A couple of weeks ago the American Airlines website started asking for a state of residence when you book a ticket.
There’s been a lot of speculation that this has something to do with the REAL ID Act and the expectation that some state drivers licenses will be refused by the TSA for travel starting in January. That’s not what this is for.
Residents of Several States are Having Their Right to Travel Threatened
The Real ID Act regulates, among other things, what state identification will be valid for federal purposes. Those federal purposes including identifying oneself to the Transportation Security Administration in order to board commercial aircraft. And several state drivers licenses do not comply with those rules.
A ‘real ID compliant’ license has to have a person’s full legal name, signature, date of birth, gender, a unique identifying number, home address, and a front-facing photo.
There are also specific anti-counterfeiting measures that must be used, and rules on providing the data on the card in a standard machine-readable format.
Prior to issuing a ‘real ID compliant’ license, a state has to require:
- A photo ID (they make you present a photo ID to get a photo ID..) or ID that includes full name and birth date
- Documentation of birth date (usually a birth certificate)
- Proof of legal status (you’re not an illegal alient) and social security number (something you didn’t even have to have when I was born)
- Documentation of your residential address
Basically, getting a drivers license — especially without already having one — has become a real pain.
States have to store digital copies of these documents as well. States also have to share these databases with all other states.
Many states have already complied including Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, Hawaii as well as Washington, D.C.
Over a dozen states passed legislation opposing REAL ID. About two dozen states were given extensions to comply. Those extensions generally expire October 10, with a grace period for enforcement running through January 22, 2018. Many states will apply for new extensions once the current ones expire, and the grace period is the time in which those extensions will be granted — or not.
The TSA has been warning passengers that if their drivers license is from a non-compliant state it will not be accepted at the security checkpoint. Other government-issued identification, such as a passport, will be needed (although there are procedures to establish identity without presenting ID of course).
It’s a game of chicken, and two years ago the federal government backed down. The incumbent administration didn’t want to inconvenience entire states’ worth of people in the lead up to a Presidential election.
Modeling how the Trump administration will respond could be a little more complex.
- You might think they’re more confrontational and less willing to back down from a standoff despite the consequences
- On the other hand several affected states voted for Trump, and you might expect that his administration won’t punish its supporters
Washington state is especially a target because it’s the only state which doesn’t require proof of legal presence for a drivers license of state ID.
Other states that have been talked about as running especially afoul of federal ID rules are Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina but Pennsylvania says their extension will be approved and I’d expect that other states in this group will be at least as likely for instance Missouri buckled and passed a bill to comply back in May.
Real ID Places Real and Substantial Limits on Freedom
The Real ID act was passed as a rider to an emergency Iraq war and Tsunami relief appropriations bill in the House and inserted into a matching bill on the Senate side during conference. The Senate never discussed Real ID via committee hearings and never voted on Real ID apart from emergency pieces of legislation.
Denying passengers access to flights because their drivers licenses no longer constitute valid identification would be a political problem. But the constitutional problems are just as real.
Regardless of whether a Court would protect substantive rights when faced with the security state, the substantive issues are meaningful concerns. “You can travel using other means than flying” isn’t persuasive because TSA has intermittently performed security checks at Amtrak stations; they’ve positioned themselves even at DC area metro stations; and if the government can substantially burden one form of travel, they can burden any other.
ID checks began as security theater after TWA flight 800, President Clinton asked for things he could announce right away. Airlines used to ask for ID to make sure the person traveling was the one that bought the ticket, solely to restrict the resale market for airfare in order to support revenue management systems that increased the price of travel closer to departure (to prevent people from buying tickets cheap and reselling them as travel dates approached — still undercutting the airline’s price). Now the government does the airline’s work for them, ostensibly for security but a determined terrorist (the TSA has never caught a single one) doesn’t have much problem flying with fake documents.
The ‘security purpose’ of ID checks is to try to force people to fly under their real names, so that those names can be checked against the government’s highly flawed watch and do not fly lists. Anyone on such a list, intent on committing a terrorist act, would simply choose not to fly under their own name.
Those lists of course impose substantial burdens on the right to travel.
- People get added to the ‘do not fly list’ without any due process proceeding
- It’s not necessary to commit any disqualifying acts to be on that list (they’re pre-crime profiling: mere suspicion that someone might do something in the future)
- You cannot confront your accuser
- There’s almost no meaningful and timely redress procedures
And that’s burdensome on the right to travel. The mere existence of alternative slower methods of travel – permitted today, by the graces of those in charge of ‘security’ – doesn’t alleviate that.
But the Reason American is Asking For Your State Is… Insurance Regulation
American sells trip insurance during the booking process, and insurance is regulated at the state level. A company American’s size wants to be certain they’re compliant with state laws, offering products only when permissible and presenting the correct and required information.
They’re currently using state of residence only as part of selling you travel insurance. The information is not stored in your PNR (reservation).
I find it especially annoying that I have to enter this information each and every time that I book, however American tells me they are working to let members save state of residence in their AAdvantage profile so that the information will pre-populate in the future.
And I imagine that as long as you select something regardless of whether it’s your actual state that it will not matter, this is about American’s compliance not about your ability to travel.
State of Residence Could Still Be Useful Come January
If the federal government doesn’t back down and offer more REAL ID waivers, and drivers licenses from a basket of states won’t be considered valid for federal purposes including airport security checkpoints, since American is already gathering information about state of residence they’ll be well-psoitioned to offer customers advance warning during the booking process about what ID they’ll need to travel (or the extra time that will be required to verify their identity at the checkpoint).
Since the vast majority of American’s customers only travel once a year at most this could be useful information. (Although those buying tickets from American at AA.com do skew more towards frequent travelers than the average.)
Okay I read the whole article and was so disappointed by the real reason AA is asking for State of Residence LOL
Would someone please explain where in the Constitution it says or even implies that we have the “right to travel” on a commercial airplane?
Talk about burying the lede. Gary, if you want to rant about Real ID, that’s fine, just don’t pass it off as something else.
Land of the free, yeah, right LOL
This article was written in reverse order of how a journalist would do it. Take a class?
This is how Gary writes and the unique part of reading VFTW. If you don’t like his writing style, don’t read the blog! Personally I love it and always end up learning something that I didn’t expect when reading his articles. Informative in an unexpected way.
i don’t think it’s all that relevant to frame this in the same context as “poll tax” or “voting rights suppression”. states issue non-driving IDs valid for 8-10 years that will be REAL ID compliant for like $13-20 ? I mean that freaking “Sept 11 security fee” is already $5.60 or $11.20 each way, so it’s not that those amounts act as any meaningful deterrent to air travel patterns.
TSA allowed other IDs like Passports to act as a fall back if you don’t have a REAL-ID DL, so the real question should be why so many citizens have zero interest to ever see outside and bother to even have a passport.
A glaring example is North Carolina (http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/02/17/how-many-americans-have-a-passport-2/). Despite having a banking hub (CLT) and the Research Triangle (RDU) attracting lots of talent with relatively well-paying jobs, the state seems to have a poor passport ownership rate.
Gary’s main point are civil liberties problems with the Real ID issue. The fact that this turns out not to be AA’s immediate reason for state identification still leaves the detail as a convenient peg for a blog post. I do doubt that courts will favor the federal government if it comes to a head in a few months. You have a couple of hundred million potential plaintiffs for a lawsuit here.
kids are getting fake drivers licenses from China that are so real they even have the embedded hologram in the laminate. this is all pointless
Why do we need IDs??? Its just racists. Only to burden minorties and the poor who cant fly everyweek for building up miles. All IDs needed to be ended.
Jojo, great line to tell a group of White Supremicists …I bet the KKK would love it. At what age did you start hating people of color?
California is conspicuously missing. What gives?
Is there also a reason because it would make booking via a VPN pretending you’re somewhere else more difficult?
re: “I find it especially annoying that I have to enter this information each and every time that I book …”
Someone has a low threshold for having to click two more times ….
Typically I skim VFTW until I get to the headline information…
And, McLovin, your license is expired…
@flyingdurtchman – I seriously doubt AA is pulling vpn location to validate…they struggle with many parts of their IT, you expect them to do a reverse lookup and compare it to a populated dropdown?
The McLovin image is why I read this blog. Wonderful Gary. Wonderful!
@Flying Dutchman. I was in Thailand looking at RT flights on AA from NYC to Charlotte about a year ago. It was like $150. A day or so later, I returned to the USA, and the same flight had increased to $250. Maybe I should get a VPN.
I completely agree…it’s annoying to have to enter this every time. And while we’re at it…why can’t they simply record a “default” yes or “no” when it comes to accepting or declining their insurance? It’s another ridiculous step and just slows down the process? I’ve called aa.com and complained about this, and they say it is “too difficult to implement?” Yet they seem to have no difficulty recording a default answer to buying additional miles. I guess we know the answer….
Pro tip: If you have a Global Entry card, you’re in luck. Global Entry is accepted as a proper form of ID by TSA.
Kudos to Gary for another insightful article.
Brian Teeter
Author, 300 Healthy Travel Tips
http://www.healthytrekking.com
@MangoKid Freedom of movement is a constitutional right with a long history.
“American tells me they are working to let members save state of residence in their AAdvantage profile so that the information will pre-populate in the future.”
Right, because why should their system merely assume the state I’ve had on file in my profile for X years is in fact the state I live in. Makes perfect sense, just like everything else in 2017.
“If you have a Global Entry card, you’re in luck. Global Entry is accepted as a proper form of ID by TSA.”
I just have to laugh out loud about this. I never thought I could find a real use for this card. So now maybe there will be one.
I’m with Stvr, and it’s the main reason I’ve mostly stopped coming to VTFW because it’s so frustrating to read and find the information I actually want. Every once in awhile, I enter the URL out of habit, and I end up disappointed again. Isn’t it journalism 101 to put the most important things at the beginning? Why did I need to scroll through a wall of text just to get to the answer to the headline/title? Anyone who wants the additional background can keep reading to get it.
“Would someone please explain where in the Constitution it says or even implies that we have the “right to travel” on a commercial airplane?” – @MangoKid
The Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2 has been interpreted as guaranteeing freedom of movement between states for nearly 200 years (see Corfield v. Coryell, 6 Fed. Cas. 546 (1823)). Given that commercial airplane is a common and generally accepted method of interstate travel in widespread use by the public it is easy to infer that denying someone the right to travel on a commercial airplane without due process of law violates this right. This is why, in the court cases over the constitutionality of the no fly list, the government has argued that the process for putting people on the list fulfills the due process requirement rather than arguing that the right to freedom of movement doesn’t apply to commercial air travel.
Additionally, in 1982, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Privileges and Immunities Clause protects the “right of free ingress and regress to and from any other State” (Zobel v. Williams, 457 U.S. 55 (1982))
The right to travel on a commercial airplane is further codified by 49 USC 40103 which states “A citizen of the United States has a public right of transit through the navigable airspace.”
Note that this refers only to the government prohibiting someone from traveling, privately owned airlines retain the right to refuse carriage for any otherwise lawful reason (i.e. an individual can be denied carriage because they don’t have a valid ticket, are dressed or behaving in a manner the airline deems unacceptable, are intoxicated, etc, etc but not on the basis of their race, gender, religion, age or membership in another protected class)
Obligatory Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. The above is not, and should not be treated as, legal advice of any kind.