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You somewhat correct. It is not the airlines that can opt out of using the TSA but the airport itself:
‘§44920. Security screening opt-out program‘‘(a) INGENERAL.—On or after the last day of the 2-year period beginning on the date on which the Under Secretary transmits to Congress the certification required by section 110(c) of the Avia-tion and Transportation Security Act, an operator of an airport may submit to the Under Secretary an application to have the screening of passengers and property at the airport under section44901 to be carried out by the screening personnel of a qualified private screening company under a contract entered into with the Under Secretary.
The TSA will not allow you to enter the secure area without a security ID that says you work there or a ticket. Furthermore, the ticket must be for that day. Now, the fact that you can print your own tickets at home with a bubblejet printer is a whole other conversation.
It’s a bit more complicated than that because the airlines send all of your ticket purchase data, including your name, DOB and credit card info, to the US government for each and every ticket purchase. The government vets every passenger list, and showing your ID at the airport makes sure you are the person who bought the ticket and is vetted for the flight.
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Correct. The airlines are the ones asking you who you are for the flight record list they crash against the No Fly List. This is where the whole no fly list scheme falls flat on it’s face. The airline ask who you are via a website with no verification what so ever. They then issue a boarding pass to that name with a barcode or QR code. You walk up to the TSA checkpoint where the only thing the Agent does is compare your ID to the name on the boarding pass that you printed on your home printer. When they match they let you in. They do not run either the pass or the id through any database. You walk through, go to the gate and the airline employee scans your pass and you board. Anybody can modify the boarding pass before printing to say a different name but have the approved qr code. The vast majority of boarding procedures do not check ID again at the gate just scan the code.
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Not sure if that is the case any more. TSA do use a scanner on my passport ( I don’t remember if they do that with DLs). Not sure what it is doing with the scan data.
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Anythings is possible since I have not flown at all since Covid but all they were doing before is holding your ID under a black light. Some passports, including US, have an RF ID in them but not Drivers Licenses.
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That used to be the program, but they are rolling out new systems to airports and the new systems just scan ID. I do think it cross-checks it with the passenger list for the day but they do not check for tickets anymore.
None of what you have written in this thread is still true for airports that use the new system. At no point does TSA check if you have a ticket (paper or virtual). At no point does the airline check for ID to let you on the plane. I’ve traveled dozens of times in the last year, and well over half of the airports I’ve traveled through have the new systems.
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Huh, TIL. I’m hoping to not have to fly anymore, preferring overland (or water) travel when possible, but if/when I do, sounds like it will be a whole new thing to relearn…
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And here it is:
I would imagine that my post about airports being able to Opt out is true since it is actual law but the ID scanning certainly has completely changed.
If anything, it’s more streamlined. I pull out my ID for TSA then put it away. I scan my electronic ticket (on my phone)at the gate and get on the plane. No need to fumble around for documents at multiple points along the way.
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If airports are going to be divided into secure and open areas, control point checks that an individual is who they say they are and that they’re authorised to be in the secure area is one of the few useful functions the TSA actually fulfills. But of course, there are always Ayncap morons who’ll express deep concern about “tyranny” or indulge in [ETA: slippery-slope] or Nirvana fallacies because the ID checks aren’t 100% foolproof.
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Then there is the fact that the TSA fails at their main task in a monumental way, rendering them next to useless at their intended reason for existence. Us liberals don’t like tyranny any more than Ayncap morons.
I’m an actual liberal. I know all about the failings of the TSA and the uselessness of security theatre personal and baggage screenings. I still don’t think a mostly effective ID-check control point between an open and secure area of an airport is “tyranny”.
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You got ID to prove that? 
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No ID needed*. I just stand by my principles, am actually educated about them, and don’t see any need to pretend I’m something I’m not.
In contrast, the “freedom”-loving Libertarians who decry the idea of any ID check as tyranny aren’t familiar with their own ideology, which (per economist Hernando de Soto) puts a high value on systems – including state-operated ones – that allow a person to prove that they are who they say they are. Meanwhile, they ally themselves or make excuses for or enable authoritarian sado-populists (like this Florida couple).
So I can’t take these wannabe tycoons and “clever” HS debate club nerds seriously. I generally use them for their punching-bag entertainment value when I come across them and the mood strikes me.
[* on reflection, I am a literal card-carrying member of the ACLU, an organisation regularly vilified by Libertarians. But that’s more a choice than a need.]
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They did with DL in February 2020.
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Does that correlate with airport size. Hearing Americans talk of the past at small airports with minimal to no id checks or security always baffled me.
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