It’s been just about a week since TSA mandated “Secure Flight” data in all reservations. So far, so good. I haven’t heard any horror stories at airports, which could mean everything is going smoothly.
Or that at this point only the airlines are doing the enforcing in their ticketing system, and TSA has implemented a little unannounced grace period.
For the past couple weeks, it’s been impossible for travel agents and many airline systems to issue tickets without at least a passenger’s gender and birthday. The system doesn’t require a middle name. In theory, the name is supposed to be added to the system if one exists.
But the birthday rule is absolute for tickets, even for young children, who don’t often travel with identification anyway.
I know for sure that my agency has sold and written tickets for a few passengers where we weren’t sure what their middle name was; or even if they had one. But, our agency hasn’t heard any denied boarding problems.
Some airlines are sending messages about previously ticketed records, asking for the the agency to send “Secure Flight” information or risk cancellation/denied boarding. But not all airlines have sent such messages, and again, I have talked to agents who weren’t able to get the information on short notice for previously booked tickets.
So maybe there’s an unofficial grace period, or maybe, as one client suggested, “They’re not even looking at this stuff anyway.”
As far as hassles, other than the time involved, the biggest issue so far seems to be a software problem. Records that have even minor changes are going up in Internet smoke. Book a trip, enter all the data into the record, including passport information for international travel, make a change, and poof, all the information needs to be re-entered.
Sometimes this has happened even when the only “change” was an upgrade getting confirmed.
One of the most frustrating things with these changes and upgrades, is that the security information still shows in the record, easily obvious to a human. But computers are not seeing it. (It took some trial and error to figure out this problem, and we can only hope airline systems figure out a way around it.)
But for now, more than once, I have already had upgrades come through, followed almost immediately by a request in “airline-speak” saying, “PNR SUBJECT TO CANCEL DUE TO INVALID SFPD DATA.”
No doubt this is a work in progress, so with luck some of the kinks get worked out. In the meantime, I’m not sure if the traveling public feels any safer, but they sure feel more harassed.
Since this is all so new, if any readers have other stories, please share them in comments, whether it’s a cautionary tale or just a good excuse to vent.
(Photo: Prawfsblawg)
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
