TSA Begs Travelers to Stop Presenting a Costco Membership Card Instead of a Passport
Attention, Americans! Next time you fly, the folks at the Transportation Safety Administration have a simple reminder: no, your Costco Membership is not a valid form of ID.
The bizarre reminder came days ago, amidst a renewed flurry of web traffic — and presumably some attempts at the security checkpoint — checking whether the almighty wholesale retail pass will get you to past the gate and onto your flight.
"We love hotdogs and rotisserie chickens as much as the next person, but please stop telling people their Costco card counts as a REAL ID because it absolutely does not," the TSA implored on social media.
The TSA is a legendarily flawed organization, notorious for subjecting untold millions of travelers to cumbersome security theater while accomplishing very little, but in this instance it was unquestionably correct: a Costco card will emphatically get you nowhere near an airplane at a US airport, and presenting it to airport security may well result in a situation that makes you wish you'd stayed home in the first place.
The agency's truth bomb comes a month after the federal government finally carried out its years-long threat of requiring a REAL ID — a state ID authenticated along with legal proof of residence — to board even domestic flights. The looming mandate was established all the way back in 2005, and has consistently been pushed back by the government, at least until Trump's Project 2025-fueled crackdown on voting registration.
The Costco debacle, on the other hand, has its roots in a nebulous internet rumor dating back to at least August, 2021. Among the earliest known claims that a Costco card can get you through TSA comes from immihelp.com, an immigration-assistance website with occasional blogs on travel advice.
A post titled "Costco Cards, and 11 Other IDs That Can Get You through Airport Security" — published on August 16th, 2021, according to metadata — lists the almighty piece of plastic as an acceptable supplement when going through airport security.
"It is a photo ID, and can help you get through a TSA check," the blog advises. It's true that Costco cards have their owners' photos printed on them, but they are absolutely not an official form of ID, at least anywhere except Costco. "Costco is a reputed name, and everyone has heard of its membership program." (To be fair to immihelp.com, the blog does caveat that "perhaps the Costco card alone is not enough.")
The vague rumor only spiraled from there, with years' worth of social media posts piling up into a disinformation tornado on the topic.
Now with dozens of local media outlets circulating the TSA-Costco debacle, maybe it's only a matter of time before some clever AI chatbot gets in on the fun.
More on retail: After Disastrous Experiments Into AI, Target Pledges to Pile on Even More AI
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