How To Fly Without An ID

Related Articles:

How Much You Need In Your Wallet For Your Next Flight
Read This Before You Buy Airline Tickets
The Best Packign Tips For Fee Free Air Travel

Each day, some 300 passengers forget to bring their I.D. to the airport. That makes me feel better.

After a 2,800 mile journey to Los Angeles from New York last week, I realized I’d lost my license somewhere between security checkpoint at John F. Kennedy Airport and my Virgin America plane seat. So much for renting a car, I concluded. But wait - -what about getting back on the plane to travel home? My mind ran to a scary place -- me, alone, stranded in Los Angeles with no car and a massive hotel bill because I’d have to wait days to retrieve my license to get permission to board. I mean, let’s face it, if the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requires us to take off our flip flops, remove all liquids and be subjected to random body searches, how are we supposed to slide past them with no valid forms of ID?

Well, it’s actually easier than you might think, as long as you remain cooperative with the airport powers-that-be.

Here are some tips for how to fly without an ID:

ARRIVE EARLY
Without proper identification (e.g. a valid driver’s license, birth certificate, or passport), prepare to arrive at the airport a half hour earlier than usual. You still have to go through the travel documents line (even if there are 80 people in front of you) just to inform the guard that you have no valid ID. At that point, they’ll call for more security to arrive and verify your ID through a round of questions and phone calls to the public records department at Homeland Security.

BEHAVE
Be on your best behavior. TSA officials don’t like it when you get snappy. Part of their job is to detect fraudulent passengers. Give thoughtful answers and try not to get nervous. Also, as of June 21, 2008, if the TSA suspects that you didn’t actually lose or forget your ID, that you’re simply refusing to show your I.D., there’s no chance you’re getting on that plane.