# TSA require your U.S. driver's license to have a star to fly in 2020... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2019, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496 "2019-05-25T06:38:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2019, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/221 "2019-06-11T21:01:45Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > In my neighborhood, in Brooklyn, there are three of the big chain drug stores within a couple of square blocks. There’s a CVS, a Rite Aid, and two Duane Reades. Which is ridiculous, but that’s capitalism, I guess. > > If I buy beer at one of them, here’s how it goes: > > Anyway, the Rite Aid always requires ID. Current ID, can’t use an expired licence. No exceptions whatsoever, no matter if you’ve been shopping there for ten years, no matter if you are (like me) 59 years old and look every minute of it. No exceptions at all. And it has to be a drivers license, or a passport. They wil not accept the NYC ID card. > > The Duane Reades pretty much never ask me for ID. > > The CVS will sometimes ask for ID, but they’re fine with an expired license. As long as I show them something, they seem to be happy. I knew I left a qualifier out - some places want ID from everyone including my 78 year old mother while others are more reasonable and only ask for ID from people who seem under a certain age. But the store/restaurant/bar that will accept an expired license or one without a photo is something I’ve never seen - although since you say they only sometimes ask you, perhaps they accept it because the store policy doesn’t actually require 59 year old you to show anything. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/222 "2019-06-12T00:28:36Z")
As I understand it the reason many places won’t accept an expired license for alcohol purchases is because sometimes kids make fake IDs by altering someone else’s old expired legitimate ID. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/223 "2019-06-12T00:36:20Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > As I understand it the reason many places won’t accept an expired license for alcohol purchases is because sometimes kids make fake IDs by altering someone else’s old expired legitimate ID. How is this different than just altering someone’s unexpired ID and the original person just gets a new one by saying “I lost mine”? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/224 "2019-06-12T01:35:09Z")
And if the kids can successfully alter an expired ID, why couldn’t they also change the expiration date on it? Rejecting expired IDs for this reason doesn’t seem to make sense. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2019, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/225 "2019-06-12T10:03:43Z")
Our registers can scan the bar code. If the license is expired we get a buzz and the words “license expired” show up on our register screen. So modifying an expired license wouldn’t do much good. But, if you get a new license before the old one expires, keep the old one, then modify it the bar code scan would say it’s a legit license and not expired, which might get you through the screening process. It’s a bit like when counterfeiters bleach a legitimate bill (often a one or a ten) and then print the images for a $100 on it. If you use one of those markers on it that change color on bogus bills the mark will declare the money legitimate because it’s official money paper… but the watermark won’t match the ink or the ribbon/stripe that declares the denomination of the bill. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/226 "2019-06-12T22:38:57Z")
And the mess goes on… I went to the BMV today to get my driver’s license corrected. The twit I got kept saying “you can’t do that, you can’t do that, you can’t use a divorce decree for that.” IT’S NOT A DIVORCE DECREE YOU NINNY! The end result was not one, not two, but FIVE people standing around looking at a legal document with the supervisor saying “That’s not a divorce decree, and yes she can.” Then she told me I had to go to the social security administration first and get my name clarified there, THEN I could change my driver’s license. I’m like “bwuh?” Because what they changed my name to is NOT what the SSA has. And _of course_ the local SSA closes early on Wednesdays. :rolleyes: So the government STILL has four different versions of my name, STILL wants all my ID’s to be consistent, but depending on which part of government I’m dealing with they all want _their_ version to be correct. Which is why I went to court. And now we’re back to morons staffing the counters at the BMV who don’t understand the different between a “divorce decree” and a non-marriage related “court order”. Hey, bitch TRY READING THE FUCKING DOCUMENT. It’s less that two full pages of double-spaced text. It’s neither long nor difficult to read. I’m not thrilled with having to go to yet another office, but I understand there is a process to be followed here. I’m resigned to that. It’s the fucking morons who can’t be bothered to read what the hell is right in front of them that makes furious. :rolleyes: Oh, and two people in front of me in line was a young man (I’m guessing between 20 and 30) who discovered upon trying to renew his license that his birth certificate doesn’t agree with the name he thought was his and grew up with… just starting the journey I’m still slogging through. The judge I was in front of today mentioned this becoming more and more common I imagine when the hard deadline hits in 2020 is when this really hits the fan, when people discover they can no longer get into airports or government buildings and the like. Which is _really_ going to play havoc in locations where both the local/state/Federal courtrooms are all in the same building, which means people trying to get this resolved may well be screwed because they won’t be physically allowed into a courtroom to try to resolve this issue when that route is needed. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/227 "2019-06-12T23:48:47Z")
Have you thought about going to a different BMV that isn’t staffed by morons? ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/228 "2019-06-13T00:21:13Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Have you thought about going to a different BMV that isn’t staffed by morons? So how are guys in Germany going to help her out with an Indiana issue? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/229 "2019-06-13T00:25:37Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > So how are guys in Germany going to help her out with an Indiana issue? 😕 They could provide people with awesome rahmschnitzel while they are waiting in line? ---
**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:** [June 13, 2019, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/230 "2019-06-13T01:12:07Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Have you thought about going to a different BMV that isn’t staffed by morons? That WAS the branch “not staffed by morons”! Apparently, I got the “token moron” they hired. To be fair, the supervisor at least has some brain cells. I am getting very annoyed at this whole mess. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/231 "2019-06-13T01:21:17Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Oh, and two people in front of me in line was a young man (I’m guessing between 20 and 30) who discovered upon trying to renew his license that his birth certificate doesn’t agree with the name he thought was his and grew up with… just starting the journey I’m still slogging through. This same thing happened to a friend of mine a couple of years ago (before the RealID thing). He moved from New York to New Jersey. He went to get a Jersey license. His NY license, obtained decades earlier, when standards were looser, and renewed many times since then, had an Anglicized version of his birth name. Jersey insisted that his licence match his birth certificate, and that he had to fix his New York licence first, since NJ was giving him a license based on some kind of reciprocity with NY or something. It was a nightmare for him – took him months to get straightened out. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/232 "2019-06-13T01:30:56Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > This same thing happened to a friend of mine a couple of years ago (before the RealID thing). > > He moved from New York to New Jersey. He went to get a Jersey license. His NY license, obtained decades earlier, when standards were looser, and renewed many times since then, had an Anglicized version of his birth name. Jersey insisted that his licence match his birth certificate, and that he had to fix his New York licence first, since NJ was giving him a license based on some kind of reciprocity with NY or something. > > It was a nightmare for him – took him months to get straightened out. I don’t understand situations like this. Couldn’t he just say “I lost my NY license”? Or just say “I don’t have a NY license”? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/233 "2019-06-13T01:34:24Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I don’t understand situations like this. Couldn’t he just say “I lost my NY license”? Or just say “I don’t have a NY license”? Then he’d have to go through the testing again- which for some people I know would be harder than fixing the name issue. I know people who haven’t parallel parked in 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/234 "2019-06-13T01:42:10Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Then he’d have to go through the testing again- which for some people I know would be harder than fixing the name issue. I know people who haven’t parallel parked in 20 years. Spending an hour re-learning how to parallel park is more difficult than spending months figuring out a name issue? ---
**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:** [June 13, 2019, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/235 "2019-06-13T08:30:35Z")
It’s not just getting a license - the situation described regarding New York vs. New Jersey licenses means he’d also have to change his name on everything else or else spend the rest of his time in new Jersey explaining over and over again why his primary ID (driver’s license) doesn’t match anything else. The other thing is that once he states he has/had a New York license New Jersey isn’t going to let him back track and say he lost it. Even if they accept he lost it, it sounds like they’d still require him to follow what’s on his birth certificate, or maybe require him to get a new license in New York before getting the New Jersey license. What it comes down to is that if you yourself have never had a problem like this you have no clue how deep the rabbit hole can go. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/236 "2019-06-13T10:46:05Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Spending an hour re-learning how to parallel park is more difficult than spending months figuring out a name issue? No, scheduling and taking multiple road tests can take the same months as fixing a name issue , the parallel parking was just an example. Most people have accumulated bad habits over years of driving and I doubt they could pass a test all that easily. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/237 "2019-06-13T10:52:51Z")
duplicate ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/238 "2019-06-13T13:45:52Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It’s not just getting a license - the situation described regarding New York vs. New Jersey licenses means he’d also have to change his name on everything else or else spend the rest of his time in new Jersey explaining over and over again why his primary ID (driver’s license) doesn’t match anything else. > > The other thing is that once he states he has/had a New York license New Jersey isn’t going to let him back track and say he lost it. Even if they accept he lost it, it sounds like they’d still require him to follow what’s on his birth certificate, or maybe require him to get a new license in New York before getting the New Jersey license. > > What it comes down to is that if you yourself have never had a problem like this you have no clue how deep the rabbit hole can go. Well, I have some sort of clue. But it just sounds like people don’t want to use the name on their birth certificate, and when it causes problems, all of a sudden they can’t do anything and it takes months of effort. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/239 "2019-06-13T13:48:02Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Have you thought about going to a different BMV that isn’t staffed by morons? Around here, we get one per county. Did you think there was one on every street corner? ETA: lots of people have for twenty or thirty or forty or fifty years not using the name as on their birth certificate. Some people are having trouble getting through their heads that this is something that didn’t use to matter. Now, suddenly, every one of a batch of different IDs has to match down to the exact spelling. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496/240 "2019-06-13T14:08:53Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > No, scheduling and taking multiple road tests can take the same months as fixing a name issue , the parallel parking was just an example. Most people have accumulated bad habits over years of driving and I doubt they could pass a test all that easily. Many years ago I received two speeding tickets 364 days apart, resulting in enough points during a year for me to have to retake my driving test. I was in an \*awful \*mood that day. Pennsylvania didn’t have a seat-belt law, so i did not wear mine. Further, I had music playing (which the state cop politely requested I turn down so that we could hear each other) and I had a large coffee that sipped throughout my test. When I entered the 3 point turn area, I actually passed two drivers ahead of me (I turned and left the area before them) so at the end we were out of order. He should have failed me for being a jerk. Instead, he told me I obviously knew how to drive and I just needed to slow down a bit. Haven’t had a speeding ticket in the 30 years since that happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tsa-require-your-u-s-drivers-license-to-have-a-star-to-fly-in-2020/834496.md?page=13)