Longest Black Friday Line Can Win You a Free iPad

The private airline security company, Clear, is all about helping you shorten the line at airport security. In honor of Black Friday which often hosts the largest lines of the year, they are giving away a free iPad to the person that shows them the longest line.

CLEAR is dedicated to helping you skip long airport lines and in honor of this commitment CLEAR is launching a Longest Line Ever sweepstakes starting today, November 22nd. With Black Friday around the corner and holiday travel in full swing long lines are appearing all over the country. To enter the Longest Line Ever sweepstakes participants must send @clear_me, a Twitpic of the longest line they can find including the hashtag #longestlineever and follow CLEAR on Twitter. Additionally, CLEAR's Facebook page has a simple upload tool for the sweepstakes and is hosting a gallery of all the images submitted.

Each week CLEAR will select one entrant to win a iPad and one entrant to win a free CLEAR membership, valued at $179 until December 31st, 2010. Even if CLEAR is not in your local airport your membership will not be activated until the winner uses their CLEARcard for the first time.

As for the value of Clear, I have seen it at the Orlando Airport a few years ago and it's basically like a fastpass lane through security. Instead of having to show your license and wait for it to be verified, Clear gives you a card with a computer chip. The chip stores your fingerprints and retina (eye) scan. A few seconds at their booth and your identity has been positively confirmed so you can walk right over to the metal detectors.

I can't say if it's changed much with the tighter security we see, but they do still claim to speed up the security process. It's currently only offered in Orlando so unless you travel a lot through MCO it's not worth the annual fee right now. They will be opening up soon in Denver, so keep an eye out in the future because if they spread to more airports it might be worth the money if you are a frequent traveler.