Originally Posted by
pinniped
The hidden-city piece by itself is more of an ethical discussion. I think we all agree that this isn't illegal in a criminal sense and the OP could complete his plan of exiting in Chicago without any issues whatsoever. We have our 1000-post thread here somewhere about ethics (on both the part of the airline and the passenger) and what actually might happen to you if you decide to start flying hidden-city itins regularly.
But I'm pretty sure the 2nd bit - flying under a false name - is actually illegal. IANAL, but this seems rather clear to me:
§1540.103 Fraud and intentional falsification of records.
No person may make, or cause to be made, any of the following:
(a) Any fraudulent or intentionally false statement in any application for any security program, access medium, or identification medium, or any amendment thereto, under this subchapter.
On one hand, the act of making an intentionally false statement at the access point could be considered illegal. (e.g., handing the TSA agent a boarding pass and your real ID when you know you will not fly that BP.) We certainly have FT threads about buying a refundable ticket to use a lounge, and we all know you wouldn't get caught doing this. On the rare chance that you did, you'd probably get told "don't do that again" and that would be the end of it. But compounding that act by making a 2nd false statement (handing an airline agent someone else's BP) kicks it up a notch...now you've committed two acts and
actually flown, something I think the Feds would take a lot more seriously if you got caught.
Read in context the portion of 49 CFR 1540.103 you quoted seems to apply to fraud with regard to the
security program required of airport operators, and identification/access badges (
access/identification medium) for airport employees and other authorized people, that are required as part of the operator's security program, not to passengers access or travel.
There may be some other regulation that does apply to passengers but it doesn't appear that this is it.