susiesan

I flew out of MCI 4/8 to ABQ to visit my mother. I had changed wallets before leaving and left my drivers license in the one at home. When I got to the ID checker I told him I had no DL with me. He asked for 2 other pieces, preferably one with a photo. All I had was my Costco card that has a pic on it plus a AX card. He said "works for me". No more questions, no more screening, just continued on.

Leaving ABQ to return to MCI, I had to be patted down, and my purse and carryon thoroughly searched and swabbed. But they were very polite about it.

Don't you just love consistency? TSA is such a joke.

FriendlySkies

Hey know, it was a "layer of skewrity!!" Even thought airport A did this, we at airport B do it this way. We have stopped so many terwists with our "layers"

Flaflyer

But of course. TSA BDOs know budget tewwowists shop at Wallymart/Sams. Tewwowists with a sense of karma shop at Target, naturally. None shop at Lowe's or Home Depot anymore, since box cutters are no longer effective weapons. Only Real™ 'Mericans shop at Costco, thus your Costco card is as good as an FBI background check to DHS.

star_world

sad day when a modicum of common sense results in babbling baby talk from the natives...

jkhuggins

Pardon? Isn't it TSA who states:

Somehow, I don't see how a Costco card passes as a "federal or state-issued photo ID", much less having a "tamper-resistant feature". Care to enlighten us?

janehoya

on March 25, 2009. Couple in front of me to be exact. Woman had no ID, male companion was exasperated with her but no worries. As she rifled through her wallet she came across her Costco card, which the TSA agent happily accepted. If I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't have believed it.

PhoenixRev

Yeah. Common sense.

Do you know what it takes to get a Cosco membership card?

1. Cash
2. An application.

That's it. No ID needed. In fact, you can fill out the online form and they will mail you your card and then you can go to the membership desk and have them issue you a new card with your photo.

Yeah. Great to know that TSA will accept a non-secure, non-government issued "ID" as proof of identity.

star_world

So, what - you support them checking for government-issued IDs, and being required to show these at the checkpoint? Or you're pissed that you've always shown your driving license instead of your Costco card?

Regardless, you should have a think about what "government issued ID" actually means - in many, many countries the process required to obtained one is somewhat similar to obtaining a Costco card. Now what?

The requirement for a government issued ID is a ridiculous one - ^ to the TSO for using common sense in this case.

PhoenixRev

No, I support doing away with the ID check all together and this incident proves what security theater this is.

And, for the record, I have never shown my DL or my Costco card to any TSO anywhere.

birdstrike

Wait, I thought you were a supporter of security at any cost? I must have missed something.

star_world

clearly you are confusing me with someone else. Your ridiculous comment couldn't be further from the truth.

clrankin

It's a sad day when TSA accepts Costco cards but calls LEOs to put people who want to use their government issued NEXUS card in cuffs...

Or is that inconsistency by design? Changing policies to keep those nasty, evil terrrrists guessing what lunacy is next?

You've gotta love TSA. When they're inconsistent, it's by design and they're doing it to fool terrrrists and keep 'Merica safe, and free, 'cause of 9/11, don't ya know?

And when they're consistent, it's because their folks don't know or adequately understand their policies and procedures and keep messing things up.

And since TSA's ID checking rules seem concerned that it be a non-expired picture ID with DOB on it issued by federal or state government, I guess I can indeed cover up various PII portions of my DL (like address and customer number) should I have the need to.

Boggie Dog

Bob Burns, TSA Blogger in Chief, claims TSA employees are well trained so it's obvious that you could never have a problem with a TSA employee not knowing which ID is acceptable.

clrankin

Interesting how there's never been a post at PV about the problems that one of the folks here at FT had when he presented his NEXUS card... Not I'd accuse Blogdad Bob of censorship or anything like that...

After all, we know the TSA is all about respecting people and their freedoms... <ROTFLMAO>

oldpenny16

I've used my company issued photo ID badge several times. It has a big red stripe on it that indicates something in the company, but the TSA checkers seem to be impressed.

Aren't you impressed?