The TSA deadline for “Secure Flight” is two months away — November 1, 2010.
In the past, some government deadlines for travelers have changed, most notably for passport rules. But airlines are already asking for the data, (full name, gender and date of birth), and tour operators have been calling our office all week to get the information for anyone booked to travel in November or later.
At the same time, carriers are issuing dire warnings about canceled reservations if such information is not provided after the deadline.
Leaving aside the question as to whether any of this makes us safer, it strikes me there are more than a few upcoming issues.
What happens if people get the advance information wrong, either name or birth date? Travel agents get enough errors as it is with just first and last name.
Numbers are easy to transpose in dates. Besides, travelers may have the wrong information about their companions. (In fact, one client who shall remain nameless says she routinely tells people she is five years younger than she is, and has even traveled with a gentleman friend who was not aware of her true age.)
There’s also a practical issue for job applications that runs smack into another law, namely the fact that corporations cannot ask someone’s age as part of the interview process. (This is to prevent age discrimination.)
On a pretty regular basis, companies fly top applicants in for final interviews, so either the airlines will have to start allowing a grace period for the traveler in question to enter their own information, or figure out another solution.
Another issue that comes to mind is with foreign names. Some nationalities have two family names, and others may use both an original and English first name.
No doubt too there are a number of issues that we haven’t even thought of year. (I am sure Consumer Traveler readers will enlighten me on some of them.)
In any case, one thing seems certain – fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
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.)
