Originally Posted by hobo13

I apologize if you miss the point. This isn't about what did happen, but what could have happened.

IF the kid didn't have bags to check.....
IF the kid already had his passport info in the system....
IF the kid used OLCI or the chicken.....

He absolutely would not have have been asked to present his passport in ANC. He would have walked right past the check-in counter, gone through security, and presented his ANC-ORD BP at the gate. And then boarded the plane.

I never claimed that either one of those conditions was true, but rather am simply saying that IF they were true, he would have made it to ORD just fine sans passport.

And I'm not blaming UA here or anybody else. I'm just saying that there are ways that for the OP's plan to have been executed successfully. It wasn't guaranteed to fail, as many in this thread claim. Clearly, this is an academic argument.... at least one of the three IF's was violated, and that's what caused the breakdown. But you can't deny that it could have worked. How do I know? I fly to the intl gateway all the time without showing my passport!