By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com
January 20, 2007
Registered Traveler has reached New York.
Although it's operational only at one terminal of John F. Kennedy International, the system of speeding passengers through airport security lines has finally branched out beyond Orlando, where it was developed.
Operated by the Manhattan-based Verified Identity Pass, Registered Traveler will also launch service at Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and San Jose before the end of the month.
It isn't free -- passengers pay up to $100 for one-year memberships and undergo thorough background checks -- but it does shorten waits in security lines. Members show identification cards containing their fingerprints.
There's also a new machine designed to scan shoes for explosives but its debut, in Orlando earlier this week, was unsuccessful more than half the time.
The Kennedy Airport system was placed in Terminal 7, home of British Airways.
Nearly two dozen other airports, including Chicago O'Hare, LAX, and both Dulles and National in Washington, have already relayed their interest to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
More than 30,000 people signed up for Registered Traveler in Orlando since a pilot program started there in July 2005.
Although many airlines already give security-line preference to first-class passengers and elite frequent flyers, Registered Traveler is open to anyone willing to pay the fee.
To avoid taking off their shoes, however, members may have to switch to metal-free footwear. The debut of the $200,000 ShoeScanner, made by General Electric's GE Security and approved by the TSA last year, was marred by routine rejection of anyone with metal in their shoes.
