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How CLEAR and CommonPass Are About to Transform Hawaii Travel

We now have more information on just how CLEAR and CommonPass are collaborating for Hawaii visitors and others to share required health status while protecting their data privacy. The CLEAR Health Pass app is the tool Hawaii travelers will soon use. CommonPass collects and manages test and vaccination data via its registry of health and technology companies using open, interoperable standards.

Could this mean a big change to Hawaii’s Safe travels and its trusted partners, among other things?

CLEAR says on its website that you can “Easily integrate your latest COVID-19 lab result with access to over 30,000 labs.” Using CLEAR and CommonPass to validate the authenticity of tests and vaccination results could greatly improve the current situation of limited partners.

The state of Hawaii is among over 45 organizations that have already enrolled in CLEAR’s Health Pass.  Governor Ige said recently, without elaboration, that we should expect a very significant increase in the number of trusted partners, and this could be just what he had in mind.

According to Ige, “Our highest priority is protecting the health of our residents and visitors. Our collaboration with The Commons Project Foundation’s CommonPass and CLEAR is enhancing our Safe Travels Hawaii program and helping us take another step forward in achieving our public health goals while ensuring that travelers can continue to enjoy the magic of our State safely.”

Hawaii is establishing a system to verify both COVID tests and vaccinations.

A pilot is underway with these two partners. We do not know when it will be widely implemented. CLEAR says that “Coming Soon – After you have received the COVID-19 vaccine, simply link to your healthcare account to confirm your vaccine records in a secure, verifiable, and privacy-preserving way.”

According to Lt. Governor Josh Green, this could go further than Hawaii travel, who said he would like to see it applied to any large gathering, including graduations, concerts, sporting events, and even weddings. He said, “This is the way to open up events and our state. And if we do it smartly, we will restore the economy without any bumps in the road, and we’ll actually get back to normal way faster.”

The Hawaii trial began last month when travelers flying Delta and United between LAX and HNL began to optionally enroll and use the CLEAR Health Pass to link COVID test results before travel.

Vaccination passports for Hawaii travel are not yet approved.

But we expect them to be soon. In the meantime, and even thereafter, testing is likely to remain the other alternative to avoid mandatory quarantine. Vaccination will not be a requirement, but it will be a highly desirable option for most travelers.

Statements from partners CLEAR and CommonPass.

With regards to how Hawaii will use this new system, CommonPass CEO Paul Meyer said, “This partnership brings together The Commons Project’s leadership in secure, privacy-preserving health data platforms with CLEAR’s expertise as a secure identity platform providing innovative access solutions. By ensuring that our respective platforms are tightly integrated, we will offer individuals a private, secure, trusted option to verify they have met the health requirements for travel and event entry.”

Caryn Seidman-Becker, CEO of CLEAR, said, “Clear’s partnership with The Commons Project Foundation reinforces our core desire to make it easier and safer for people to get back to what they know and love. Working together, CLEAR and The Commons Project Foundation will help companies and venues deliver secure environments and frictionless experiences for customers and employees.”

82 thoughts on “How CLEAR and CommonPass Are About to Transform Hawaii Travel”

  1. SUSAN T… Please read the instructions that I sent and which BOH posted as “Important Hawaii Travel Tips – Guest Post:”. It’s under “Hawaii Travel Tips”.

    1. You actually don’t “need” either ine. As long as you have everything uploaded to your Safe Travels account, that’s all you “need”. Clear and CommonPass are merely convenience tools. Not necessary to travel to Hawaii.

      1
  2. Dear Ed.C, my guess is that we would take a picture of the vaccine card with phone, then somehow upload it to the app. We will find out all the details when the vaccine passport is official.

  3. Andrea, thanks for the heads up. That’s awesome you’re fully vaccinated. My family lives on Oahu and I haven’t seen them in person since 2018.

    1. Dear Ceeee, I had a cousin who lived on Oahu for awhile but I wasn’t able to go while he lived there. He has moved to Texas for a new job. You are welcome for the heads up! I will need to be fully vaccinated before I get to Hawaii next year so I will do the process over again. Take care of yourself!

    2. Dear Ceeeee, well this time next year I will be waiting to leave for Hawaii….getting closer to April! I can’t wait for the vaccine passport to become official! !♡♡ Take care! God bless, Andrea:)

  4. So can we get app on our own now?
    And link?
    It takes me and my husband a long time to get any internet links going.

  5. I never took a covid test but I am fully vaccinated. I should be able to show my vaccine card and not have to quarantine, right?

    1. Dear Ceeeee, as of right now a person has to supply a negative covid test result in order to travel to Hawaii to avoid quarantine. They are working on a vaccine passport but it isn’t official yet. I’m waiting on the vaccine passport myself because I’m a teacher & now fully vaccinated. I’m planning my life long dream vacation trip to Oahu next year & I’m getting very excited!!♡♡♡

  6. After 1 week in Maui we move to Kauai, have to differant places to stay I was able to enter the 1st one on safe travel, how do I enter the other since no plane involved. Or does it even need to be on safe travel?

  7. Hi thanks again for your great blog . I saw a comment last evening where the writer proposed getting a 3rd and 4th shot of vaccine before a summer trip to Hawaii , in order to fall in the 3 month period from the last vaccination to date of entry into Hawaii. I don’t see it know , was this a joke ? I can understand deleting it as there is enough confusion without crazy ideas like this .

  8. Based on many of the comments I am so happy to see that many people are waking up. Not taking the vaccine. Not putting my private information into CLEAR, Common Pass, or any other database. 1.5 MILLION people die annually of Tuberculosis and healthy people have never had to wear a mask, quarantine, or be forced to take an experimental vaccine. For the past year, this has been all about control and giving up our rights & freedoms. It stops here & now!

    1. Goldie
      I have done much research on these vaccines and neither my husband nor I will risk our health with these vaccs. If we can’t travel, so be it.
      I agree with you 100% and I thank you for posting.

  9. I briefly looked at the, Clear Path Health Pass website. I’m hoping this won’t become some kind of complicated monster, that just has to many difficulties to work with. I’ve already noticed that there seem to be two level of pass.
    That CDC issued vaccine card is simplistic and could be easily forged but, it does work nicely.
    Aloha Guys

  10. Hi
    Sounds like more steps to take and more fees in order to travel. Sounds like a person has to share their medical history.
    Vaccine cards we’re given to those that got vaccinated with the understanding that the card could be used to verify protected status.
    Simple right?
    Now states are easing up on restrictions.
    Hawaii is putting layers of new restrictions and tasks.
    Seems to be going in the opposite direction.
    Airfare $, testing $, vaccines $, Clear registration $
    Safe travel $
    Sounds like a lot to get to Hawaii

    1. Thanks. I agree. And don’t forget the cost of car rental. Companies are price gouging, apparently because they can. That did it for us.

  11. Thanks for the update, I was in Hawai’i for January and Hawai’i safe travels is fairly easy to use , the testing parter of Alaska air was very efficient and the cost of test in Portland was $135 , but now raised to $170 . I would thing families may avoid Hawai’i travel due to the cost of covid test. For family of 4 thats $680 for testing . Regarding the vaccine pass I took a look at the app of clear , it appears their will be a fee for using the app, am I wrong about that .

    1. Hi Tim.

      Great question. We don’t know yet how that will be monetized and what costs travelers could pay.

      Aloha.

    2. I also got a “pay” notification when downloading the app but I was never charged anything and they never asked for a credit card. Guess we’ll have to see!

  12. Nope. Only if you want your health records open for all to see. What happened to patient privacy aka HIPPA?

    1. yep! at some point Hawaii will have to realize that they are going to have to reopen completely and not hold people hostage – most won’t want the headache. This will become endemic and will have to live with it like we do all the other virus’ out there like flu. Life must go on or they are in for a rude awakening with getting their economy back.

    2. Hippa protects you from medical professionals disclosing your information without your consent. You providing your own shot records has nothing to do with Hippa. No different than showing the shot records of your kids so they can go to school.

  13. Yes and then Clear travel will know all of out personal medical information, which is the ultimate goal of our government. No thanks.

    1. I’ve been taking my family for over 10 years. Over my dead body will I get an experimental DNA changing operating system implanted in my our families body, which it is…

      1. Lol,I’m a researcher and been watching this for years,this is just the beginning,there are several health apps out now to enter certain places and it will get worse.give us your medical information by “trust” or you cannot enter.wake up people.

  14. Great, more changes coming and new rules to follow … and we’ll all pray this new change doesn’t happen right before we depart. All set to go under Safe Travels then BAM, gotta convert everything to a new App and new rules.

    1. I’m planning my life long dream vacation trip to Oahu next year & I’ve been waiting for the vaccine passport!! I am a teacher so I am vaccinated so this is the perfect option for me♡♡ take care, stay safe, & God Bless!

    1. Dear KC, The vaccine passport may be coming out in May….nothing is official yet. So it just may work out for you! Good luck! Have a fun & safe trip to Hawaii:) God Bless♡♡

  15. My family and I just returned from a trip to Maui. We had a wonderful time until the last day. We were walking with our 3 young kids along the shops at Front street. It had been raining several hours & water had collected along the edge of the sidewalk/gutter area. A local man driving a pickup truck revved his engine and sped intentionally through the water and drenched a group of about 10 people (us included) who were standing/walking on the sidewalk. One couple had a baby asleep in a stroller that was soaked and screaming. My 11 year old daughter looked as though she had jumped into a pool fully clothed. The water sprayed into her eyes and she was crying from the burning sensation. 4 men who witnessed the incident chased after the truck and the driver got out and removed his shirt asked to fight them. He was obviously impaired by either alcohol or drugs. There were 2 police cars parked near the area so my husband approached them and told the officers what had happened. The only thing they said to him was asking if he wanted to press charges. I was shocked that they didn’t go over and do a sobriety test on this man! Very sad way to end our trip & I overheard many people in the area who had witnessed this talking about how Hawaii has changed & the locals are even more against tourists coming back.

    1. Meh. There are those everywhere in the world. Hawaii certainly has its share–particularly the “locals”. The police / authorities–who are also “locals” generally don’t care what their cousins / uncles / brothers get up to–particularly if it involves “tourists”. hawaiinewsnow.com/2019/10/19/victim-maui-beating-criticizes-authorities-not-pursuing-hate-crime-charges/

  16. I have the same question as another person – I was vaccinated at one of the large sites in LA County and just given a card; I won’t be able to link anything. What then? There are tens of thousands of us in that position.

    1. Dear Amy, hang on to the white given to you because that is your proof you’ve been vaccinated! I’m going to make several copies of mine!!

    2. Dear Amy, I’m planning my life long dream vacation trip to Oahu next year!!!♡♡♡ I’m getting very excited & can’t wait:)

  17. Sadly this pretty much means some of us will never be able to return to Hawaii. I have an auto immune disease and the medication I must take daily prohibits me from taking any of the covid drugs because my daily med AND the covid shots are cell altering drugs.

  18. We are arriving in maui on 4/10/2021,staying one week then going to Kauai for 2 weeks, will we need to take a covn19 test 72 hours before we fly to Kauai. Plus our SW flight stops in HNL so which flight does the 72 hours apply to. Thanks so much for all your help as we have been planning a yr for our trip.

    1. Hi Charlie.

      The within 72 hours rule is related to the scheduled departure time on your mainland to Hawaii flight. Yes, unless things change, you will need to test again on Maui before traveling to Kauai.

      Aloha.

  19. Please be aware that I have checked out the Clear Health Pass app and the CommonPass app. Both are getting terrible reviews. Hopefully both apps are working on their bugs!
    Thank you.

    1. Hi Adele.

      As far as we know it will be the CLEAR app that will be used, and as indicated, CommonPass will provide the behind the app aspects.

      Aloha.

  20. So what has happened to the Federal Hipa law and privacy? I believe this runs a fowl of this law!! Hawaii has no more right to my health records than my own state!!

    1. I’m not sure why so many people get this confused. Hipaa protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. Mostly from health care workers. Hipaa doesn’t apply here. If Hawaii goes to this system, They would basically be asking for your shot records. You don’t have to give it to them. You can go for the getting a negative Covid test instead. No one is forcing you to disclose the information. Its the same thing when a school ask for your kids shot record. That’s not a Hippaa violation.

  21. Please consider recognizing any accredited hospitals tests. You will never be able to list all of the hospitals that are more than qualified to do these tests. For example, I had mine done at Sheridan Regional Hospital in Sheridan, WY. United Airlines did not recognize this excellent hospital as one of “their” TRUSTED PARTNERS. This is ludicrous! This hospital does heart surgeries! You would have to agree that they are probably as competent if not more so than a clerk at CVS or Walgreen.

    Thanks for considering my opinion.

    Aloha,

    Jon

  22. This sounds like very good news. I just downloaded the CLEAR Health Pass and it is still only listing Delta and United as the two airline carriers for Hawaii travel. Have you heard about Hawaiian or Alaska Airlines becoming part of this program?

  23. Well this is good news! Mahalo for keeping us up to date, BOH! Unfortunately, I don’t think any of these changes will affect my late-April trip to Maui and we are still planning on getting the 24-hour results Rapid NAAT test from Walgreens and uploading the negative results on the Travel Alert site already in use by Hawaii.

    1. Hi Steven.

      We sure don’t know when the next changes will be rolled out, but safe to assume you’ll be testing as you have planned.

      Aloha.

  24. We were on a test flight on UAL past week but had already tested with a trusted partner. Clear requires you to use one of their listed testing facilities and would not allow us to upload our Walgreens results. We didn’t trust that Hawaii would accept a test that wasn’t on the list so we opted out and used Safe Travels instead.

  25. According to Lt. Governor Josh Green, this could go further than Hawaii travel, who said he would like to see it applied to any large gathering, including graduations, concerts, sporting events, and even weddings.

    Hey Josh….when do we sew the Star on our outer garments? Do we need to carry our “papers” when the police stop us like in 1940s Germany?

    1. I find your comment offensive to those of us who have family members who survived 1940’s Germany!!! Your comment is a false equivalency. Vaccination cards would apply to ALL, not just one group. I guess you never traveled outside the U.S. because to do so, you need a PASSPORT so why is a vaccine card any different? Some foreign countries even require you to get certain vaccines against things like malaria.

      1. A Passport is Nothing like a vaccine card, they serve different purposes. Vaccine cards for maleria and yellow fever were/are for 3rd world countries, Passports indicate your citizenship.

  26. Thank you for all of your updates on Hawaii and especially Kauai! Kauai is our favorite place to go in the world! The people are so nice and welcoming. We do not believe it is necessary for us to receive a vaccine for a virus that is treatable for our family. We hope Hawaii will continue to offer choices that include negative CV19 tests to travel to our favorite resort. Something about a “Health Passport” sounds very Orwellian. Do you know if test results will still be accepted?

  27. Many of us have been vaccinated at pharmacies. I was told that records of Covid vaccinations are only kept at the individual location where the vaccine was given. “IF” that is the case, I wonder how that will work. I hope that it’s not too bureaucratic.
    Let’s hope that Hawaii achieves the necessary balance between public health and their economy.

    1. I have this question, also. CLEAR says you link your health record to the app, but all we received for vaccination was a card with the dates and vaccine lot numbers.

    2. If that was me I would demand they give me my vaccine card because that is your only proof of getting the vaccine & that is your right to have those documents!

  28. Does this mean that vaccinations will count as a passport to freedom. Masks and social distancing still applicable?
    Mahalo guys for being so awesome!!!

    1. Hi Pam.

      Thank you. Yes, Hawaii remains clear that masks and social distancing will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

      Aloha.

    2. Dear Pam, Hawaii is working on the vaccine passport & I’m waiting on pins & needles for it as well! It isn’t official yet, but hopefully very soon it will be. I’m planning my life long dream vacation trip to Oahu next year!!♡♡ I’m getting very excited & can’t wait.I already have my itinerary completed & now I’m starting my hotel research.

  29. So are you saying we have to be vaccinated before we come to Hawaii ? Because that you s against our rights!
    Please respond.

    1. Hi Nora.

      Testing, likely still using the same CLEAR technology, will remain another option to avoid mandatory quarantine.

      Aloha.

    2. I’m sorry Nora, but when dealing with a worldwide pandemic your selfishness does not factor into the public health equation. You have the right to catch the virus. You do not have the right to expose others.

      1. There is nothng selfish about not wanting to take experimental vaccines for which we have a mere few months of safety and efficacy data. There is a reason that we do not bring vaccines to market so quickly. You have a 1% chance of contracting Covid and for this we have destroyed the world economy and given up our freedoms. So sad and scary. Hawaii will suffer for many years for their overreaction.

    3. Nora, what rights are being taken away from you? Do you have a right to drive drunk or do harmful acts that could affect other humans? Because that’s what a COVID vaccine would do. Help prevent YOU from killing GRANDMA or other O’hana?

    4. Hi Nora, no it isn’t a requirement to be vaccinated to come to Hawaii…it is another option for people.

    1. Hi Nancy.

      If you go to the CLEAR website (linked above), at the bottom of the page you will see their links to downloading it from the two app stores.

      Aloha.

      1. NANCY… It’s the one with the blue-on-white logo. I was confused just as you but if you go to the CLEAR website and try to download the app to your computer (can’t do!), you will see that the app has a much longer name = CLEAR – Fast, Touchless, A… That’s the one you want to download to your IOS (phone or tablet).

  30. Is one interpretation of this that you no longer would have to use a “Trusted Partner” for your 72 hour test? That would be awesome!!!

    1. Hi Barbara.

      That would make the most sense since the trusted partner validation becomes part of CLEAR’s responsibility. But we honestly don’t know how Hawaii envisions implementing this.

      Aloha.

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