> You will not be allowed to enter the security checkpoint if you choose to not provide acceptable identification, you decline to cooperate with the identity verification process, or your identity cannot be confirmed.

It used to be that you absolutely could fly without an ID, but that's not the case anymore. Now it's at a discretion of a TSA officer.

WARNING: Old man about to say "Back in my day..."

As a child, we were taught that "America is better than the USSR because $REASONS." One reason given was we didn't need identification to travel around the country (this included flying). And when I saw "taught" I mean "this was taught to us in a public school."

Back in my day (There it is!), you would see newspaper want-ads like "Vegas bachelor party canceled. Two airline tickets avail this weekend. $200 OBO." You'd meet the guy, buy the tickets and get on the flight. ID was more for proving you were old enough to fly alone than anything. Tickets were not made out to the buyer, they were just assigned seating. Airlines were losing money and they knew it but couldn't figure out a way to stop it cheaply enough.

Metal detector screenings started in the 70's because back then airplane hijacking was a thing.

Then, 9/11. Metal detector screenings became mandatory. The airlines got the government to do the identity checks (TSA) and tighten the security the airlines did/could/would not pay for. State IDs (driver's licenses, for example) were sufficient. No more want-ads for a Vegas bachelor parties! The buyer might get a refund, might not, and the airline got to resell the seat either way. And we still take our shoes off to get on a plane decades later.

Fast forward to today, you (will) need a federal ID to travel on airplanes domestically, either a REAL ID or a passport. Sure, it's not hard to get, and there are ways around it if you forget or lose yours. Besides, what's the harm, right?

And every step along the way, it was a perfectly cromulent thing to do.

Now excuse me, I need to change the onion on my belt. That's still the fashion, right?

Want to hear a joke? The USSR allowed people to travel on airplanes without showing any documents, except for some closed and border towns. This only changed towards the end of the 80-s.

Train tickets remained completely anonymous in the USSR up until its dissolution.

Not surprised at all. Then again, ten yo me hadn't been introduced to the concept of propaganda yet even though it was all around me in retrospect.

Doesn't that require bringing someone else who knows you to vouch for you? It's not exactly a smooth process that you'd want to regularly go through.

Or they can "One Plus One" you where they ask you verification questions from your credit profile to verify you are who you say you are.

I edited to include the process as written by the TSA on their website. It's definitely going to be less fun if you don't bring ID, and they suggest you arrive early.

It's certainly annoying but it's not all that big of a deal. Tens of thousands of people lose IDs and wallets every year and manage to get on the plane home anyways. I've seen people go through it they use common sense means to verify you.