ACTE Seeks To Clarify TSA Policy

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives is seeking clarification from the Transportation Security Administration regarding procedures that allegedly allow passengers to board flights without photo identification.

In a statement to be released tomorrow, ACTE poses such questions to TSA as whether the passenger's name is checked against the no-fly list, if this action immediately red-flags a traveler for future flights and, in the case of passengers with lost or stolen identification, if it is required to submit another form of documentation or if it is a traveler's option not to produce ID.

ACTE first learned of passengers boarding flights without identification last week through members of the association. A spokesman for the organization said ACTE finds the news neither good nor bad, just surprising, and is waiting for TSA's response before issuing an advisory to its members.

"Knowing the procedures, the penalties, if any, may be able to save time and money for business travelers who might normally think they were stranded," ACTE president Greeley Koch said in the statement.

Koch added that such an option showed foresight and consideration on TSA's part for the possibility of inconvenient circumstances for business travelers. "Business travelers have neither the time nor inclination to make political statements out of their itineraries," Koch said. "Furthermore, any significant increase in travelers turning up at the airport without identification will almost certainly result in corrective TSA procedures."