Forget your wallet? Here's one way to fly without ID | Hacker News Reader

Forget your wallet? Here's one way to fly without ID

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14 pointslelf14 comments

I never understood the emphasis on ID when flying. I mean the point is to make sure you aren't carrying a bomb or a weapon. What difference does it make what your name is? Ideally it shouldn't, so why are we moving further and further away from the ideal?

In fact, doesn't it seem rather ominous to think that governments are starting to track everything about us, including everywhere we go at all times? They tell us it is for our security, but aren't the reported circumstances that have led us to require such levels of security due to government failures to begin with?

> I never understood the emphasis on ID when flying.

This was pushed by the airlines so that they could maximize revenue. If the ID is not verified, then you can (and do) have a buy-sell ticket market -- which makes it harder for them to extract every tiny cent from their customers.

Then why was the OP able to get a boarding pass without ID in her story?

TSA was giving her all of the trouble, not the airlines.

> TSA was giving her all of the trouble, not the airlines.

Yes, since Sept-11-2001, all harassment of passengers was outsourced to the TSA, making airlines look like the good guys. But the ID requirement was enacted and enforced before that - I am not sure when, but at least in July 2000, I was told that I won't be able to fly without an ID.

> Then why was the OP able to get a boarding pass without ID in her story?

Assuming the story is true and exactly as told (which I have no reason to doubt on one hand, but no reason to take as gospel on the other) -- because either the TSA were violating their own rules, or because they were able to satisfy the ID requirement through some procedure which is not general knowledge among the population.

The TSA procedures are, in fact, secret: See, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilmore_v._Gonzales

It is weird. A possible justification is that there are terrorist watch lists and no fly lists, and we check your name against those lists to make sure you are not a bad guy. ID is required to make sure you are who you say you are, so the check against the lists is accurate.

Of course, there is no complete list of bad guys who want to do bad things. If you are set on doing harm and are minimally organized, you can probably find someone not on the lists. And there are false positives on the lists we have.

Except anyone can easily produce a perfect replica of a US state ID in their home with an extremely low budget. And the questions the TSA asked this guy seemed like basic CRA questions, if they don't stop fraud they won't stop terrorism.

There's no way ID checks will stop anyone who really wants to get on a plane within the US.

There is no such thing as 100% security. You can build a fence and try to say "but someone who really wants to get in will bring a wire-cutter," but that's just missing the point. The point is that a fence is cheap, and you want as much security as you can reasonably afford.

There's no way anything will stop anyone who really wants to get on a plane. But when you play a game of chess, you don't try to play a perfect game, you try to play the game that gives your opponent the most opportunities to make mistakes. You force your opponent to make decisions, because that's how they end up making the wrong decisions and get caught.

So go ahead and make a fake ID. You'll fail to board more by doing that than you will if the airport doesn't even bother to ask for ID.

>There is no such thing as 100% security. You can build a fence and try to say "but someone who really wants to get in will bring a wire-cutter," but that's just missing the point. The point is that a fence is cheap, and you want as much security as you can reasonably afford.

TSA Annual budget: $7.39 billion (2014)

>There's no way anything will stop anyone who really wants to get on a plane. But when you play a game of chess, you don't try to play a perfect game, you try to play the game that gives your opponent the most opportunities to make mistakes. You force your opponent to make decisions, because that's how they end up making the wrong decisions and get caught.

Yes, but when you play a game of chess you try. Have you even seen a US state ID? They're not trying.

>So go ahead and make a fake ID. You'll fail to board more by doing that than you will if the airport doesn't even bother to ask for ID.

And by asking for IDs you achieve what? How many terrorists has the TSA stopped because they had fake IDs?

The are no fly lists, high risk lists, etc.

Of course it's not a primary defense, but it is security in depth. And IDs can be forged, but a criminal on the run may not have the resources.

In any case, the TSA is fairly lenient toward passengers who forget their ID. But they probably give them a more thorough than normal inspection.

Another reason might be that ey don't want you to resell/giveaway your ticket to other people.

Did something change recently? I forgot my ID a few years ago and was allowed to board. I just had to go through extra security checks.

"I'm still not entirely sure what happened tbqh. But I know for a fact that you can board a plane at LAX with only a People Magazine for ID."

There is an implied asterisk there

Off topic. What's this Twitter feature calle? It looks neat.

Moments: https://about.twitter.com/moments

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