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> Does he refuse to show his driver's license when he gets on a plane?

WTH must the government know our names when we travel? Isn't knowing we aren't carrying weapons enough for a domestic flight?

Also, the airlines should be prohibited from using security information for marketing purposes. What's so hard to figure? I do not want more spam or junk mail!

The airlines originally went along with ID requirements for travel so that they could prohibit the trafficking in unused portions of flight tickets (a round trip could be had for the same price or less of a one way ticket; sell the other half of the ticket and you definitely come out ahead; the airline find this to be illegal but not the overselling of tickets, i.e. selling your seat to someone else as well).

Does he refuse to show his driver's license when he gets on a plane?

WTH must the government know our names when we travel?

Blame the airlines for this one. Oh sure, it may be a gov't regulation, but the airlines love it. With their wacky fare structures, half a round-trip ticket is often cheaper than one-way, and without a way to ensure that the name on the ticket is the same as that of the person using the ticket, it was common practise to buy a round-trip ticket when you only needed one-way and then sell the unused half to somebody wanting to go the other way. That and reselling advance-purchase tickets for less than the last-minute price.

This way the airlines can blame it on gov't regs and not take the PR hit.

(Note that the gov't doesn't give a damn who you are if you travel by private transport.)