notsosmart

A friend of mine has managed to misplace his last form of valid ID, his passport.

He must fly on Friday, and is a bit lost as to what to do.

I seem to recall that there is a procedure that the TSA uses for letting people through, after a thorough screening or something like that.

Does anyone know how that works? (Do they still allow it?)

Many thanks...

cordelli

He should plan on getting there early and spending some time with the TSA.

Passengers who do not or cannot present an acceptable ID will have to provide information to the Transportation Security Officer performing Travel Document Checking duties in order to verify their identity. Passengers who are cleared through this process may be subject to additional screening. Passengers whose identity cannot be verified by TSA may not be allowed to enter the screening checkpoint or onto an airplane.

If it were me, I would get a replacement ID tomorrow.

obscure2k

Please continue to follow this thread in the TS/S Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

mre5765

FWIW, a few weeks at the elite line in DEN, a woman directly in front of me indicated she had no ID, and was processed by a TSO. By the time I got through (using the WTMD instead of the WBI which is where elites are "supposed" to feed into), and arrived at the train to the concourses, she got there a few seconds later and took the same train. So under some circumstances it can be relatively quick.

But I would arrive at least an hour sooner than normal.

Ari

This is Phil's time to shine!!!

notsosmart

Thanks for the responses so far... I will pass the info along.

N965VJ

It would seem to me that the questions would be similar to verifying your identity to an online financial institution during a password reset. You would be asked to verify or deny several pieces of information about you that is publicly available such as past places you've lived, property ownership, corporations/LLCs you've formed, etc.

clrankin

This lks suspiciusly like a terrrist attempt to bard an aircraft withut having to prduce identification...

Hmm... If I see something, I should say something.

Little Johnny Peepants alert mode in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

cparekh

Recently, a woman in front of me at LGA lost her ID. The TDC asked her to show a couple of credit cards with her name, and anything with a photo. She showed her work ID and was let through. Took no extra time, and everybody was quite reasonable about it.

Smart TSOs understand that, while required for them to check, ID checking is not really important in terms of safety. Hopefully it will be that easy for your friend. However, until Phil posts his FAQ, let me say, that as far as I understand it, there is no legal requirement to have ID to fly domestically. Furthermore, my guess is TSA deals with several people a day who don't have ID at any large airport.

wilp888

On a ski trip to DEN last December, one of my friends found out at check-in that he forgot his wallet. Fortunately he had done OLCI so he had his boarding pass. We went through security UAL T6/7 at LAX where he told the TSA document checker that he forgot his wallet and had no ID or CC with him. He waited beside the podium for a few minutes until a TSO came and took him to the back. We waited for 20 minutes at the top of the escalator for him. He said later that they took him into a room and patted him down and searched his carry-on duffel. Then they asked his address and information about where he worked, etc. The TSO called his utility company and his bank to check his info and then let him through. It was pretty painless except for the wait.

Flying_Lotus

Hi, I'm sorry to butt in here, but I am in a similar situation.
My only picture id expired last month, and as soon as I realized it I renewed it. I do have a temporary copy they gave me, a paper one with my info and picture on it. Over a month later I still have not received it. I fly in two days and I am freaking out! I did call both Delta and TSA and got some assurance that 2 other forms of non-picture id can be used, such as SS card, marriage license, and birth certificate, all of which I plan to bring, along with every scrap of paper I could find with my name and address. I have read some horror stories of people without ids that ran into uneducated jerks when they tried to get their boarding pass, and it's got me worried. What should I do if the person at the counter doesn't know the procedure for no id?

wilp888

Welcome to FT, Flying_Lotus. If you do online check-in, you can print your boarding pass before you get to the airport and bypass the check-in counter and go straight to security.

pmocek

Although TSA refuses to publish all the rules they require passengers to follow at airport checkpoints, from what we can distill from TSA press releases, heavily-redacted information obtained via FOIA requests, TSA blog posts, and other information they publish on the Web, it's relatively clear that your boarding pass is all the documentation that's ever required for domestic flights. It seems that passengers are not required to present documentation of their identities to TSA staff, and that doing so is not a condition of crossing the TSA checkpoint, but rather is an option which allows passengers to cross the checkpoint with a less-thorough search of their belongings and fewer questions to answer.

For more on this, please see the FlyerTalk thread, "TSA's airline passenger identification policies."

Flying_Lotus

That sounds like a good idea. I'm going to get some ink for my printer tomorrow(dang that stuff is pricey!). Thanks!

janetdoe

I forgot my DL and had to throw myself on the mercy of TSA at DFW this weekend. I had an electronic boarding pass on my iPhone. They kept saying, "She has an electronic boarding pass but no ID" as if it was important/significant that my boarding pass was electronic. I have no idea if that made the process easier or harder.

The TSA supervisor wanted some combination of documents that contained my name, photo, address, date of birth, etc. She asked me if I had a checkbook, bills addressed to me, social security card, etc. In the end, I had three picture IDs; a Sam's club card, a Costco card, and a library card. She eventually let me through.

They did a full patdown, and they swab-tested everything in my bag after it went through X-rays. When I got to my destination, I realized I had a 16 oz bottle full of water in the bottom of my backpack!

It took an extra 15-20 minutes, most of it was waiting for a supervisor.