Back in 2022, American Airlines announced that they were partnering with Airside to provide Mobile ID for those with TSA Precheck. This initiative rolled out at specific hub airports, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Reagan National – Washington, D.C. (DCA), Miami International, and Phoenix Sky Harbor.
The basic premise for this is that there is yet another security lane where you show your digital ID to the TSA security officer. They then just wave you through.
I can personally attest to using this at Reagan National in Washington, D.C.. Given the transient nature of individuals living in DC, as well as it being the halls of power, there are a lot of people who fly a lot going through the airport. All throughout the day, the Clear and Precheck lines can easily be 40-50 people deep for both. This allowed me to bypass the other lines and be through security in less than 5 minutes.
American Airlines “Pauses” Their Relationship with Airside
As I was in the car heading to DCA this morning for a work trip up to Boston, I pulled up the Airside app to make sure that it was still working correctly.
I was looking for the “Verify” button on the app and couldn’t find it. Given that it was 5:30AM, rather than try to figure out where it went, I just Googled how to do it.
I came across this nugget on the Airside site:
News about the American Airlines Mobile ID service in the Airside Digital Identity App
Airside is proud to have provided thousands of American Airlines customers with a privacy-first, user-controlled, biometric Mobile ID experience at multiple airport touchpoints since 2020. Over the past few years, Airside has helped thousands of American Airlines customers enjoy a faster, stress-free airport experience.
Airside Support Page
American has ended the mobile ID trial program. Airside remains a good partner with American Airlines as they continue to build a customer experience that helps customers travel safely and easily.
I don’t know when American Airlines ended its support for the Airside app. However, there is no longer a partnership between the two (technically a “pause”).
In other news, though, Alaska Airlines now partners with Airside to provide a Mobile ID. You can also now use Airside to verify your Twitter account, so take that for what it is.
Why Did Airside and American Airlines End the Relationship?
I’m just making assumptions now, but I have to think that American Airlines ended this relationship, seeing that there just wasn’t a lot of uptake. Whenever I used the app, the Clear and Precheck lines were both at least 30-40 people deep. However, I could just walk up and use Airside. They had a sign set up, but there was no one there directing people to use it or set it up. Heck, even I forgot that it existed sometimes!
Conclusion
American Airlines and Airside have “paused” their relationship to provide a Mobile ID for those going through TSA Precheck at certain airports. It’s a real shame to see it go away when flying American. It really made going through security be much quicker during the ID check portion of the security theater.
Hopefully, it comes back soon. For now, I’ll just use the normal Precheck line.
What do you make of the “paused” relationship between American Airlines and Airside? Did you ever use the app?
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