No ID

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Devil's Advocate said:
I don't think that's possible since the TSA is not deployed at SFO. In my experience lack of acceptable photo ID means S4 at TSA airports.
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Picky picky. Whoever does security at SFO. ;)

I have later had a similar experience at EWR too, and whoever does Security there also did something similar. :)
 
Sometimes we get hung up on semantics. In most cases, verification that someone is actually who they present themselves as is not the same as having to show ID, and there is usually an alternative verification pathway available, but timeliness is often an issue. As an example, a US citizen has an (almost) absolute right to enter the country, but without proper documentation on hand, you may sit for a long time while verification takes place.
 
rspenmoll said:
According to page 8-7 of the service standards manual, at the link below, it seems like your best bet is to have someone back home express mail you your birth certificate and social security card. Those two together will be adequate ID. It has to be your actual social security card and either your original or certified copy of your birth certificate, a regular photocopy is not adequate. https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...-service-standards-manual-031119-redacted.pdf

Edit: Almost forgot to mention, you need ID to pick up express mail, so the envelope will need to be addressed to someone you trust who can pick it up for you.
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That is some epic trolling. I doff my hat to you.
 
The only time I was ever ID checked was in Winter Park, Florida. We were getting on the Silver Meteor heading back to Boca and the Conductor asked to see my ID. My wife started to get hers out and the Conductor said:"I don't need to see yours, just his."

I showed mine and got on the train. Seems like it was just an arbitrary, random decision. While I was traveling on a Senior fare tickets, I think all of you who have met me will agree that there is no question but that I obviously qualify.
 
JRR said:
The only time I was ever ID checked was in Winter Park, Florida. We were getting on the Silver Meteor heading back to Boca and the Conductor asked to see my ID. My wife started to get hers out and the Conductor said:"I don't need to see yours, just his."

I showed mine and got on the train. Seems like it was just an arbitrary, random decision. While I was traveling on a Senior fare tickets, I think all of you who have met me will agree that there is no question but that I obviously qualify.
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Having met both of you, you look like spring chickens to me--that conductor obviously was either in a bad mood or was bored and wanted something to do! Although I would have been more insulted if I were your wife and the conductor said he (she?) didn't need to see hers. That happened to me years and years ago when I went out for a drink and dinner and the waitress carded the guy I was with but told me they didn't need to see my ID. He chuckled about it the whole evening, and that was the beginning of the end of that friendship right there!:D
 
PVD said:
Actually at one point I believe the conductor/ac was instructed by his device to id specific people based on a percentage.
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That was my understanding as well. At one point I remember a conductor scanning my ticket, looking at his screen and saying “oh it says I need to see your ID” - that was several years ago though and I haven’t heard conductors asking for id’s on recent trips including on the nec where they seemed to ask for it more in the past.
 
When I was commuting weekly or so on the Eagle from FTW-AUS, I of course got to know the conductors on the route. After a year or so of this, one day one of my friends had to ask me for an ID, even though I usually just walked on board bypassing the crowd, and he scanned my ticket as he later passed by. His screen said to ask for ID. A random thing.
 
I would think that you could get a temporary drivers license (or comparable ID for a non-driver) rather quickly at your DMV. Don't they have a database that includes your photo? Unless you currently do not look like the photo that was on your lost license, that might help. It might take some explaining, and a sympathetic supervisor and some luck, but worth investigating. YMMV depending upon the state.
 
Skyline said:
I would think that you could get a temporary drivers license (or comparable ID for a non-driver) rather quickly at your DMV. Don't they have a database that includes your photo? Unless you currently do not look like the photo that was on your lost license, that might help. It might take some explaining, and a sympathetic supervisor and some luck, but worth investigating. YMMV depending upon the state.
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I think the OP lost his/her ID while away from home, so going to his/her DMV would happen after the train trip.
 
Yes, I seriously doubt that, if I were in NY and lost my Fl DL - that any NY DMV would be able to help me get a replacement - I would need to get home without an ID before I could get it replaced.

I think this is the situation the OP was talking about.

It would be nice if the OP would come back and tell us if they got home OK - if they have already done so ... or, at least give us an update
 
I remember reading a newspaper (or web) article about a reporter's experience of leaving her purse with ID in the taxicab that took her to the airport. Fortunately, she had her phone in hand and she had copies of the ID and tickets on the phone. It took some doing, but she was able to make her flight and get home. I don't remember whether she ever recovered her purse.

On the basis of that story I would suppose it's probably a good idea to take a picture of your driver's license and keep it stored on your phone, if you have a phone with the ability to store pictures. I'd also add a health insurance/Medicare card, too. If going abroad, I might also add a copy of my passport (at least the page with the picture and personal information, maybe also photograph any visa stamps you get, too.
 
I keep my passport ID card in my wallet and my passport in my suitcase or laptop bag (laptop bag if I’m checking my suitcase). In my passport wallet I also keep an extra credit card. If my wallet were to be lost or stolen on a trip, I would have a backup Id and method of payment.

While Apple Pay can be useful, you’ll want to cancel or put a hold on missing credit cards so that cancels them out.
 
Apple Pay is actually not particularly useful in many countries where it is not available as a service.

On trips abroad, first I sort out all the credit cards that have exchange fee, and leave them home, and then of the rest I keep a few in the wallet and the rest in a hand baggage, typically my shoulder back pack. My Passport is always carried on my body (as well as some amount of local currency cash), since theft of any piece of baggage is not that uncommon in many parts of the world, and there is no guarantee that anyone will necessarily accept any credit card in some obscure places where inevitably these bad things happen.
 
JIS has a pretty good strategy, not unlike mine. Nothing is foolproof, but backups of backups help a lot.
I have a couple of expired drivers licenses, they have a picture, the same info, and the same license number. I used to leave one of them as ransom for a key to a building roof. They never looked at the date.
Photos of DLs, passports, insurance, prescriptions, medicare, my H hanger, and a list of names and phone numbers of officials who know me - police chief, even my doctor.
Hard copies, on my phone and a USB key on my ring with my Nitro tabs.
Never keep everything in one container.
If any of that doesn't work, well, I guess it wasn't meant to be.
I got my Dad a DMV ID when he stopped driving. They gave me a copy of the signed app with a number, but it took a good 3 eeks to get the card with picture.
 
I would be the first to admit that my way of doing things may be more defensive than a typical traveler doing a pre-arranged trip where they hardly ever leave a guided tour group would need to do. I tend to do quite a bit of traveling just on my own, which is what has gone into arriving at the methods I use, some learned through real experiences.

Even seemingly benign situations can be addressed, like for example what do you do when your Passport is sitting with the immigration agent at the end of the bridge in Zhangmu (across from Kodari in Nepal) and a Chinese border guard challenges you to show your Id on the bridge while you are waiting to get your stamped Passport back, and insists that he must see an Id? Things like that. It happens. I had a copy of the Passport to show him, which satisfied him. Self important busy body agents of the bureaucracy are everywhere. There was an additional factor or two to this story which I can tell anyone over a beer or such during an AU Gathering.
 
jis said:
I would be the first to admit that my way of doing things may be more defensive than a typical traveler doing a pre-arranged trip where they hardly ever leave a guided tour group would need to do. I tend to do quite a bit of traveling just on my own, which is what has gone into arriving at the methods I use, some learned through real experiences.

Even seemingly benign situations can be addressed, like for example what do you do when your Passport is sitting with the immigration agent at the end of the bridge in Zhangmu (across from Kodari in Nepal) and a Chinese border guard challenges you to show your Id on the bridge while you are waiting to get your stamped Passport back, and insists that he must see an Id? Things like that. It happens. I had a copy of the Passport to show him, which satisfied him. Self important busy body agents of the bureaucracy are everywhere. There was an additional factor or two to this story which I can tell anyone over a beer or such during an AU Gathering.
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Reminds me of crossing into East Berlin and the Stasi Goon had my Passport in the "Office". AnEast German Border Guard asked me for some ID after asking me if I was "CIA?"

Luckily, like you I had a copy of my Passport in my Papers folder so he looked @ it and grunted "OK"

30 Anxious minutes later I got my Passport back and was cleared to continue. Not a pleasant expierence @ the Height of the Cold War!
 
Qapla said:
Yes, I seriously doubt that, if I were in NY and lost my Fl DL - that any NY DMV would be able to help me get a replacement - I would need to get home without an ID before I could get it replaced.
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My state allows you to replace your drivers license while located in other states via mail. That's not very practical for short vacations, but the main thing an authority stopping you on your way home is going to want to see is an official police report detailing the missing/stolen identification ensuring it has been invalidated and can be prosecuted if reused. Having copies of the original document can speed up the reporting and recovery process.
 
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Bob Dylan said:
Reminds me of crossing into East Berlin and the Stasi Goon had my Passport in the "Office". An East German Border Guard asked me for some ID after asking me if I was "CIA?"

Luckily, like you I had a copy of my Passport in my Papers folder so he looked @ it and grunted "OK"

30 Anxious minutes later I got my Passport back and was cleared to continue. Not a pleasant experience @ the Height of the Cold War!
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The Stasi collected info about border crossers, but their non-computerized retrieval of information could be slow, especially for inter-agency queries (the border guards were a separate force).

-- rwr http://www.berlin1969.com
 
Bob Dylan said:
Reminds me of crossing into East Berlin and the Stasi Goon had my Passport in the "Office". AnEast German Border Guard asked me for some ID after asking me if I was "CIA?"

Luckily, like you I had a copy of my Passport in my Papers folder so he looked @ it and grunted "OK"

30 Anxious minutes later I got my Passport back and was cleared to continue. Not a pleasant expierence @ the Height of the Cold War!
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As much as I’d like to agree with you that this could be and was an uncomfortable situation, I’d bet now you look back at it and are thankful to have had the experience, as I know I would be. I've been to Berlin in the more modern era and even though I could imagine the guards at the checkpoints, see East Berlin and imagine, and walk the runways of Tempelhöfer I’m sure it wasn’t anything that you experienced!!
 
F900ElCapitan said:
As much as I’d like to agree with you that this could be and was an uncomfortable situation, I’d bet now you look back at it and are thankful to have had the experience, as I know I would be. I've been to Berlin in the more modern era and even though I could imagine the guards at the checkpoints, see East Berlin and imagine, and walk the runways of Tempelhöfer I’m sure it wasn’t anything that you experienced!!
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You're so right, it's one of those expierences one shares and laughs aboutover a few beers, but @ the time it was damn scarey!
 
So far as I'm aware most postwar Americans visiting East Berlin did so as a morbid curiosity experienced as a self-selecting tourist. So when they complain about having to show papers or being treated with disdain I have to wonder what they expected to happen. It just seems so crass to complain about the difficulty of gawking at the zoo of the damned after returning to a life of relative freedom and luxury.
 
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Devil's Advocate said:
So far as I'm aware most postwar Americans visiting East Berlin did so as a morbid curiosity experienced as a self-selecting tourist. So when they complain about having to show papers or being treated with disdain I have to wonder what they expected to happen. It just seems so crass to complain about the difficulty of gawking at the zoo of the damned after returning to a life of relative freedom and luxury.
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Agreed Chris! Probably similar to visiting North Korea now,( can an individual actually do this on a Lark?) although AFAIK only 1 AUer has actually done this in Modern times!
 

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