Iowans who yet haven’t upgraded to a Real ID with the gold star in the top right corner will have to pay a $45 fee at the airport if they want to fly, starting this Sunday.
Jessica Mayle, regional spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, says passengers 18 and older who don’t have a Real ID or other acceptable form of government-issued ID will have to pay the fee through the TSA website before passing through a security checkpoint.
“The payment site is pretty short and abbreviated,” Mayle says. “One thing that is on there is your first date of travel. The reason for that is that this is good for 10 days. So if you are there and back in 10 days, you can use that as a receipt more than once. If your trip is longer than 10 days, you would need to pay more than once.”
Mayle says if you don’t have a Real ID, you’ll have to verify you’ve paid the $45 online at TSA.gov before getting in the security line.
“Then you’ll have that receipt either in your e-mail, or you can print it out as a hard copy, but the receipt is what they want to see at the checkpoint to prove that you’ve made the payment,” Mayle says. “You cannot pay in cash or by card at the checkpoint. We have no way of processing payments here. So it’s really important that passengers, if they need to use this option, take care of it before they arrive.”
Travelers who show up at the airport without that receipt or an acceptable form of ID may miss their flight, unless they make the payment from a cellphone or laptop.
Mayle says more than 94-percent of travelers at TSA checkpoints nationwide already present an acceptable form of ID.