how to get that extra tier for free for an entire year.
This is the two-step stack I use. It works for new CLEAR members, for members using their Amex credit, and for anyone already paying for CLEAR+ out of pocket.
What CLEAR+ actually does
CLEAR+ replaces the TSA ID check, not the bag screening. You scan your boarding pass and your face at a CLEAR Pod (or walk straight through one of the new eGates), and an ambassador drops you at the front of the physical screening line.
It pairs with TSA PreCheck rather than replacing it: CLEAR verifies who you are, PreCheck decides how you get screened. With both, you skip the ID line and keep your shoes on. CLEAR runs more than 150 lanes across 60-plus US airports, and the standard membership is $209 a year.
Which Amex cards pay for CLEAR+
Five Amex cards reimburse up to $219 of CLEAR+ charges per calendar year. No activation is needed; the credit posts automatically when an eligible card is the payment method on your CLEAR account.
| Card | CLEAR+ credit (per calendar year) | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|
| The Platinum Card from American Express | Up to $219 | $895 |
| The Business Platinum Card from American Express | Up to $219 | $895 |
| Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card | Up to $219 | $550 |
| American Express Corporate Platinum Card | Up to $219 per card member | $550 |
| American Express Green Card (closed to new applicants) | Up to $219 | $150 |
Three things to know about how the credit behaves:
- It is a calendar-year credit, so a membership that renews in December and another charge in January both get reimbursed.
- The cap is per card account. Additional card members share the $219, they don’t each get their own.
- Amex says the credit can take up to eight weeks to post. In practice it usually lands within a week.
The stack, step by step
1. Let Amex cover the membership. Log in to your CLEAR account, set an eligible Amex card as the payment method, and leave it there. New members sign up and pay with the card; existing members just swap the card on file. The credit covers the full $219 standard rate.
2. Add the escort. FoundersCard members get complimentary CLEAR Concierge bookings on an ongoing, unlimited basis. This is the part nobody talks about, and it’s the part that turns a $0 membership into a VIP airport experience.
I’ve become spoiled with this service, and I’ll tell you more about it below.
You can preview FoundersCard free for 12 months, and the CLEAR Concierge benefit is included in the preview.
One thing worth noting: this is just one of over 500+ luxury travel perks of FoundersCard, and with my link, you not only get the year free trial, but you also get the opportunity to upgrade to the Elite tier (the one I have) for an insane discount: only $299 for the whole year!
To lock in that price, you need to upgrade within the first week. Otherwise, you will get a discounted rate of $395, which is still much better than the regular price ($995/yr).
What CLEAR Concierge is
CLEAR Concierge is a personal escort through the airport. A CLEAR agent meets you, helps with your bags, walks you through security ahead of the line, and either drops you airside or takes you all the way to your gate. It’s sold per booking, not as a membership, and one booking covers up to four travelers.
It’s available at 32 US airports. Kids 17 and under join free as long as one adult in the group is a CLEAR+ member.
FoundersCard members book it at no charge, as often as they like, for either tier, from the CLEAR booking page inside the FoundersCard member hub. There’s no annual cap on bookings.
Bottom line
Put the pieces together and the stack looks like this: your Amex pays for CLEAR+, and every trip comes with a free Gate Service escort that CLEAR charges everyone else $179 for.
Concierge depends on agent availability at the 32 airports where it runs, so book ahead rather than on the day. But if you hold a Platinum, Business Platinum, or Hilton Aspire card, you’re already getting CLEAR+ for free. The only thing standing between that and a curb-to-gate escort is a membership that costs nothing to preview for 12 months.
Preview FoundersCard free for 12 months here.
For more on what’s inside the membership, read my full FoundersCard review and the CLEAR Concierge guide.
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