I believe at least one FOIA request has been pending for the exact
FAA rule. I wrote about this a few years ago and asked the FAA to
clarify its position, and I never heard anything authoritative.
In a recent article, I pointed out that the trend is shifting: You
can now use kiosk check-in in some airlines and avoid showing photo ID.
-Declan
On Wed, Apr 25, 2001 at 12:12:25PM -0400, Trei, Peter wrote:
> 1. It is not a regulatory requirement for an airline
> passenger in the US to produce identification.
>
> 2. In fact, it's a violation of the airline's common carrier
> status for them to do so - they must admit anyone who
> shows up with a valid ticket. The ticket is a bearer
> instrument.
>
> 3. Regardless of the legalities, US airlines will usually
> request ID. If you refuse, and stand your ground, and can
> cite the appropriate common carrier regs, and show that
> they can't cite any regulatory requirement, they in fact
> WILL let you fly without ID. However, doing so involves
> moving far up beyond the counter-droids to superdupervisors,
> calls to corporate legal counsel, and unfriendly attention
> from airport security. While you would win in the end,
> you will almost certainly have missed your plane.
>
> 4. The reason airlines do this has nothing to do with
> security, and everything to do with extracting the max
> from your wallet
>
> Before these regs existed, and citizen units rightfully
> refused to let themselves be pushed, filed, stamped,
> indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered to the extent
> they do today, the bearer instrument status of the
> tickets allowed people who traveled often to save money.
>
> It worked like this:
>
> In the US, unscheduled, immediate travel ticket prices are
> extremely expensive. On American Airlines, an unrestricted
> Boston to San Francisco coach return ticket is over $2400
> if I leave today and return tommorrow. If I book a month
> ahead and stay over the weekend, it's a tad over $400, a
> $2000 dollar savings.
>
> Companies with lots of predictable travel (for example,
> one with offices near Boston and San Francisco) would
> buy 'John Doe' tickets a month ahead, scheduled for
> over-weekend stays. A traveller would go to the
> travel office, and pick up an outbound and return
> ticket (from different original trips) with dates and
> times which suited him, and execute his business
> trip at a fraction of the cost of it would have if
> he'd bought his ticket in the naive manner.
>
> By hassling travellers who try to use tickets with
> someone elses name, and lying that it is illegal
> to do so, airlines have greatly cut down on this
> cost saving strategy.
>
> If you're going to make more than one business
> trip between the same cities on predictable dates
> in the next year, you can still execute this strategy
> on a personal level, but it requires planning.
>
> So don't believe the lies of the airline spinmeisters.
> The only security they are enhancing is that of
> their bottom line.
>
> Peter Trei
