After two decades of trying to standardize security for ID cards, the feds set a hard deadline of May 7 to convert to a REAL ID or risk staying being denied access to airplanes. If you're wondering if you already made the switch – which you very well may have if you renewed your license in the past couple of years – there are two versions.

All the hoopla over Real ID, a federally compliant driver’s license or identification card, has certainly died down. I had tried to ignore all the hype because I wasn’t been planning on flying

The U.S. rollout begins in beta at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints in more than 250 airports nationwide.