TSA Rolls Out $45 Identity Verification Fee For Travelers Without Eligible IDs

Follow the money. Who collects this $45 fee. What third parties make money off this. There is your answer as to why this is really happening. It's not about security, safety, or any other excuse.

If you’re here illegally you should not be allowed to fly!

Ok, we'll change the laws to make 'Dave Stafford' an "illegal," prohibition on bills of attainder be damned. You earned it.

Why is it necessary to prove your identity if taking a plane? do you have to prove identity if travelling by train or bus? I have even flown between countries in Europe with nothing more than the QR code from an online boarding pass. Finland - Norway, Finland - Sweden. No ID, no passport, no face recognition, just show the QR code to the security barrier and again at the barrier at the gate.

Nothing to do with “illegals” these people have passport from their own country with is an acceptable form of ID to travel.

You have the right to freedom of movement throughout the EU; however, airlines can choose to match ID to boarding passes if they so choose.

I've become weirdly addicted to YouTube videos of irrational people being arrested in airports, and this is definitely going to cause more of those incidents. Nothing makes people more angry than randomly being asked for money.

Just another sign of how backwards this administration is. If we think about it, the people who are least likely to have a real ID or also the least likely to be willing or able to pay this $45 fee. This disproportionally impacts lower income individuals, and individuals with disabilities who may have difficulty getting to their local motor vehicles division or similar. This is a government service, not a money maker, why don’t we show some empathy?

I love it. It helps us identify and select out people from society who can't control themselves and act reasonably. A quick short cut to avoid encountering them elsewhere in life!

I've never understood the much-trotted-out 0.0001% argument that it's too difficult to get a proper piece of identification and it disproportionately affects yada yada yada. If you can't get to a DMV once in 5 years (and not even needed for renewal), you've got bigger problems. We can't design systems for the 1 basket case.
It's not unreasonable to require ID once you make that relatively easy to obtain. And it is at this point.

Travel itself is not a government service, and most tickets sold in the US include a fee that offsets some of the cost of providing TSA services. Whether you love or hate the system, last year the expense of providing aviation security was ~5 times the fees collected; this $45 fee isn’t going to close that gap and turn security into a “moneymaker.”

Where I live, adding a RealID to your driver license is only $8. If you have trouble getting to the DMV or the passport/post office, how are you going to manage navigating the airport?

I hear where you’re coming from, and I believe travel should be accessible to anyone, but these are not huge barriers to entry.

Which well connected political donor got the no bid contract for this?

For $45 these folks should get an ID that's reusable for the next few years.

Doesn't apply to Delta passengers. Only United and American. As confirmed by Lil' Tim Dance.

I suspect there will be some great videos on Facebook, Tik Tok, and other social media sites in the near future.

@Timtamtrak, the government can tax the rich to make up for it. Raise taxes and fees on private jets.

I mean, sure. They could tax lots of other things. I just don’t think a usage fee for something that is typically a choice [travel] is unreasonable or discriminatory.

@Jerry - You have no idea whether the OP has right to free movement in Europe. Once there's no ID check at a specific airport/airline/route, it applies to everyone, even third country citizens without the freedom of movement rights.

Whether IDs are checked for trips within Europe depends on the state law (e.g. Nordics, DACH, PL, Baltics don't require it, while France and Spain do) and airline policies (Ryanair always checks IDs, LHG or KL don't unless they have to). The equivalent to TSA checks is the former, not the latter.

One of the most common post on this website is: …. “Lipstick on a pig” …. In this case a very fat, potbellied, Palm Beach brown species.