I have a trip booked — when should I start?
Start now, but leave the document you will travel on until after the trip — your boarding pass and the ID you hand over need to agree.
A booked trip does not have to hold the whole thing up. Most of a name change — Social Security, your bank, your employer, your insurers — has nothing to do with what you show at a checkpoint. What has to wait is the one document you will actually travel on, and the ticket that has to agree with it.
Do these now
- Order your certified copies. Nothing starts without them and they are usually the longest wait.
- Social Security. It is free, it comes first, and it changes nothing in your wallet.
- Your notification letters — banks, employer, insurers, utilities, subscriptions.
- Airline loyalty accounts, so the name on them catches up before the next booking rather than this one.
Leave these until after
- Your passport, if you are flying internationally. It travels in the envelope with the application.
- Your driver license, if that is the ID you will present for a domestic flight.
If the trip is far enough out that the documents will be back in your hands with room to spare, this is a scheduling question rather than a rule. Weigh the published processing times against your departure date, not against how soon you would like it done.
The only thing that matters on the day is that the name on the ticket and the name on the ID you present agree with each other.
Other questions people ask
When you’re ready to do it
Two questions about your situation first, because there is one answer that means we can’t help — and we would rather tell you that before you pay than after.
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