Stolen wallet - will psgr. be able to fly without ID?
 

My father had his wallet stolen. He is away from home in Chicago on a business trip and need to get on a UA flight on Tuesday morning. I can send him his passport via FEDEX but that won't arrive in time for his Tues morning flight. Besides changing his itinerary in order to wait for his passport, is there a way to board via some other forms or documentation?

TSA has procedures for this. Do online check-in for him and have him go to the airport 4 hours prior to the fight. TSA will interview him and decide if he is a flight risk. Most likely he will be fine.

http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/acceptable-ids

See second paragraph of that link.

OY, how awful for your dad. I once had to travel BRU-ORD-LAX without my wallet. But I did have my passport.

First, FED should be able to do overnight in a pinch. It will cost a penny or two, but it should be available. May be worth it so dad doesn't have to spend the 4 hours at the airport (per the above post).

Changing the itinerary may not be a bad idea. SDC (Same day change) is usually straight forward. A call to UA may even open the door for them to make a change without fee to a flight beyond the SDC parameter.

My ex lost his wallet while visiting me in 2006 and had to fly back on Northwest NYC-MSP and he said they just asked him a few questions took him aside and he was done in less than 10 min.

Well IMO, checking ID's is a complete waste of time and resources by the TSA - does nothing to improve security and just causes a longer wait time, but regardless of that, the the poster mentioned above, they have other ways to confirm identification. When your father arrives, have him go to the ticket counter and request to speak to a TSA lead. Have him explain the situation, and ask for verification through the Public Databases. They will be able to verify the information elsewhere.

I once had my DL expired (just honestly wasn't paying attention) and they called the TSA lead, asked me a whole four questions in the side room, verified (I had my passport number, but not the passport with me), and they verified it all and was on my merry way - took me a whole 5 extra minutes.

It might be helpful if you can fax or email a copy of the ID page of the passport to him.

You don't say what time the flight is but FEDEX do offer a delivery by 08:00 service for a price if you have a pickup point.

There is no need to FedEx him anything and no need to change the flights.

He can board without ID as noted in the TSA link. I seriously doubt it will require 4 hours.

Fax him the info page from his passport to speed along the TSA's "verification" of his identity.

Even better than faxing, scan and email the page from the passport and any other document that might be available. Assuming he has access to his email.

Shouldn't be a problem.

LA

My wife lost her wallet several years ago on a trip and we tried the TSA interview thing, but they couldn't find sufficient information in any database about her even with her SSN and, after a couple of hours of calls to supervisors and a great amount of gnashing of teeth, we were not allowed to board. She had the 1K bag tags with her name and MP #, but that wasn't good enough evidently.

Had to rent a car and drive 1,500 miles home.

Need to know if your father is seeking to board an international or domestic flight.

1. If International, he will need his passport. Has nothing to do with TSA. But, as he will need his passport, that will also suffice for TSA. As others note, you can do Fedex First from Los Angeles-Chicago with delivery by 8:30 AM on Tuesday. No idea whether that meets your father's needs for a Tuesday AM departure. There may also be express services which will accept a package today (Sunday) for delivery in Chicago tomorrow.

2. If domestic, TSA does indeed have alternative means of identifying passengers. The more ID -- even copies -- your father can produce, the better. This includes a copy of his passport, utility bills, even magazine subcription labels. But, as others note, it does not always work. If the overnight deadlines work, I would ship the passport or understand that there is a risk of further delay.

Wow, I assumed that this always worked. Strange. What year was this?

I would imagine domestic, as it was his wallet stolen, and passports aren't usually kept in wallets!

Good point. Additionally, it's clearly obvious that it's a domestic flight, because the father "is away from home" and yet he did not take his passport on the trip.

If the trip was international, then we wouldn't have heard about a stolen wallet - we would have heard about a "forgotten passport."

My experience several years ago losing wallet before security check at SFO on domestic UA flight, waited 40 min for TSA special security check supervisor, then 5 min Q&A on SSN, birthday, driving license, where u live and work dating back 10 years (TSA database had my info). I was able to make my flight.

2010 or 2011, I believe. When you travel so much to the same place, it's hard remember the chronology or year--or I'm just getting old.:)

They were going to send us to some federal agency the next day to get approved but that would've delayed us by almost 24 hours, so I just decided to drive. We got home the next night anyway, so there would've no upside in waiting for her interview.