"Secure Flight" Starts for Travelers

"Secure Flight" Starts for Travelers: From GovGab: "Last week, one of my loyal readers, emailed me about a call she received from her airline regarding travel plans she booked months ago. The call stated that if she did not provide her full name, birth date and some other information for her flight, she wouldn't get her boarding pass. By coincidence, I had recently booked some travel plans and noticed the online airline reservation system asked for more information than usual.
According to the TSA blog, travelers now have to include name, date of birth, and gender as it appears on a recognized government ID on their travel reservations or they will be denied their boarding pass at flight time. TSA then matches this information against government watch lists.

Here are three questions posed by people on the Talk to TSA comment form that may clarify some of the questions surounding this program:

Will passengers still be able to book a ticket within 72 hours of a flight?
Yes. TSA’s Secure Flight program can conduct watch list matching for passengers up until the time of the flight. Passengers will be prompted to provide Secure Flight information when booking travel. For reservations booked on short notice, or within 72 hours of the scheduled flight departure time, airlines must submit the required passenger information as soon as the reservation is made.

What happens if a passenger has an existing reservation for travel after November 1, 2010, and did not provide complete Secure Flight data when booking his or her flight?
TSA advises passengers to contact their airlines or booking sources prior to arriving at the airport to ensure they have provided their full name, date of birth, gender, and Redress number (if applicable) as part of their reservations. While TSA’s watch list matching takes a matter of seconds and can be completed up until the time of departure, passengers should be aware that a boarding pass will not be issued until the airline submits complete passenger data to Secure Flight.

What if a passenger’s boarding pass and ID do not match exactly?
Secure Flight and travel document checking are both critical security functions, yet they serve different purposes at different points in the security process. Secure Flight is a behind-the-scenes watch list matching process that takes place before checkpoint screening. Secure Flight asks that passengers enter their names as they appear on their government ID and passengers should strive to stay consistent between the name on their ID and the information they provide when booking their reservation. Once a passenger receives their boarding pass, the Secure Flight process is already complete.

What do you think of these new air reservation requirements?

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