Comments on: Starts today — the biggest TSA change you never have heard of

By: Mr Bad Example

Mr Bad Example — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:44:00 +0000

Being that the TSA (Trained Shoe Analysts) Can’t find their arse with both hands in a phone booth with a flashlight, I know I don’t feel more secure.

By: envie

envie — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:50:59 +0000

#1 this did not start yesterday/today; it is place on a litmited number of carriers
#2 the airline and agent booking systems SO cannot handle the requirements, you have a while before you have to worry :). Laura’s case above is a prime example. The booking system cannot accept that number of characters, yet her passport can…..

By: laura

laura — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:13:04 +0000

Tim@ 12:23-
My family’s British – a lot of foreigners, or those with families following cultural traditions from outside the US, have more than 3 names.

But it gets worse than that! My full legal name is actually nine words long and my first name has an apostrophe, L’Aura.- (Don’t ask, my parents wanted the French version for its meaning). All my children have more than 3 names and my husband has no middle name (but a hyphenated first name!)

It’s the hyphens and the apostrophes that usually kill us when making airline reservations.

I don’t know about others, but the state that licensed me (not my home state, BTW) allows folks to ‘correct’ inaccuracies on a drivers license. Depending on how you feel about it, you may want to ‘correct’ your legal name to something easier to fly with.

By: Brock

Brock — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:19:27 +0000

And for those of us with only a first initial (not an abbrev. but legally no first name) we already have trouble with web sites and reservation systems that insist on more than one letter for a first name.

By: Cathy Baar

Cathy Baar — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:00:56 +0000

A certain southern-based airline has several hundred frequent flyers in its program with a first name listed as “Bubba…” Got to wonder how the TSA is dealing with that!

By: Wrona

Wrona — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:36:43 +0000

And since most airline’s websites only have a field to enter First Name Last Name, this is going to be interesting.

By: K. Millner

K. Millner — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:54:57 +0000

My passport contains my full middle name – my driver’s license only my middle initial. So which one am I supposed to use for a frequent flyer program?

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:23:13 +0000

Laura–7 names?? A little greedy, are we? I am joking, of course. And for the record I have a first, middle, and last name–and all are more considered first names than last names.

So what the TSA is doing is making sure that the name on the bad guy’s fake ID matches the name on the ticket. And this is going to make us safer how? And if they check in online and reprint their boarding pass with a different name, how are they going to get caught? As Bruce Scheier called it, this is more “security theater.”

As I have mentioned in other sites before, knowing WHO is flying is not as important as WHAT is flying. I would rather have a person some agency thinks is suspicious on my flight rather than a bomb in the cargo the plane is flying. With the former, they have gone through supposedly thorough security so we know he is not carrying weapons; the latter has not (very little cargo is checked before being loaded on a commercial plane).

But as Janice says, make sure the airline has your name as seen on your ID and you will be fine.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:48:40 +0000

Next thing they’ll want your shoe size, cup size (upper and lower) and toilet paper preference.
Just another way for Uncle Sam to get his grubby little hands down our pants!

By: Janice Hough

Janice Hough — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Those with just two names on their license are lucky. Nothing changes. It’s just most people with middle names that may be going to have problems if they have been travelling (and enrolled in mileage programs) with only first and last names.