How important is initial ID check?
 

When I say initial, I am referring to the printing of the boarding pass at the kiosks. For the second time this year, once in SJU and once in EWR, after printing out my boarding pass from the kiosk, I checked the bag and left. The agent made no mention of checking my ID against the name on the ticket. Isn't this protocol among the FAA? I can't think of any flight before this year, whether it is CO or any other airline, where the agents didn't ask for identificiation. I would think that this would be the first thing that needs to be done, but maybe its not as important as it used to be. I figured that I would put this out in the Flyertalk Community.

They check on international flights; I am not sure why they really need to check on domestic trips. Bags are screened nowadays. IDs are checked prior to passing through security. I am not sure what else needs to be done.

Honestly, it's not like checking ID's does ANYTHING anyway. How hard would it be for Joe Smith and Bob Jones to switch boarding passes after passing through security?

Checking ID, and ID itself has nothing to do with security - fake ID is as easy to find as candy.

Checking ID has everything to do with revenue protection - preventing people from selling or swapping tickets. The airlines pushed for this FAA rule to stop the trade of tickets which was costing them revenue.

Do you know what I miss parroting?

1. I have packed my own bags;
2. They have been in my possession at all times;
3. I have not accepted anything from anyone unknown!

:D

As an airline employee:

The ID when checking in is a matter of corporate policy - we at B6 are only supposed to check when the passenger is checking a bag. But 10% of the time when I'm helping in the operation I forget to check. It's no big deal. If someone forgets to check an ID (especially when the customer is having some friendly banter with us) it's nothing big. And when IDs are checked, you can pretty much show anything (Sometimes I just glance at the picture, let alone look at any information). The important ID check is with TSA.

Yes, but I still often find I have to parrot this when in europe, especially at locations where CO just flies one flight a day.

They do this kind of bla bla in Cologne for example.

On my last two flights (German domestic - so not Continental) they didn't even check my ID before security screening. So I could have bought the ticket as "supermasterphil" who is apparently not targeted and "I am searched by police"could have used the ticket!

On the other hand, just a bad person being on the plane is not a security decrease for me as long as the security check is efficient.
The TSA always claims to be so good, high standards, bla bla but they never find anything even if I have additional liquids, still wear my belt, whatever.

In Germany, they always check me twice even if I am "clean" and took off the belt, etc. You know what? They are even friendly!

The most amazing security process I've seen was AUH (Abu Dhabi). What a joke! Beep through the metal detector? Ehhh whatever. Don't have a passport? Ughhh just go. You'd put your bags on the X-Ray conveyor and no one is even sitting at the screen to watch what's in those bags (he went to get coffee).

Luckily I'm the worry-free guy that I am and just thought it was funny. But when I think of the fact that you don't have to go through security in places like LHR and someone could board a plane with a weapon in AUH and end up on a flight from LHR to JFK...

Here's another story (more relevant to ID checking)...

A couple years ago while in the old BOS PC I scored a companion upgrade BOS-IAH (can you believe that... a BOS flight and on a 735!!) and by some error the PC assigned BOTH seats to my friend. So we had two boarding passes with his name on both (we were not aware of this) and when I got to TSA and my ID didn't match the guy said that, so my friend and I switched boarding passes (again, assuming we each had the other's, not aware of the same name on both). After switching, TSA guy looks at my ID and boarding pass again and lets us through. Only the gate agent noticed the double name upon boarding.

All non-domestic transfers are security screened at LHR, I think.

This ID check is as irrelevant as the first one (except from a revenue protection standpoint).

I few years ago, the passport inspectors at the DXB EK business class passport control were just waving people through without checking passports, except the Americans and Brits who were on my flight - we all had to stop and present our passports.

a friend of mine was in Bangladesh, and the security guy let a passenger with a "wrapped present" cut the line, and not inspect the box, for the equivalent of 20 cents (USD)...as my friend put it "that coulda been a baby!"

two years ago I came back from Alaska and checked some frozen salmon that was packed at the dock. They didn't ask the questions and I didn't really think about it until I got home and part of the order was wrong. If they would have asked at the airport, It would have been "no" to all three. I guess they're use to handling salmon at Anchorage, but it was a little disturbing.

FWIW

DLM