# State driver licenses which will no longer allow you to fly **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 15, 2017, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206 "2017-01-15T03:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![arfurvirus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@arfurvirus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arfurvirus)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/81 "2017-01-23T06:05:38Z")
I agree it’s security theater. Funny California isn’t on that list since they are handing out licenses to undocumented/illegal immigrants. Not to mention the Syrian “refugees” that were brought in to the country unvetted, or at least with dubious credentials, as ISIS/err Al\_Quadea controls passport printing presses there. IMHO we need a national ID. to drive, to fly if need be, the census, for medical care, police run-ins, and to vote. Do it with a nice fancy bio-metric thumbprint and call it done. Verify the entire country. You need an " ID to do the most basic things in life, used to be you could just ride your horse down the road, and pay the Dr. with some crops, or shoe his horse. times have changed. Due to FDR and SSI everyone gets numbered anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/82 "2017-01-23T07:39:46Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > For all its faults and idiosyncrasies, the USA might be the only country in the world in which one is free to walk about in a public place without being required to show papers of identity. That fact itself leads to the variety of different documents that are recognized as forms of identity for special purposes. I have traveled to more than 90 countries and have never been stopped on the street and asked to show ID anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/83 "2017-01-23T11:43:48Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I can’t guess if you’ve obtained one of the new-style plastic wallet card licenses yet. In any case, a pilot license can’t serve as an ID card. In fact, I think the rule is, you have to carry your pilot license AND a proper ID card (typically a driver license) to be legal to fly. Yep. That was a post-9/11 change, that you had to have your pilot’s license AND a government-issued picture ID. Which, since most of us drove to the airport anyway, wasn’t a huge problem (I did conceded that I could bring myself to bring my driver’s license along when I bicycled to the local airport), ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/84 "2017-01-23T11:45:15Z")
> [@arfurvirus](#): > > Due to FDR and SSI everyone gets numbered anyway. Not every American is in the SSI system, not everyone is required to be there. Which might be another argument for a national ID. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/85 "2017-01-23T16:28:29Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Not every American is in the SSI system, not everyone is required to be there. Which might be another argument for a national ID. But why start over with a new system when (wag) 95% of the people are in SSI? ---
**Author:** ![Crys75](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3da27b/32.png) [@Crys75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crys75)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/86 "2017-01-23T16:49:07Z")
Wisconsin is in compliance however they will issue a drivers license that will not allow you to fly commercially. How do I know this…I have one not by choice but necessity. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten my license. I was born in Wisconsin, married my first husband here, and even divorced that said husband here in the same county I live in now. However, when I returned I had married my current husband and because I had not reverted to my maiden name I not only have to bring my birth certificate which I had, my first and second marriage license and the divorce decree of my first marriage. There is a little symbol that isn’t on my license and thus I may have problems flying or obtaining a passport because I never had one. Sent from my XT1526 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/87 "2017-01-23T17:24:09Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > I have traveled to more than 90 countries and have never been stopped on the street and asked to show ID anywhere. The only place in the world I have ever been randomly asked to show ID was in a train station in Japan, and I suspect that was mainly so the very young police officer could practice his English skills ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/88 "2017-01-23T18:09:42Z")
> [@urban1a](#): > > I have seen the new licenses and by the time it is time for me to get mine I will no longer be able to read it. The information is in very tiny print and to me doesn’t look like it is comprised of individual letters or numbers. > > Bob One of my students [showed me theirs](https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dmv/newlook). I thought it was one of the worst looking fake IDs I had ever seen. But it was real. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/89 "2017-01-24T07:06:59Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > I have traveled to more than 90 countries and have never been stopped on the street and asked to show ID anywhere. Not getting stopped is not the same as not having a stop and identify statute. Many countries have them, and in Portugal you must have an ID on you at all times. Guess that wasn’t one of your 90 countries. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/90 "2017-01-24T16:10:01Z")
I’ve told this before. First for **Mrs. FtG** and then later me. To get _new_ drivers licenses the last time required getting our birth certificates. To get your birth certificate, the state needed proof of ID. In our case, photocopies of our _old_ drivers licenses. The state accepted those birth certificates and gave us _new_ licenses. Obviously that extra step really made all the difference in the world. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/91 "2017-01-24T16:38:33Z")
> [@arfurvirus](#): > > Funny California isn’t on that list since they are handing out licenses to undocumented/illegal immigrants. But THAT “sanctuary” license will not be accepted for air travel or access to fedearally restricted facilities. It will have on it some sort of flag or lack thereof that singifies it’s not a REAL-ID compliant license (the one that required your proof of citizenship, birth cert, Social Security, green card, utility bills, W2, shoe size, vaccine record, jump to left and step to right, oath from witness, question about the 1995 World Series, offering of animal sacrifice…). Nothing in the law forbids issuing a license that just states the person with that face was observed passing the driving test but makes no guarantees otherwise. Just that then the Feds will not accept it as ID. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/92 "2017-01-24T20:40:30Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > I have traveled to more than 90 countries and have never been stopped on the street and asked to show ID anywhere. It’s rare, but it’s happened to me in Budapest (once in the actual street, late at night, the other two or three times while at the bar drinking when the cops made their rounds) and once in Uzbekistan. I always carried my passport with me, so there was no issue. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/93 "2017-01-24T21:57:36Z")
I have just verified that one cannot fly using Georgia driver’s licenses. I taped one to each hand and flapped away. Got nowhere. Could it be because one was expired? Maybe I’ll try using only the valid one and twirling it over my head helicopter style… ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/94 "2017-01-25T17:34:15Z")
> [@arfurvirus](#): > > … > IMHO we need a national ID. to drive, to fly if need be, the census, for medical care, police run-ins, and to vote… We’re one of the few countries that does NOT have a national ID card. I found this out recently when doing something that required me to present either an NIC or a passport; my driver’s license absolutely did NOT qualify, nor did my then-expired passport. I had to expedite my passport renewal. It’s interesting to see the [list of countries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_identity_card_policies_by_country) where not just having it, but _carrying_ it, is mandatory. As others have said, a passport _card_ is absolutely valid ID for flying. It’s annoying that right now, you could in theory need to get this card for flying purposes when otherwise you have no need for it. Hell, it’s not even good for flying into Canada. We went ahead and got the cards when we renewed our passports last year, just because the extra cost was fairly nominal, but I don’t see us using them much. We may be driving to/from Canada several times in the next couple years but the regular passport would work just as well. In the meantime, if we need ID for domestic flights we have the card, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206/95 "2017-01-25T19:55:14Z")
I’ve never been able to fly. I can’t imagine how a drivers license could change that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-driver-licenses-which-will-no-longer-allow-you-to-fly/777206.md?page=4)