No need for an ID to board a plane

A reader sent the Washington Post’s travel specialist K. C. Summers a question describing a situation some of our readers may have faced. Here is the question and Summers’s answer:

Q: My daughter lost her driver’s license while visiting San Francisco and asked us to FedEx her passport to use for identification. We did, but what does one do in situations like this when the picture ID is lost during transit and you have nothing to show the Transportation Security Administration people except your boarding pass?

A: Travelers who do not have handy parents standing by to FedEx their travel documents, and even those who do, can rest easy: You can board your flight without ID, as long as TSA officials can verify your identity. “Establishing identification,” says TSA spokesman Christopher White, “is as important as having a passenger go through a metal detector.”

Formerly, travelers without ID had to undergo regular screening, a whole-body pat-down and a full luggage check before they were allowed to board their flights. On 21 June, however, the TSA’s policy changed, White said, to focus on identity verification. The new policy “increases safety for the traveling public,” White said. “If you’re a bad guy, the last thing you want is to have your name called into a government operations center, be interviewed by the police and have a behavior-detection officer come chat with you.” He said it takes an average of six minutes to verify identity.

Here is how the new system works: If you lose your ID, you should arrive at the security checkpoint early, explain the situation to the officer at the document-checking station. You will be asked to fill out a form including your full name and address, which officials will check against publicly available databases. If necessary, local police and TSA behavior-detection officers will interview you, and you might have to undergo additional screening.