Activate new iphone without Apple id?

Can you activate a new iphone without an apple id? My wife got a new iphone but forgot her Apple ID password and how her account is locked. She is in account recovery, which is going to take 13 days, but I have to mail her old phone in sooner than that for the trade-in rebate. All her data and photos are backed up to iCloud. Can I activate her new phone without an Apple ID so she can start using it and I can mail in her old phone, then when the account is unlocked I can enter it and sync with her iCloud account? Or do you have to have an Apple ID when activating the phone?

Thanks