So what exactly are the ID checks supposed to accomplish anyway? Last week traveling SMF-LAS-SMF, nobody noticed that my brother-in-law's last name on his boarding passes were incorrectly spelled as ESPSNOZA when the correct spelling is ESPINOSA (as reflected in his Mexican passport).

Note that I did contact the airline before traveling to point out the spelling mistake, and his PNR was updated with a comment noting the problem, but the boarding passes still printed the original incorrect name.

We passed through two SMF ID checks and two LAS ID checks - no comments at all were made by the TSA gurus about the name discrepancy.