Everyone is a potential terrorist until TSA says you are not. Welcome to the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. [/sarcasm]

You're either with us, or you're against us, cowboy.

Well, I've had opposite ends of the spectrum at ORD T1 (UA) this month. Early in the month, I had the two minute drill from a TSA ID checker in the middle of the day. The premium line was backed up into the lobby just before Noon!

Last Wednesday, I was at ORD at 4:30am dreading the worst. That morning's TSA ID checker took a quick look, made a single scribble and moved me on.

So I guess it all depends upon who is doing the looking and scribbling.

Explain to me again how having TSA do this is better? I didn't realize that TSA was hiring experts in every form of ID there is, who are able to spot forgeries without fail.

I guess next month we'll read something about how TSA is demanding that states adopt REAL ID so that the "flying public's safety can be assured by consistent IDs". They will base it upon their extensive time and motion studies and the difficulty that they have ensuring that IDs presented at checkpoints are authentic and that they have discovered X number of "fake IDs" through their new program, blah blah blah...

I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop since last week's releases about how many test devices were being missed by TSA at the checkpoints. i was certain that this would lead to bag dumps on a regular basis.

Nobody should be checking IDs at all!!! :mad:

Well, then we get back to people flying on tickets in different names. I still remember the university bulletin board with "ticket for male traveler" when you could get away with that. The airlines are probably making a fortune now that unused tickets can't be sold off to a party with a different name. Are you sure they're not an advocate of ID checks?

Let them do it themselves if they are worried about revenue protection.

Someone else can still fly on another's ticket by using a fully refundable ticket in their own name and then flying on another's ticket once they pass "security".

Nothing new, of course. Revenue protection schemes have kept the airlines' coffers padded since long before 9/11, as I'm sure experienced FFers know.

Of course they are. The myopia here is that the airlines have to deal with the fallout when jammed "security" lines cause pax to miss flights or a/c pushback delays due to gate screening.

I think the term is "guilty until proven innocent"

All evidence to the contrary (e.g. the bankruptcies of UA, NW, CO, DL, US and other, smaller carriers) notwithstanding?

:D

How do you figure the airlines are profiting from this? Unless I'm missing something they have to deal with figuring out how to get that passenger on another flight. The same number of tickets/seats are sold. They are just screwed up because PAX aren't getting on the flights they booked. In the case of the OP's post I'll bet there were a bunch of empties on the first flights (or the planes left late - throwing off all kinds of things down the line) who would have to be accomodated further on.

This morning, I cleared the priority screening line at about the "normal" pace, although things were a bit more frustrating due to strollers and wheelchairs immediately in front of me. The screener did not seem to spend any more time than usual scrutinizing my boarding pass and Illinois driver's license.

However, while waiting in the line, I passed by the "regular" security stop, and witnessed the TSA screener spend what seemed to be an inordinate time looking at a woman's passport. I assume the name on the passport didn't match the boarding pass due to marriage. The screener flipped to the back page, looked at it for a long time, flipped to the front, shuffled to the BP... All without saying a word to the passenger. Fortunately, it didn't delay the passenger since the WTMDs were pretty well backed up.

Differnece though is that it actually matters is an ID is real in Vegas because you have to be a certain age to gamble. You don't need ID to fly, so it's just a waste of time.

Bingo!

The other difference is that peace officers must form reasonable grounds to stop and detain an individual and inspect identification if they do not have a warrant. Airport identification checks, conversely, are fishing expeditions that would be unlawful if performed by peace officers and have no real-world effect on security. I'm with Spiff on this one.

I can't wait for holiday travel to begin and for Ma and Pa Kettle to miss their flights because of this foolishness. If you're on that first flight of the day it doesn't matter how early you get there if they won't open the checkpoint.

I'm thinking the solution for anyone in the know is flying without ID. It sounds like straight to secondary will be quicker.