New TSA rule aims to improve security and cut down on hassle

by Meg Massie on

Up until now, airline passengers have only been required to provide as much as their first initial and last name to get a plane ticket. However, due to the high rate of false matches to names on the government’s terrorist watch list, passengers will soon be required to provide their full name and birth date before they can fly.

If your name resembles a name on the watch list, you might get held up at security. It has happened to Senator Edward Kennedy as well as to numerous children, but the TSA says that if they have a full name and birth date for every passenger, they won’t get all the false matches they get with the current first initial and last name system.

Airlines have resisted because of the cost and hassle of updating their computer systems, but as of July 2009, full names will be mandatory. Travelers who book flights without giving all the required information will be unable to print or receive boarding passes until they confirm the missing information with an airline ticket agent.

While the TSA is confident that the new procedure will greatly reduce false matches, it’s not clear that it will actually improve security. Security expert Bruce Schneier says terrorists could get around the rule by buying a ticket using someone else’s name.

How to still fly if you’re on the no-fly list

by Jerry Guo on

There’s been countless stories, here at Gadling and elsewhere, of people mistakenly added to TSA’s no-fly or terrorist watch lists. In fact, the lists currently hold 700,000 names–which simple logic should tell you means more than quite a few are just hapless law-abiding citizens.

Even names like John Thompson and James Wilson are on the lists. Scary! If you’re on it, you face a multitude of hassles: no online check-in, no use of the airport kiosks, incessant questioning by ticket agents, extra pat-downs at the security checkpoints, and sometimes even detention (which means missing your flight).

So what’s the easiest way to avoid all this? Not the official Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, or TRIP, which was started last year and serves as the formal process for getting yourself off the list. Surprisingly, the best solution is the easiest: use your middle name. Most often the watch lists do not include middle names and you’re allowed to fly with just middle name – last name.