gnolly

The TSO who didn't accept a passport for ID is an idiot and needs to be retrained. If this happened to me, I would NOT ask to speak to a supervisor (because of the delay) and would show my drivers license, but would note the TSO's name (they all have nametags). AFTER getting through security, I would call the TSA from the concourse and speak to a supervisor and explain the problem. Anonymously.

George Nolly

moeve

out of curiosity - a COSTCO card is what?? I know stupid foreigners!!

STBCypriot

I have. I stopped using my passport for this very reason. My passport is one of the 48-page ones and it has extra pages sewn in and it is pretty much full of stamps and Visas. The one (first, last, and last and only time) I used it as an ID (I had it at the ready because I was going on an international flight), the ID checker, scrutinized EVERY SINGLE page of it. After that incident I decided not to use it again. There is no need for the ID checker to go through a person's passport and I did not want to give the ID checker an opportunity to ask me why I had been to Russia so much or why I had all these visas in my passport. So I use my driver's license now. I don't care about them having access to my address. I don't live at that address anymore. I don't even live in the US anymore. When I renew my passport, I am getting the passport card. Problem solved!

PTravel

Costco is a membership department store -- you pay an annual fee for the privilege to shop and, in exchange, have access to a store that looks like an enormous warehouse in which you can buy products by the case, or in industrial sizes, at hefty discounts over other retail stores. It is a private enterprise that has nothing to do with the government. In order to prove your membership when you want to shop, you are issued an ID card that includes your picture. If TSA accepts Costco cards as proof of identiy, they might as well accept your name written in pencil on a blank piece of paper accompanied by a picture drawn in crayon by an unrelated 6-year old.

mikew68

Do the tsa people have the LEGAL authority to inspect your Passport pages ? As it is a federal document and I was under the impression that Immigration and CBP are the ONLY ones with the authority to inspect you passport...

chollie

An earlier post in this thread references the 'security feature' allegedly hidden somewhere in the middle of the passport. Because TDCs are tasked with verifying both your identity and the validity of your ID, this 'hidden feature' buried somewhere inside the passport gives them the excuse to page through the passport to find and verify this 'security feature' (with the naked eye or their magic light).

Of course, odd visas can raise questions, their BDO-lite training will enable them to decide if you are suspicious, invasive, time-consuming secondaries may be in order if you demonstrate hostility to the TDC....

There have actually been instances when a particularly clever TDC noted an expired visa in a US passport (gasp!).

Wally Bird

Immaterial. Much of what the TSA does is arguably illegal or at least not specifically sanctioned by law.

They don't care.

FXWizard

I used my US passport on a recent trip from BLI to LAS, both there and back it was accepted with no questions or comment.

goalie

With all due respect , that won't get you anywhere with the TSA and the only way to address this type of idiocy is to attack it when it happens. I know its a pita but if it's not addressed at the moment in time, nothing will come of it

jason8612

I used my passport without any issues (unlike my GE card) at quite a few airports across the country.
Odd they would say otherwise. I would of demanded someone with some sort of intelligence.

cbn42

How would you have done that?

"Excuse me, may I talk to someone with some sort of intelligence?"

stifle

"Get me a three-striper"?

...maybe not.

jason8612

That or supervisor
Or tell them to get the book of approved IDs and find the photo of a USA passport and show me where it says that it is not valid for domestic use.

ND Sol

[Emphasis added]

Have you looked at their nametags? The info you might be expecting is probably not there.

Why do you feel the need to do this anonymously?

Global_Hi_Flyer

Since when did the law ever stop them?

They know that you have a flight to catch & there's no harm to them if they're wrong, so they know you won't protest.

They also paw through wallets looking at every piece of paper/credit card.