I mean, it was living memory for many HN'ers that you could travel freely in the United States with doing either. It's a post-9/11 thing that an airline ticket is associated with a unique person, and requires a matching photo ID.

There was a time when America's security forces did not routinely surveil its own peoples' movements.

When I was a kid there were classified ads like "Pan Am NYC Dec 20-28, E. Smith, $200 o.b.o" for people who wanted to resell their ticket because they couldn't make the trip. There were no id checks then.

In the 1990s the airplanes jumped at the opportunity to have required id checks so they could take control of the secondary market.

It was still possible to buy a ticket like "E. Smith", but that option was cut off a few years later.