I was recently traveling and had a 5 minute span of being unable to find my driver’s license.
What do you do if you lose your license and you are schedule to board a plane in 36 hours? I suppose I could have asked someone to overnight my passport.
Suppose you are thousands of miles from home and across multiple state lines but still in the US.
What are your options for getting an id quickly? what if you don’t have a passport or backup ID handy?
You can still board a plane for a domestic flight in the US without ID. You will be subjected to alternate screening. Cite
It happened to me a couple years ago for a domestic flight. They asked me lots of questions that they pulled from an identity database and did a full security search.
I took my wife to the airport for a flight to visit her family. She had forgotten her ID. After a lot of questions TSA called some number in Washington, DC and got her clearance. That was a few years ago. Maybe they have tightened things since then.
Now there is talk about requiring a passport for domestic flights. That will prove interesting because many Americans don’t have a passport and they want to drastically increase the fee to obtain them.
It’s not talk.
In 2013, I had both my license AND passport go missing at O’Hare. The TSA folks were merciful (with management review) after seeing all of my non-photo ID. They made it very clear that they were violating their own protocol, but were being kind to a douchebag in distress.
I have a passport, but since Indiana has secure licenses, and they cost $10, I got one. I had to show my passport to get it (could have shown my SS card, but my passport was handier). Also had to show my voter’s registration card to prove my state residence. Could have shown a lease, or a utility bill less than two months old.
Indiana allows you to have a state ID in addition to a driver’s license. I suppose if I traveled extensively within the country for work, or something, I’d get one and keep it in a different pocket, in case I lost my wallet. I don’t want to have to keep track of my passport if I don’t need to, considering what it cost, and how much trouble it is to get one. If I didn’t have a back-up state ID, and did some extensive in-state travel for say, a month, where I had six or seven flights, and a lot of money invested, I suppose I’d bring my passport, but for a weekend round trip, or a week-long trip to visit family, which is what my flights usually are, I’d just take my drivers license and hope for the best. I usually carry my voter’s registration card and my insurance ID. I guess I could put them in a different pocket so I’d have something. Maybe I’d bring my SS card and my birth certificate.
Circa 2004, post 9/11 but not immediately thereafter. My Best Man’s father and mother were flying to Somewhere in Mexico, for vacation. Portland, OR to Dallas TX, to SiM. They got on the plane in Portland no problem. Get to Dallas, check in at SiM Airways, “Ticket?”, check, check, “ID?”, “Here you are”, “What ID?” His mom didn’t think she needed any identification to go to Mexico on an airplane. They had crossed the border in a car a million times in previous years. If you looked Gringo, had a Gringo car, with American plates, they just waved you through.
Dad phoned his (very reliable) son, many comical (exasperating) mix-ups with phone numbers at airport gates, got Mom’s ID Faxed to Dallas, FedEx’ed ID to hotel SiM, Great Vacation, Funny Story, got home safely; Moral: Always bring your ID.
A US Passport Card is a decent option. Good for domestic flights and land/sea entry into the US from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. $30 as an add-on to new passports, renewals or valid US Passport holders. $55 for a first time applicant with no Passport Book. Good for 10 years or whenever your Passport Book expires if adding on to an existing one. Of course, I carry mine in my wallet. So, yeah.
I have passed through airport security several times with a concealed weapons permit (I didn’t have a driver’s license card at the time.) One guy grumbled, but let me pass. “Look…” I said. “It’s a state-issued photo ID. And it’s BETTER than a driver’s license. It means I’ve passed an FBI background check.”
Just a reminder: This whole discussion has focused on the TSA, but the airline is also going to want to see your ID if you check in with a live agent or you check any luggage.
You should also check your airline for its policies.
If you go to a state university, your ID is a state issued photo ID, but it isn’t secured. I don’t know whether universities will take steps to secure them or not.
You left out this part:
Yes, just talk.
Actually, the Department of Homeland Security is being kind of disingenuous there. The “other forms of identity documents” are almost entirely things that people do not ordinarily have the opportunity to get. Other than a drivers license, passport, or passport card, the only one of those things I could even theoretically get is a trusted traveler card, which IIRC you need a passport to get in the first place.
But it only applies to the small number of states that aren’t REAL ID-compliant. And there’s a good chance they’re bluffing like they were the last five times they announced a date.
The REAL ID story seems to be a boogeyman story in Pennsylvania, which last I read wasn’t compliant. As if the rent-a-cops at the TSA have the power to shut down Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other international airports in a state of over 10 million people because they refuse to accept the PA drivers license as acceptable photo ID.
In 2006, I boarded a domestic flight with my Sam’s card as my photo ID.
Omar comin’ yo!
Looks like foreigners can’t travel by air in the USA:
No real surprise. My co-worker got stopped and searched at every leg of his last American trip.