Successfully flew without ID, but with intense search at ISP

Airport: Long Island Islip MacArthur (ISP)
Date: March 3, 2008
Reason given: Want to fly without ID, as a selectee
Reference: personal
Airline: Southwest
Result: Successful
Description: ISP is a small airport. When I told the ID checking TSA agent that I wanted to fly without ID as a selectee. He had directed me into a little gated area, then had to leave his post while everyone else waited and go get someone to help me. The man who took me really wasn't sure what to do, and asked me a few questions while looking at my carryon. Finally, the manager came over and asked me questions about why I wanted to fly without ID, in a rather adversarial tone. I told him that I believed it was my right to fly without my ID being checked by the federal government, and suddenly his tone changed and he seemed okay with it.
However, I then received the most horrendous SSSS search I have ever been through. Agents started yelling "selectee!" My various items were marked with red tape. Each item (carryon, backpack, camera, laptop) was investigated by a different agent, in the most tedious process I have seen. I was patted down and wanded by an agent in an extensive process. The wand picked up a gum wrapper in my pocket, and also my wallet. The agent insisted on putting my wallet through the metal detector. I told him that I wasn't comfortable being separated from my wallet, he walked away with it telling me to watch him while he walked back through the metal detector and put it through. I waited for the rest of my items to be screened, and then gathered them and went on my way.
This is by far the most extensive search and intense questioning I have been subjected to when traveling without ID.

Unsuccesful at MDW, TSA suggests I lie instead to fly without ID

Airport: Chicago Midway (MDW)
Date: February 28, 2008
Reason given: want to fly as a selectee, without ID
Reference: personal
Airline: Southwest
Result: Unsuccessful
Description: I told the TSA ID checker that I was flying without ID as a selectee. She told me I couldn't designate myself as a selectee, and handed me over to another agent who asked me if I had ID, and I told him politely I was flying without ID as a selectee. He said I couldn't fly without ID, that it was a security measure, and that they were protecting me . I mumbled something about the supreme court saying it was okay. He left and went and got a third agent, who told me that there was no I way I was getting on a plane or past that point without showing my ID. I quickly said, "yes sir, I'm sorry sir", showed him my ID, which he looked at, and then he sent me on my way.
After the metal detector, I went up to the TSA desk and asked to file a complaint. The TSA agent there got someone who seemed to be the manager, who gave me the form and asked what the problem was. I told him that I had tried to fly without ID, but had been denied. He agreed that I should have been able to fly without ID, but told me that if I had used different "verbage" I wouldn't have had a problem. After I questioned him on this further, I realized that he was implying that I should have told the agent that I lost my ID. and I told him that I certainly wasn't going to lie. He agreed that it seemed like a training issue, and I suggested he give his agents more careful training.

Southwest, Philadelphia, Successful, 9/31/07

Airline: Southwest
Airport: Philadelphia
ID Offered: None
Date: 9/31/07
Reference: Personal
Reason given: Fly as a selectee/without ID
Result: Successful
Description: As at Midway, Southwest handled my request to fly without ID as a selectee quickly and without a single word. However, this time, instead of stamping and writing on my boarding pass, the agent printed a new boarding pass with "SSSS" printed on it. I noticed upon getting up to security that TSA is now checking all IDs (on my return to Midway, I noticed the same there. See my post about this). I pointed the "SSSS" out to the TSA lady, and she wrote "No ID" a bit bigger on the pass and sent me down the same line as everyone else (this is different than at Midway; also she didn't write anything down). I put my things into the XRay scanner, and the TSA dude looked at my boarding pass and sent me just to the side, where I was quickly patted down (no puffer here); they transferred my bag and about 30 seconds later the explosives test was done and I was sent on my way via a very nice TSA agent. Took maybe one minute more than my traveling companion.

Southwest, Midway, 9/28/07, Successful

Airline: Southwest
Airport: Chicago Midway
ID Offered: none
Date: September 28, 2007
Reference: personal
Reason given: Asked to fly without ID/as a selectee
Result: Successful
Description: Upon asking to fly without ID as a selectee, the southwest agent immediately typed some information, took out a stamp and stamped something on my boarding pass (which I had printed at home), then took out a pen and wrote "no ID" and some numbers over the stamp. I said "thank you" and went on my way. It was over in less than 30 seconds, and was no hassle at all.
I got in the line and showed it to the ID checker. That person directed me to a TSA woman, who then wrote a bunch of information from the boarding pass onto a form, including, I think, my name and confirmation number, and flight information. She then escorted me to a separate screening area where I waited for them to fix the puffer machine. After several minutes, I went through the puffer machine. A few minutes later, they finished explosive testing my single bag, and I was on my way. I was a few minutes behind my travel companion.

Southwest, Burbank, August 2007, Successful

Airline: Southwest
Airport: Burbank, CA
ID Offered: ?
Date: August 7, 2007
Reference: Colleen Cason
Reason given: Forgot ID
Result: Successful
Description: Kitty LaPolla, an 82-year-old Camarillo resident, didn't have to show any stinkin' badges when she went through security at Burbank Airport on Aug. 7. At check-in, the gregarious great-grandmother discovered she had left her wallet with her driver's license at home. The Southwest Airlines ticket agent offered several suggestions on how LaPolla might get her ID to the airport in time to make her flight. None of those flew. No one has a key to her apartment except the manager, and it was too early to reach him. LaPolla can probably talk the chicken off the bone. This lady, who was in fact the 1998 Camarillo Chamber of Commerce's Senior of the Year, has survived cancer and the loss of her son in the Vietnam War. She started college at age 62 and became a reserve deputy sheriff in Imperial County at 65. For years, she served as a teacher's aide at El Rancho Structured School in Camarillo. "Basically I'm feisty as hell," she shared. This strong woman's primary weakness is playing the penny slots, which is why she wanted to visit a friend in Arkansas. The two planned a road trip to casinos up and down the Mississippi River. So the ticket agent had a dilemma. Delay and inconvenience a little, old lady or play hard ball on the ID issue. She relented, scrawling "NO ID" on her boarding pass and sent LaPolla on her way. The agent followed the rules, according to Paula Berg, spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines. "There are circumstances where we make allowances, such as passengers whose purses or wallets are stolen on their way to the airport," Berg said.. Contrary to what most of us believe, TSA rules state passengers can travel without ID if they agree to have their carry-on bags searched. LaPolla did just that. Or as she puts it, "I had to go through all that bologna."