Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began requiring all travelers to have a REAL ID-compliant form of identification. Now, anyone without a compliant form of identification will have to pay a fee, and travelers are not at all happy.
Beginning on Feb. 1, 2026, the TSA has announced that it will begin referring passengers to a fee-based TSA “Confirm.ID” payment option if they do not present a valid, acceptable ID at airport security checkpoints. Travelers will have to pay a $45 fee to use this option. The change quickly sparked outrage amongst travelers on social media.
TSA Rolls Out New Fee
Late last month, the TSA announced that it was considering a plan to charge a small fee to travelers who arrive at the airport without compliant forms of identification to help cover the cost of a new verification system. On Dec. 1, the TSA officially confirmed the change.
Beginning on Feb. 1, travelers who do not present an acceptable form of ID and still want to fly will be referred to a new option where they will have to pay a $45 fee to use a modernized alternative identity verification system.
This $45 fee will allow travelers to use TSA Confirm.ID for a 10-day travel period.
A Big Change
Since the REAL ID requirements went into effect back in May, the TSA has continued to make exceptions for travelers, verifying their identities in other ways.
Shortly after the requirements were made official, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made it clear that people without a Real ID will “be able to fly after additional identity checks.”
Noem said that those who arrived at the airport “may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step,” but that those people “will be allowed to fly.” While this might have added a little extra time to the security screening process, it didn’t come at an additional cost. Now, however, travelers without a compliant form of identification will face an additional fee.
Travelers Express Outrage
It did not take long for travelers to express outrage at this change, with many suggesting that the fee is unnecessary and feels like a nefarious way to generate revenue.
“So this was a tactic to generate revenue. Not to ‘keep travelers safe.’ Got it!” one person wrote in a comment on X.
“Because terrorists are too poor to have $45, right?” someone else wrote sarcastically.
“It’s never been about safety,” another person claimed.
“$45? So it’s not about safety and security?” someone else said.
“Real ID is the only way for us to keep everyone safe and secure. Also, you can bypass it entirely for the low price of $45. Surely no terrorists will have $45 available to spend,” another person wrote.
TSA Chief of Staff Adam Stahl said in a news release that the new fee “ensures the cost to cover verification of an insufficient ID will come from the traveler, not the taxpayer.”
The list of acceptable forms of identification includes passports, REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses and learns permits, as well as a list of many other acceptable alternatives.
