Hacker News Reader

Comment by dillonmckay | Hacker News Reader

You don’t need photo ID to fly. TSA will ask you questions from your credit report and allow you to board.

*US citizens flying within the states.

From TSA press release April 4, 2019 (https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2019/04/04/tsa-reminds-tra...): "Travelers will begin seeing new signs at airports nationwide in the coming weeks to remind people that REAL ID-compliant licenses or other acceptable forms of ID, such as a valid passport, federal government PIV card or U.S. military ID, will be mandatory for air travel beginning on October 1, 2020. Critically important, on October 1, 2020, individuals who are unable to verify their identity will not be permitted to enter the TSA checkpoint and will not be allowed to fly."

Oh, sorry, you don’t have ID? Oh… I hate to tell you, but… I guess you live in Dallas now. I think you need to start a new life here in Dallas, and work hard until you get a new ID. And then you could use that ID to fly back to your old life and get your old ID.

- Hannibal Buress

You are required by regulation to have it. There is, as you describe, a convenience procedure intended to help people who forget their ID. You could still be turned away if you do this frequently or they otherwise have reason to doubt the legitimacy of it. And they don't have time for everyone in line to do it--if they did, this exception would go away completely.

For sure. A coworker lost his wallet while hiking after a sales visit prior to his flight.

You are correct; sad that most people don't know this.

I'm not sure that's true everywhere, but not for long many places (eg California, Washington).

Casual article on it: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/how-to-get-on-a-pla...

The real id rules only address what documents count as id, no the cases of no id

Why should they? The only time it would be relevant is if you forgot your ID, and if you want to rent a car or hotel at your destination that might be a problem there as well. Knowing the TSA, I bet this adds at least an hour to the trip as you are begrudgingly walked to some back room and sit there for 20 minutes while someone is pulling up your file.

My one experience with losing an ID was that there was no real issue although it took 15 minutes or so to do a more thorough check. It was very professional. The Travelodge at the other end was a bigger deal though I was eventually able to check in there.

ADDED: It appears that as of Oct 1 2020, this sort of exception will no longer be possible.

Do you have a ref? I haven’t seen any notice of change, though of course the actual law is classified.

https://www.dhs.gov/real-id-public-faqs

It doesn't explicitly say "no exceptions" but the plain text is certainly that you will need appropriate ID (Real ID/passport/etc.) to go through TSA when Real ID requirement fully kicks in.

The barrage of propaganda since the Gore match-if-to-traveler policy was enacted has been that ID is required but in practice it has not been enforced. As I mentioned, the actual law is classified so cannot be consulted not litigated in court so we’ll simply have to see

I typically don’t carry any id in the us, and since Apple Pay came out just a little cash in my pocket.

The inspection is not a big deal and they are prepared for this situation. It’s a shame that the laws that control this are classified (cf Gilmore v Gonzalez) so we can’t know what the actual rules are.

Is REAL ID dead?

I hope so. The gosh-darn-no-exceptions deadline has been extended several times and I presume will be again.

It’s a “solution” in search of a problem.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com