St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, August 2007, Successful after changing airlines

Airline: Multiple
Airport: St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (STT),
ID Offered: None
Date: August, 2007
Reference: Andy
Reason given: Fly as a selectee/without ID
Result: Successful, after changing airlines and giving fingerprints
Description:
On my return trip I experienced I bit of a delay due to the ignorance of some of the personnel at the air line check-in counters. I tried some friendly arguing with them as best I knew how, mostly in the form of simple questions, but in the end I found that such an approach was not very fruitful as I am not likely to be able to teach anyone anything they didn't already know and because I also found that both TSA and the US Customs personnel claimed, as I understood them, that they were not allowed to provide any info or orders to any of the airline personnel. By my dialogue with various parties, including also the local airport police officers, I was able, eventually, to gather that the most likely solution to such ignorance is to simply go to another airline ticket counter and buy another ticket from them. I did so both in St Thomas (STT) and in West Palm Beach (PBI) and both times I was able to promptly get the required boarding passes without any further trouble.

Additionally, before I learned to go to the next air line ticket counter for alternate travel, I learned that I could go through the US Customs at St Thomas prior to getting my boarding pass, thereby breaking the false presumptions of the airline personnel that the US Customs would not allow me to pass. By so doing I was routed to the Customs supervisory officer who courteously handled the situation by fingerprinting me, and by so doing recognizing me, by my God given identifiers – not by a Government ID - as having the rights of traveling within the 50 states of the union.