Most people budgeting for holiday travel think about airfare, bag fees, and what airport parking will run them. Fewer think about their driver’s license. That’s a mistake this year, because a plain license without the little star can now cost you $45 at the security line, and that charge can hit you more than once before New Year’s.
If you still lack the star, you have time to fix it before Thanksgiving. Not a lot of time, though, and the cheaper fixes take weeks.
What the $45 ConfirmID fee is
Since February 1, 2026, travelers 18 and older who show up for a domestic flight without a REAL ID or another TSA-accepted ID have had one fallback: TSA ConfirmID. You pay $45 through pay.gov, show the receipt and whatever government ID you do have at the checkpoint, and TSA tries to verify who you are. According to AirlineGeeks’ report on the TSA briefing, that check uses passport database lookups and knowledge-based questions. It usually takes 10 to 15 minutes and can run 30 or longer.
Two details matter for your wallet. The fee is nonrefundable, and paying it doesn’t guarantee you get through. If TSA can’t confirm your identity, you can be turned away anyway, out $45 and maybe a flight. TSA originally floated an $18 fee in the Federal Register in November 2025, then raised it to $45 after deciding the system cost more to run than it first projected.
The fee covers a 10-day window starting on your first travel date. A normal long weekend round trip is one payment. Two separate trips are two payments.
The math for a typical holiday season
Picture a couple, both without REAL ID, who fly home for Thanksgiving and then go see the other side of the family at Christmas. The trips are about a month apart, so the 10-day window doesn’t stretch across both. That’s two people times two trips times $45, or $180.
A family of four only pays for the two adults, because kids under 18 are exempt from the ID requirement at screening. Still, $180 is real money in a month already stuffed with travel and gift spending, and it buys you nothing except a slower line.
The crowds make it worse. TSA screened 3,133,924 people on November 30, 2025, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which was the busiest day in the agency’s history (as reported by Fox stations nationwide). A half hour of identity checks on a day like that is how people miss flights. Rebooking a missed holiday flight can cost a lot more than $45.
Who’s still at risk
TSA has said about 94% of passengers already show an acceptable ID. So most readers can stop worrying. The other 6% tends to be people who haven’t renewed their license in a while, people who fly once or twice a year, and older relatives whose license still works fine for driving and who don’t see why they’d need a new one.
That last group is worth a phone call this week. If your mom is flying in for Thanksgiving, ask her to look at her license for the star (in most states it’s a white star inside a yellow circle). It’s a 10-second check that could save her $45 and a stressful morning.
Option 1: Use an ID you already own
Before you spend anything, check your drawer. A valid U.S. passport works for domestic flights. So do a passport card, a Global Entry, NEXUS, or SENTRI card, a military ID, a permanent resident card, and photo IDs from federally recognized tribal nations. The Clark Howard team’s rundown has the short version of the list, and TSA keeps the full one on its site.
TSA also accepts digital IDs in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet at more than 250 checkpoints, according to the Associated Press. If your state offers a mobile driver’s license that qualifies, that may already cover you at your home airport. Don’t count on it at the airport you’re flying back from, though. Bring the physical backup.
This is the free option, and it’s the one people overlook. A passport that sat in a safe since a 2019 vacation works just as well at a domestic checkpoint as it does at customs, provided it hasn’t expired.
Option 2: Get a passport card if you already have a passport book
If you have a passport book and hate carrying it around, a passport card costs $30 when you add it to an existing passport. It fits in a wallet, it’s TSA-accepted, and it lasts as long as the book. For one person, it pays for itself the first time it keeps you from paying ConfirmID.
If you’re starting from scratch, a first-time adult passport card runs $65 ($30 application fee plus a $35 acceptance fee). An adult passport book renewal is $130. Neither is cheap, but both last 10 years, and the book also gets you out of the country. Spread over a decade, even the $130 renewal is less than three ConfirmID payments.
Timing is the catch. The State Department’s routine processing was running 4 to 6 weeks as of September 2026, with expedited service at 2 to 3 weeks for an added fee, according to VisaVerge’s tracking of official processing times. Mailing adds time on both ends. Apply in early October and you’re probably fine for late November. Apply after Halloween and you’re cutting it close for Thanksgiving, though Christmas is still realistic.
Option 3: Upgrade to REAL ID at the DMV
For a lot of people the REAL ID upgrade is the cheapest permanent fix, because many states roll it into a normal license renewal or charge a modest fee for it. Prices vary by state, so check your DMV’s site before you go.
The real cost is paperwork. You’ll typically need proof of identity like a birth certificate or passport, your Social Security number, and two proofs of address. If your name changed through marriage or divorce, bring the documents that connect the names. People get sent home over that one all the time. If you need a certified copy of a birth certificate, order it now, since that can take weeks on its own.
If your license is due for renewal anyway in the next year, this is the obvious move. Renew early, get the star, and pay once.
If you end up paying anyway
Sometimes it’s too late. If your flight is next week and nothing above will arrive in time, at least pay the fee online before you get to the airport. TSA recommends it, and it saves you from being pulled out of line to do it at the checkpoint. The AP reports pay.gov accepts debit and credit cards, Venmo, and PayPal, and someone else can pay for you as long as your details are entered correctly.
Use a credit card if you can. It won’t get you a refund on a nonrefundable government fee, but you’ll at least earn rewards on it and keep the charge out of your checking account during an expensive month.
Then budget a full extra hour, and plan your trips to fit inside one 10-day window if your schedule allows. Two short trips cost twice as much as one longer one.
The bottom line on the fee
The $45 is avoidable for almost everyone with a few weeks of lead time. If you’re in the 6% without an acceptable ID, spend the next two weeks fixing it instead of paying TSA every time you fly. Put the $180 you’d have spent toward the trip itself, or drop it into a holiday sinking fund in your savings account so January’s credit card bill is a little lighter.
