Wandering

Category: Living Large

My CLEAR membership nightmare – Is it worth it?

My CLEAR membership nightmare – Is it worth it?

For the past two months, I’ve been giving the CLEAR program a try.  They offer three free months, and hook you with the standard auto-renewal mechanism. I wanted to see how the service worked, and I wanted to see what their retention mechanism is like.  After all, there are relatively decent discounts (all the way to FREE) for various levels of Delta Medallionship.  Surely, they would have something in place to sweeten the pot a little, if you threatened to cancel after taking them up on their free offer, right?  If retention strategies are in place for Comcast, Verizon and nearly all credit card companies, maybe CLEAR has their head in the game as well.

Well, when my free months had lapsed, the best they could muster was a retention rate of $99 a year after I selected to cancel my membership.  Sure, that’s lower than their MSRP of $179, but CLEAR has discounted membership rates for Delta SkyMiles members. Diamond Medallion members get complimentary membership, with a discounted rate of $79 for Platinum, Gold, and Silver Medallion members. Even someone who just signed up for a SkyMiles account gets a discounted annual rate of $99.  Literally, all you have to do is merely possess a SkyMiles account (and know the link), and you get a better rate than their rack rate.  However, they didn’t recognize that I was a Delta Platinum Medallion, despite their obvious affiliation with the airline.

CLEAR pricing structure for Delta Medallions: Diamond = Free; Platinum/Gold/Silver = $79/yr; General Members = $99/yr
CLEAR pricing for Delta Medallions clearly shows that rack rate is for suckers.

I guess I was expecting something a little more than an email telling me that my credit card was going to be charged $179 now that my free months were almost up.  But given my experiences with their service, I can’t imagine why I was expecting even that much…

Getting Started with CLEAR

Given the timing of my renewal notification, the timer started on my “Free Months” the day I filled out the online application, rather than the day I went into the airport and successfully provided my biometrics.  Do yourself a favor, don’t bother doing it online… it doesn’t save you the slightest bit of hassle, and starts your timer too early.  Then again, it may be the only way to get the free months, but don’t do it any earlier than you absolutely need to — like the same day you intend to fly.   I noted the day I signed up online, and put in a reminder on my phone to cancel my membership in three months.  However, when I got to the airport to start my official membership, their kiosk could not properly scan my new REAL ID license.  The girl working the kiosk tried about ten times, and then gave up as the device couldn’t perfectly OCR my name to match the name on my application; it always mangled somewhere between one and most of the letters of my name.  She told me the only way I could finish registration was to bring in my passport.  Well, thank goodness I have a passport, otherwise I guess I’d just be out of luck completely.

They collected biometrics first, though.  So, I went through full right hand, left hand, both thumbs at the same time, and retinal scan, learning the sensitivity of the machinery, and having to redo each one a few times, only to watch the buffoonery hit maximum throttle when it came time to scan my license.  Since I didn’t have any foreign travel planned, I didn’t have my passport on me – it was in my fireproof safe back at the house – which I wasn’t going to see for a few weeks… the timer, all this time, is still going.  I flew through a couple of airports which I noticed didn’t care bupkis about CLEAR, and managed to sail through those TSA Precheck lines with little bother or issue — generally waiting 5-10 minutes, tops, before hitting the TSA screening point.

The line for CLEAR, with signage
The line through CLEAR has its ups and downs.

When I finally made it to another CLEAR airport, I had been carrying my passport around for a little bit, and started to do the whole registration thing one more time.  This time, however, we had to repeat the process at three kiosks that each simply refused to work after scanning all of my biometrics.  The machines sat there, frozen, not moving to the step for scanning my passport.  The “agent” walked me to another bank of machines about ten minutes away, and finally we were able to get past the biometrics, and it only took four scans of my passport to fully and accurately recognize my name.

Hooray!  After all of this hassle, I can finally experience the bliss that is the expedited CLEAR process!  Or so I thought…

Then, the folks at CLEAR, have the gumption to immediately send me an email, on the day after all of this, asking me to rate my experience with their service.  I related exactly the same message, and it’s been months, and I haven’t heard from them.  They asked “would you refer others?” I was fairly explicit in that I would not, and that the proportion of my time dealing with their idiocy had far exceeded the amount of time experiencing the value of their service.

No Clear Advantage

On my weekly commute, only one-half of my boarding is at a CLEAR location.  CLEAR just isn’t everywhere.  For example Boston, Mass. (BOS) — no CLEAR kiosks = no value.  On other trips, for example, to Denver, Colorado (DEN), I COULD have gone through CLEAR, but my wife would have had to go through the TSA PreCheck alone.  So, it’s only good for a couple when you fork out the dough for both.  I wonder if we’d both get my Medallion discount… probably not… it doesn’t really matter.  By the time I started using the service, I’ve already used up a few weeks of my allotted free time.  As a result, I don’t get the full chance to the experience the full value of the program – I don’t think they care.

Once I was finally set up and when in a situation where I can use the program, I started noticing how long the TSA PreCheck lines were in comparison to the CLEAR lines.  Maybe something has changed recently with TSA PreCheck, but those lines have started shrinking.  It appears that, for a while, the TSA was giving away PreCheck to folks in hopes that the passenger would find the program appealing and then make the leap to paying for the service.  Perhaps that has slowed or stopped now, because each of the times I headed to the CLEAR line for the past few weeks, the PreCheck lines have been short — like “less than ten people in line” short.  In fact, on one occasion, I paced myself with another passenger who entered the TSA PreCheck maze, as I walked past that entry point to the CLEAR maze.  With all of the twisting and turning she had to do in the cordoned off PreCheck maze, and my having to wait for one of the CLEAR kiosk AND an attendant to be available, she actually made it to the cheese before I did.  Isn’t that something? I was using a premium service that is allegedly worth ten times more ($85 for 5 years [$17/year] vs $179 a year), and she gets to the luggage screening actually before me.  The answer was becoming clear – their value proposition just isn’t holding water.

But What about SkyClub?

Is that the only value of CLEAR?  To get through security faster?  For most, I’m sure it is, but I saw another avenue to test their product – the Delta SkyClub.  To enter the SkyClub, you need to provide proof of your authorization to enter.  My American Express Business Platinum card justifies part of its expense by providing access to various lounges, the Delta SkyClub, for example, when you are flying on that airline that day.  So, my authorization requires two steps.  I have to show my American Express Business Platinum card and I need to prove I’m on a Delta flight.  This is where CLEAR comes in.  Usually, I have to scan a boarding pass (on my phone), but with CLEAR, all I need to do is place my index and middle finger on the bio-scanner.  But then, this is where CLEAR fails… again…

First, the recognition process is somewhat slow, especially compared to the SkyClub’s ability to scan the QR code of the boarding pass.  The bar code scans nearly instantly with an affirmative beep of success.  With CLEAR, I have to hold my fingers on the reader for 5 seconds to hear an unintuitive tone that occasionally means that I have to try again since I placed my fingers too heavily or too lightly or had recently applied lotion or whatever variety of malady affected the technology that day.

Second, CLEAR only works when you have an outbound flight at that airport! I admit it, I’m frugal to nearly a fault… even without much hair, I take the shampoo that the hotel allocates to me (and will throw away after I’m gone) and use it as a three months supply for my gym bag.  So, when you tell me that I can visit the SkyClub on each side of my flight… you can bet your sweet bippy I’m going to do just that… getting a free drink, cookie, tea bag, and a few packets of Truvia each time.  Consistently, CLEAR just does not recognize my flight information from my biometrics when entering the SkyClub at my destination airport.  This instantly reduces the alleged value of this service by half.  And surprises of surprises, CLEAR even sent me another survey after noting my use of their service at the SkyClub.  Of course, I was honest with them about it, as usual.  And, as usual, there has been no response to my telling them, yet again, I find their value proposition questionable and that I will not recommend their product to others.

Summary

It seems that CLEAR is meant to be a high-cost for high-speed bypass lane to reward the highest of Delta elites.  They’re still knocking the kinks out of the process, and asking for feedback.  Unfortunately, their service failures don’t have a recovery process yet – and that’s giving them the benefit of a doubt.  Otherwise, their perspective is that they’re just uninterested.  It’s been weeks since I’ve left my first, somewhat scathing message to them about their service, and I haven’t heard a peep.

Overall, the price for layfolk however, in my opinion, is just not worth it.  By using your Delta frequent flier account to get a better rate, and depending on your flying habits, you might find that you’re getting something worthwhile out of the service.  But, for my hard-earned dollar, I’m going to spend it on anything else, thank you very much.

Financial Independence Day Week Celebration

Financial Independence Day Week Celebration

A few rude wake up calls have recently come our way.   One of Princess Muffins’ co-workers died in her sleep in her late 50’s.  It forced us to think: we’re not too far away from that.  She didn’t have time to “retire”, and spent the last of her time working her miserable job.  Our life goals have since shifted toward actually LIVING life, rather than spending said lives in analysis paralysis, planning and planning, waiting to die or retire, whichever comes first. Part of this living of life involves strategic use of various resources at our disposal while we’re “working” in order to have a far more pleasant existence. Historically, this has meant spending some quality time as a long weekend here or there, and creating an enterprise out of blogging about our travels and efforts to live a higher quality life while still somewhat working as “wage slaves”.

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Kick off the Summer with BJ’s Wholesale deal on Hotels.com gift cards (updated: 27 Jun 18)

Kick off the Summer with BJ’s Wholesale deal on Hotels.com gift cards (updated: 27 Jun 18)

Wow, it’s been nearly a year since chronicling our travel adventures.  It’s amazing that time has gotten so far away from us.  The school year really is a rough time, especially when dealing with two children with learning disabilities.  So much time goes into making them get their work done as if they’re “normal”, when they’re pretty far from it.  Teachers and administrators don’t seem to want the hassle.  The kids don’t feel like the system is really aligned to provide meaningful value to them.  That leaves us to fill the gaps between, and it really takes its toll.

Now that we’re a few weeks into the summer, it feels like we can actually breathe a little again and work our travel plans.  With all of this new found extra time I’ve been getting back into the swing of deals, rather than working at the client site, eating, sleeping, working out, repeat.   All those meals I scarfed down to maximize my daily allotment and cash back left me with a little extra tummy roll I needed to burn off.  Now, I’m running half-marathons (my first ever was just a few weeks ago), a few pounds away from my target weight with keto and exercise, and in the best shape I’ve been in my life.

Next week, we’ll be enjoying the cool weather of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  I booked a few days using Hotels.com, and then I discovered (a few days too late…) this awesome deal, I’m kicking myself for not being able to fully take advantage of.

22% savings on Hotels.com!

Hotels.com GC’s are often available for around 10% off, when purchased through a GC discounting portal such as Cardpool. However, they’re currently out of stock, probably because of the summer travel season. Right now $100 Hotels.com Gift Cards are on sale at BJ’s Wholesale for $85 + shipping.  It seems that if you order 3 of them, they waive the shipping fee, or maybe I got the shipping fee waived because my fulfillment location.  PointsChaser reported being charged $5 shipping, so YMMV — let me know how it worked for you.  I’m waiting to take advantage of this deal until my new AmEx Platinum arrives, so I can put it toward my $3k spend = 100,000 bonus points.

Please note! There’s a maximum of 3 of these Gift Cards that you can buy at a time – even though the shipping cart lets you select more than 3 at the item selection screen.

When I saw this deal, my first thought was “Oh crap… like I need another warehouse club membership… I already have one at Costco, and there isn’t really a convenient BJ’s Wholesale Club anywhere I usually go.”  However, after going through the motions to see how good the deal would be,  I learned that you can get an online-only membership for a mere $10 a year.  Sure that tacks on $10 to the price, but even with that, this deal ends up saving quite a bit. (assuming you can keep track of your gift cards!)

How it Stacks Up

So, here’s the angle on this deal —

  1. TopCashback is offering 3% cash back on the “All other purchases” category from BJ’s Wholesale.  Sorry, there’s no signup bonus at TopCashback.
  2. On top of that,  BJ’s has $100 gift cards on sale for $84.99.
  3. Buy them on a card that gives you miles/points/cashback
  4. Book your Hotels.com stay using the BeFrugal portal cashback discount (up to 11% cash back depending on if you collect Hotels.com rewards) by using the BeFrugal portal when booking.

At a minimum, you can turn around and flip these on a Gift Card discounting portal and get most (or maybe even more than) your money back, or just enjoy the fact that you’ve knocked ~19% off of your next Hotels.com purchase.

Savings, Computed…

If you use them, here’s how the savings stack:

  •  $100 value (generally really good rates on hotels as well)
  • -$15.01 due to $84.99 purchase price
  • -$  2.55 with 3% cash back when buying the card through TopCashback portal
  • -$  0.85 with 1% cash back (conservative estimate) credit card used for purchase
  • -$  3.66 cash back (conservative estimate) when making Hotels.com booking through BeFrugal portal
  • =$77.93 Final Cost for $100 worth of hotel stay (22% savings!)

Now, while hotels have a tendency to not credit points or elite credits when booking through Hotels.com, I have finagled them on more than one occasion to “just double check and make sure I got my rewards number on the stay”, and ended up getting credit.  It requires a little bit of wetware hacking and social engineering, but if you are nice enough and find the right desk person, they will often do this for you with no hassle whatsoever.

Update:  My Platinum AmEx card arrived yesterday, and Princess Muffins relayed the information to me over the phone so I could activate the card and use it in time for this deal.  I’m now just a smidge closer to the minimum spend for my 100,000 extra Membership Rewards points, which will be used to fund further travel happiness.   Hooray!

 

 

Stacked Discount Shopping For the WIN! – $10 Bonus Cash!

Stacked Discount Shopping For the WIN! – $10 Bonus Cash!

Do NOT buy the 2018 Entertainment book until you read this!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Entertainment book.  There are tons of restaurant deals on there for 50% off all over town.  My parents started buying it when I was a kid, and I’ve been addicted to it ever since.  But, there’s an even better way to save all that, and I aims to tell you about it.

 

Here’s my Golden Rule of Frugal Shopping: Always Shop At a Discount!

Back in 2010, I became a member of a site that shares a portion of their affiliate income back to the shopper. I thought it was pretty novel then, and they’re still around! I know, when you’re considering doing business with someone, it’s always a little sketchy when that new “Order Your Contact Lenses Online” store has only been around for 5 months.

So let’s say you’re interested in shopping at Macy’s for something, you go to this site I’m about to share with you, find the store at which you want discounts, click the affiliate link to the store, and you get cash back into your account, after you’ve made your order. I’ve saved about $500 over the years. I’ve started shopping a lot more at Amazon, which doesn’t really give a discount through these guys. But Macy’s? Sure… you can get 6% of your cost rebated to you.

 

The Savings Really Stack Up!

 

And it stacks!

You can stack this with your miles/points card. The 6% rebate doesn’t come off of your purchase price.  It comes back to you as a rebate, so your purchase price appears as full price and get all your miles for the purchase.

Let’s say you’re traveling for work. Hotels.com absolutely kicks butt for finding hotels at a cheap rate.

When I was traveling to New York City for work as an freelance consultant, where my hotel was burdened into my hourly rate, I’d click their affiliate link for Hotels.com, book the travel, get my Hotels.com rebate form for booking 3 or more nights from my Entertainment book, and book the whole thing on a miles credit card. I ended up paying so much less than I would have without stacking those savings.

  • Full Price of the Hotel on the rewards card
  • 6% Rebate by using their affiliate link
  • $20 rebate for booking 3 nights

Sure… but where can I shop?

Oh, and that contact lens example above? 1-800 Contacts – 5% rebate.
The Entertainment coupon book?  A 17.5% rebate!! (and a free shipping coupon code)
You can link your credit card to In-Store savings at Brick and Mortar places. Like Bed, Bath, and Beyond… When you’re getting new towels to use that 20% off coupon they’re always mailing out, you will get another 2% rebate when you use your linked rewards credit card.

 

It’s actually pretty amazing how many places have discounts running here. It’s pretty much everywhere you’re probably already shopping. So, instead of giving you affiliate links to high priced products and trying to convince you how awesome they are, here’s my advice and plea to you:

Sign Up At Ebates and Save!

If you actually buy stuff through their links after signing up through that link, I get $5 and YOU get $10. At a minimum, if you never use them again after buying the Entertainment book, you get $10 for using them once! This is insane! Now, they’re hoping you’re as excited about their deals as I am, and you’ll just keep buying stuff through them. They share the wealth, and they just keep making their affiliate cash hand over fist because of their profit sharing process. If they weren’t so confident you’d love their deals, they wouldn’t be willing to give you $10 for just signing up.

Now that you know about them, it’s silly to ever shop the normal way again! Am I right?!

 

 

 

 

Achieve Your Goals with a Modern Twist on Ancient Greek Wisdom

Achieve Your Goals with a Modern Twist on Ancient Greek Wisdom

Having mentored quite a few folks in the art of leadership, I’ve found that metaphors are extremely helpful.  By attaching a parallel physical or familiar concept to abstract skills being developed, it’s easier to draw corollary conclusions, paths, and jumpstart success by realizing what does and doesn’t work in the more familiar or concrete metaphorical concept.

One of the mantras I follow as a life policy comes from ancient wisdom, “Moderation in all things”.  This timeless instruction comes from the inscription Meden Agan (μηδὲν ἄγαν) [Nothing in excess] in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, where kings would seek the wisdom of the Gods.

Temple of Apolllo at Delphi

The Mind-Body Link

It is fairly common knowledge that yo-yo dieting actually has deleterious effects, resulting in weight gain over the long run. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s when someone goes on a weight loss diet, then stops, then starts again, then stops again, and so forth. What happens is that the period of reduced caloric intake pushes the body to believe it’s starving. The body responds by reducing metabolism, and weight loss plateaus (unless you go full anorexia – never go full anorexia!) After a while of this “Gotta lose weight at all costs!” attitude, then plateauing, it’s hard to keep up this sacrifice when there’s no obvious gain. So, after the restricted calorie window ends and caloric intake goes back to normal, the calories are now more impactful, since the body is now acclimated to fewer calories.

Similarly, in exercise, when performing the same actions again and again, such as running marathons, fitness gains plateau, as the body recognizes these patterns and becomes more efficient at what is now normal.  According to Dr. Arnold Lee, MD of San Francisco, “When you do the same activity all the time, your body gets used it and becomes very efficient. Eventually, that adaptation will mean that you burn fewer calories even when you’re doing the same amount of exercise.” Taken even further, and the repeated motion can start wearing down joints and connective tissue, and we’re back to deleterious effects of excess.

In both of these situations, a “good thing” becomes a “bad thing” when taken too far or for too long.  I believe the same to be true in the pursuit of happiness.  For example, it makes me very happy not to go to work as a wage slave. I might be able to give that up for a year or so and live off my savings, but after the money is all gone, what will I do? At some point, I might find I need some money for fundamental needs, such as food, shelter, gas,  etc.  And then, I have to work again, but what work will I do, when I’ve been out of my lucrative field for the past year.  How will I explain that gap on my resume, assuming I’m even given the chance?

In the pursuit of wealth, I can scrimp and save every penny, and spend my time clipping coupons, visiting deal sites, and but what does this do to my overall health and happiness, if I take this to too much of an extreme?  Most coupons are for crap food that fewer and fewer people are eating, so these products need additional incentive to keep the product moving.  So, I stock up on garbage food that cost me next to nothing?  What if I become so conditioned to not spending money, that I don’t enjoy my life while I still have it?  What good is a huge bank account at 40, if I die at 45 because of the stresses I’ve imposed on my body and mind during that time?  What good is “retirement” at 65, if I’m only going to live 5 more years?

Proven Solutions

Yo-yo dieting fails because of the mind-body issue associated with deprivation combined with the body acclimating to new caloric levels.  The “slow and steady” approach with everything in moderation results in solid weight loss that sticks.  Increase exercise, decrease intake (many different perspectives on which intakes to reduce and how much), and slowly, but surely, the weight will come off.  Come on, you didn’t get fat in one month, did you?  How long did you think it will take to lose it?

In Personal Wealth terms, though, this seems like the “Work Your Whole Life for a Pension” plan.  And we’re back to “What good is it to retire at 65, so I can die 5 years later?”  There has a be a better way, right?

Hacking the System

I’ve often used this metaphor when a client attempts to use “averages” to make decisions, but completely ignores the persistent huge swing back and forth.  If your head is in the oven, but your feet are in the freezer, “on average” you’re comfortable, right?

If slow and steady wins the race, is there some way to turn up the heat (as it were) on the process, and still keep an “average” that results in expedited progress?

The Cycle Diet takes our natural metabolic processes, and turns them in our favor.  Without going into all the detail, periods of reduced caloric intake create the weight loss, but then there’s a weekly binge to throw the pattern off.  This doesn’t just keep your body from thinking it’s starving, it actually triggers what’s called situational hypermetabolism.  Quite a few programs are now leveraging the findings of the Cycle Diet.  The Four-Hour Body and Paleo diet, for example, similarly work this same angle, though each works a bit differently.  The key point is that the program becomes more effective, at least partly, because rather than feeling deprived, there’s a reward waiting at the end of the tunnel that makes each day of “suffering” a bit more tolerable.  Then on cheat day, you can eat that piece of cake or have that date night at the fancy Italian restaurant.  In fact, if you’ve been having a hard time making time for that special moment to rekindle a mature relationship, having a cheat day makes you put date night on the calendar.  Mine is Saturday, and we use that as our chance to visit the restaurants we review and blog about. We can have the decadent dessert, appetizers, and the works to get a full appreciation of the menu and still be on program.

If you haven’t heard of the P90 Workout, it’s an exercise regimen that works for muscles just like the Cycle diet works for the metabolism. Through a process called “muscle confusion”, the efficiencies that Dr. Lee warns us about are averted.  New muscle groups and movements are rotated through so that you get a complete workout yet the plateauing phenomenon is bypassed.  The boredom of constantly Sweating to the Oldies or Tae Bo’ing to the same DVD for months on end is also avoided.

As Yogi Berra said, “90% of [the game] is mental”, and this is the same with any program requiring you to change your behaviors, especially if it involves some form of austerity, such as a cash fast.

Hacking Your Psyche – For The Win

If doing without is just too hard to stick with, and all that sacrifice results in a backlash of horrific eating, spending, or loafing — maybe we can learn some lessons from the successes in the Cycle Diet and P90 regimen.

Here’s an idea:  After a month of cutting out fancy coffees, dining out, and cigarettes, use half of that big chunk of savings to take a day trip.  Make it a reward for all that hard work.  Knowing what’s waiting, after success, might just make it easier to say “no” to those expensive habits.  Then, after those habits are broken, the motivational tool becomes less and less necessary, at the pace that makes cents.

Maybe progress won’t be as fast as going on a 90-day cash fast.  But, if you don’t make it through the cash fast, it becomes easier to label yourself a failure, and just give up on the whole thing – the dreams, the goals, and the effort required.  Slap on the shackles and head back on into wage slavery. It’s a gilded cage, right… that’s not SO bad…

Being able to set goals at which you can succeed are key to accomplishing anything long term.  The first time I physically fasted, I had no idea what to expect.  The same thing for the first time I ran a 5k, then 10k.  I’m sure you see where this is going.  Little wins create confidence that turn into the big wins.

Have you found a way to hack yourself and wire yourself to win in some other area?   Do you think you can leverage what you’ve learned about yourself to win in the new and scary place?  Share the lessons you’ve learned in the comments below.

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Photo Credits

One of my key aspirations is to express my creativity through capturing the beauty of nature through photography and videography.  All of the photos on this site were taken by me, The Happy Camper.

Anonymity

Because my wife and I still work for our wage slave masters, while I viciously attack the concept of such servitude in this medium, I will use a pen name and refrain from being directly visible in any of the photos or videos.  This is because “the man” isn’t terribly interested in having people work for them who aren’t in it for the “long haul.”  Just as companies can fire someone when it’s right for them, I reserve the right to quit my job when it’s right for me, and would prefer not to gain any unwanted attention from the overlords until then.

My Gear

Starting out:

Current Gear:

Amazon

Amazon Link Goes Here

Affiliate Links

You can help me achieve my dream purchasing any products you would normally buy from Amazon using my affiliate link. The Amazon Affiliate program allows content producers (like me) to earn a small commission for any customers referred to Amazon.  The cool thing is that the customers don’t pay any more for their purchases than they normally would. This allows viewers and readers to help support content creators without incurring any extra expense.

Thank you for your support of my happy! Any money that I earn from these ads, whether from advertising or Amazon Affiliate sales, allows me to focus more on creating content and take my steps to escape from wage slavery.

Amazon Affiliate Link – http://amzn.to/2sRGOqL