Airlines Set to Ask More of Passengers (more information)

[liberal N proud]

washingtonpost.com

Government Says Extra Information Will Prevent Watch-List Mismatches

U.S. airlines on Saturday will begin asking travelers to provide their birth date and sex for the first time under a new aviation security requirement, federal officials said Wednesday.

The change comes as the Department of Homeland Security takes over responsibility for checking airline passenger names against government watch lists. The additional personal information, which airlines will forward to the Transportation Security Administration, is expected to cut down on cases of mistaken identity, in which people with names similar to those on terrorist watch lists are erroneously barred or delayed from flights.

U.S. airlines on May 15 started asking passengers for their full name as it appears on a government-issued identification card, a change intended to allow companies to upgrade their reservation and information systems. Starting Saturday, airlines will be required to get both the name and the additional information, although TSA is working with individual airlines to phase in compliance, TSA spokesman Greg Soule said.

Passengers should not be concerned if their airline does not ask them for the information, Soule said. The agency hopes to vet 100 percent of domestic passengers by March 31 and all passengers on international flights to, from or over the United States by the end of 2010 -- a total of 2 million daily passengers.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/12/AR2009081203000.html?wpisrc=newsletter

[marmar]

1. Because flying isn't a big enough pain-in-the-ass right now......

...... High speed rail can't get here quickly enough.

[liberal N proud]

3. If only we had high speed rail

I blows my mind that the right made a big stink over a non existent proposal for high speed rail in the Economic Recovery Stimulus.

There should have been many high speed rail projects in that plan, it would have provided thousands of jobs and helped with energy independence.

[hobbit709]

2. Papieren, bitte.

[Paranoid Pessimist]

4. What, so they'll have stuff to read while holding passengers on a non-flying...

plane for hours and hours with no air con and broken toilets?

[RobertDevereaux]

5. I'll provide my birth date...

but I draw the line at providing sex.

They'll have to earn that! :^)

[Cal Carpenter]

7. Yeah, maybe if they start giving me dinner again

;)

(not really, the food was always pretty nasty anyway...)

[pipi_k]

6. What's next...stool samples and psychological testing?

Hey sheeple...just keep on giving them whatever they want in the name of "being safe"

it's all bullshit when it's been shown that some airline personnel aren't even doing their jobs, leaving everyone vulnerable to acts that won't be stopped by having grandma frisked for sharpened crochet hooks and dentures made of plastic explosives...

[marshall]

8. I had a snafu on an int'l flight--a man with the exact same name as me

A flight from Melbourne to Honolulu. The airline (American) thought they had made a mistake and given one person two seats, so they cancelled one of the seats. Both he and I, with the exact same first, middle, and last names, were assigned one seat. We had a stopover in Sydney and they sorted it out, but it seemed very slipshod to me that they canceled a seat without really knowing what they were doing.

So I do agree that a little info beyond just name would be helpful.