Posted on 03/21/2009 8:32:00 AM PDT by nuconvert
Just when you thought you had the Transportation Security Administration rules all figured out, here comes a new procedure. Starting sometime in the next few months, you'll have to provide your birth date and gender whenever you buy an airplane ticket. The TSA is giving the airlines some time to change their websites and retrain their phone-reservations agents to be able to implement the agency's new Secure Flight program. Expect the changes on domestic flights by this summer.
The change is supposed to help reduce the number of Americans who are misidentified as individuals on the agency's no-fly and "selectee-for-further-inspection" watch lists. Up until now, airlines have done the work of vetting their passenger manifests for suspect names, but under the new program, the TSA assumes the job of monitoring watch lists full-time and implements "a uniform, efficient matching process."
(Excerpt) Read more at travel.yahoo.com ...
They check your name against the no-fly list when you buy the ticket. This gives them an opportunity to match it before you arrive at the airport and check-in.
My last time on an airplane was February 2001.
None for me, thanks.
Sometimes the cruise lines buys my tickets for me(group rate), so what happens then? I just show up at the ticket counter with an ID.
Me, too.
It’s just insanity....... no time for it. I’d rather drive if I HAVE to travel !
Stay safe LH !
“They check your name against the no-fly list when you buy the ticket.”
They can check it now. And when I get to the airport they can ask for my Driver’s license, which they already do several times. I don’t see how it’s going to save them or me any inconvenience or make anyone safer.
Do they have the DOB and sex of the people on the No-Fly list? Then check that against my Driver’s license when I go thru security.
TSA is bonkers.
That said, like everyone here, I want a safe and secure airplane. Behavioral profiling is the answer but that’s not PC.
I’m couldn’t find real work so I joined TSA. Not being qualified to do anything useful is also a requisite for becoming a congresscreep.
I will be here longer than you will ever hold any job you have and will probably NEVER be laid off.
I will get full benefits funded by you.
I will get retirement funded by you with taxes you will pay on ALL that you make and my retirement will be inflation adjusted and without risk. Your’s isn’t...ha, ha.
I have to be politically correct so even if you are an arab carrying an RPG I can’t single anyone out for profiling and so I have to SELECT obviously innocent people for “special” attention to prove I’m not profiling.
I’m from the government.
Like most government employees and politicans, I’m a pervert so bend over because....
Typical gov. control psychology: everyone must stand naked like a jew going to the death chamber because some dirtbag civil servant won’t do their jobs of getting the right ID.
The check against the list is not done in real-time. That's why they are asking for the DoB when you buy the ticket -- so they will have time to do so. Currently, if you buy a ticket at the last minute, you are likely to get flagged for additional screening because there was no time to check your name against the list (it's happened to me several times).
Do they have the DOB and sex of the people on the No-Fly list? Then check that against my Driver’s license when I go thru security.
Yes, they do -- at least for most of them. Checking your DoB avoids the obvious screw-ups like flagging a 5-year-old or an 80-year-old for name matches to someone that is known to be in his 30's. Of course, they'll have to verify that you gave the correct DoB when you purchased the ticket.
btw - Do you know that since the first or 2nd week in Jan., anyone visiting from a visa waivered country (like any European country) has to apply before flying for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) number?
I just found out about it recently.
Well, normally, I wouldn’t care. But since Herr Barry wants to take over cybersecurity from the DHS and put it under the WH, I’m begining to think we have a problem here...
Cheers!
Notice the glass “jail cell” in the background of the first pic. I just recently flew and saw these in some of the airports (SLC I think). If you become a “person of interest” to the TSA, I think you go to jail without passing go or collecting $200 until they can clear you. All part of the frog boiling it seems to me.
“The check against the list is not done in real-time. That’s why they are asking for the DoB when you buy the ticket — so they will have time to do so.”
They can check me not in real time today. They have my name and other info when I buy a ticket now. If my name is suspicious, then when I get to the airport, ask for my driver’s license - which they ALREADY do - and check my gender & DOB on my license against the suspicious person on the No-Fly list.
IF this procedure was going to stop them having to check my ID several times at the airport like they do now, then it might save everyone time. But if they’re STILL going to check everyone’s ID at the airport, what is the point?
Sometime about a year after 9/11, I had been called out on a reserve extra crew position and worked from LAX to HNL, then was scheduled to deadhead from HNL to OGG and work the Maui flight back to LA.
Over at the inter-island terminal gate for my flight to Maui, I was standing in the boarding line, and of course, being a crew member in uniform, was called out by the TSA for additional screening. (This was when they were doing random checks at the boarding gate.) They pulled me aside, and in full view of all other passengers, started going through my bags.
Then I got "wanded." The guy asked me to take off my shoes, which were just ballet slipper-type shoes, and he stuck his hands (no gloves) down inside my shoes. Where my feet had just been. Not to mention the "Ew" factor, but did he think there was really room for anything else down there?
Then the best part was when he asked me to lift up my feet so he could "wand" the bottoms of my feet. I am not kidding. I was wearing a dress with sheer stockings and he wanted to run the metal detector across the bottoms of my feet. My sheer-stockinged feet. I looked up at the passengers in line closest to me and just shook my head while he was doing this and they all started laughing. It was so supremely ridiculous it was actually funny.
Made me wonder if the guy just had a foot fetish or something.
Yeah but it is an automated flagging system. The airlines don’t ask for your drivers license number.
Maybe there’s something missing from the article.
Right now, there’s just something kinda ‘smoke & mirrors’ about it. Or like they’re trying to look like they’re doing something new under Obama in order to keep us safe.
Maybe this is going to be like a domestic ESTA, and the article is just not giving that info.
That's when the watch list matching is done today -- between the time that you buy the ticket and arrive at the airport.
If my name is suspicious, then when I get to the airport, ask for my driver’s license - which they ALREADY do - and check my gender & DOB on my license against the suspicious person on the No-Fly list.
The people at the airport do not have access to the watch list. All they have is a yes/no answer -- where the question is: do I subject this person to additional screening?
The watch list reportedly isn't just a plain text match between names. But, the decision is centralized rather than up to the discretion of the various airport staff. I think one reason is to try to avoid accusations of racial profiling.
I forgot to explain: the information is printed on your boarding pass, if you know where to look for it.
It's usually a series of "S"s, i.e. "SSSS" in bold type on the face of the boarding pass. That's what the guy at the metal detector is looking for when you show your boarding pass as you walk through.
If it's not there, you'll avoid the additional screening unless you do something like try to walk through with a bunch of change in your pocket.
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