Flying? Don’t Book Under a Nickname

[Principessa]

Flying? Don’t Book Under a Nickname
By SUSAN STELLIN

The Transportation Security Administration is getting ready to take over responsibility from the airlines for checking passengers’ names against terrorist watch lists, and is advising travelers to start booking airline tickets using their full name as it appears on their driver’s license or passport. Later this summer, the agency will also begin requiring airlines to ask passengers for their birth date and gender during the ticketing process, information the carriers will then transfer to the T.S.A. The goal is to help make the watch list matching process more accurate. But it turns out that what’s in a name is more complicated than many reservation systems are currently prepared to handle. So the airlines are telling passengers not to worry if there is no place to enter a middle name when purchasing a ticket, or no field for a date of birth.

While the T.S.A. has announced Aug. 15 as a target date for the airlines to begin asking for each passenger’s full name, gender and date of birth, and has already begun publicizing the program, called Secure Flight, the agency acknowledged that it would go into effect in phases as the airlines update their systems. “What we’re trying to do is make the public aware that these changes are coming,” said Paul Leyh, the agency’s director for Secure Flight. “If your name is Jonathan Smith and you travel as John Smith and your license says Johnny Smith — get all those things aligned.”The government’s aim is to streamline the process of checking travelers’ names against its watch lists — a task currently handled separately by each airline — and to collect more detailed information so passengers with names similar to those on the watch list are less likely to be mistakenly detained. Asking for a birth date, for instance, decreases the likelihood that a child with a name close to one on the list would be subject to an additional search — one example of a false match that has led to complaints.

I was a bit shocked when I read this article as I thought all adults in America knew that the names on their ID's had to all match. It doesn't matter if your travel by plane or not. On the off chance social security is still around when you retire the names at every job you have worked need to match up or you could get gypped. :duh:

Actually whatever it says on your birth certificate should be what it says on your social security card. IMO, It's just common sense not to put a nickname on a drivers license or passport.

 

[got_lost]

I don't understand why anyone should do that either!
It kind of seems common sense.

That said, I once employed a girl that confused the hell out of me when I came to book a flight for her the first time as she had a very different name on her passport!

She was of asian descent and her real name reflected that.

I can see why she wanted an easier name to work with day to day.
However, why she didn't use her real name on her official documentation of employment history etc I have no idea.

Caused her loads of trouble!

 

[whatireallywant]

Flying? Don’t Book Under a Nickname
By SUSAN STELLIN


I was a bit shocked when I read this article as I thought all adults in America knew that the names on their ID's had to all match. It doesn't matter if your travel by plane or not. On the off chance social security is still around when you retire the names at every job you have worked need to match up or you could get gypped. :duh:

Actually whatever it says on your birth certificate should be what it says on your social security card. IMO, It's just common sense not to put a nickname on a drivers license or passport.

I'm having some problems with the last job I've had (and I have another project coming up there next week too... it's a sporadic temp job) because they have my name different than any other place I've worked.

My birth certificate has my full first name, middle name, last name.

My social security card, driver's license, and every place I've worked EXCEPT this last one has my first INITIAL, middle name, last name (I go by my middle name, and hate my first name with a passion)

My last job: First name, middle initial, last name - ARGGGGHHHH! And I've told them about this, and they said I HAD to have it under my first name. I'm like, even my social security card and everything is first INITIAL, middle NAME, last name! Why can't YOU do the same thing???

And yes, when I book a flight, it's under my middle name as well. But that's just because that's the name I go by.

However, I do have my "full" middle name on those documents, not a nickname.

I have no idea about passports, as I've never had one.

 

[Principessa]

I'm having some problems with the last job I've had (and I have another project coming up there next week too... it's a sporadic temp job) because they have my name different than any other place I've worked.

My birth certificate has my full first name, middle name, last name.

My social security card, driver's license, and every place I've worked EXCEPT this last one has my first INITIAL, middle name, last name (I go by my middle name, and hate my first name with a passion)

My last job: First name, middle initial, last name - ARGGGGHHHH! And I've told them about this, and they said I HAD to have it under my first name. I'm like, even my social security card and everything is first INITIAL, middle NAME, last name! Why can't YOU do the same thing???

And yes, when I book a flight, it's under my middle name as well. But that's just because that's the name I go by.

However, I do have my "full" middle name on those documents, not a nickname.

I have no idea about passports, as I've never had one.

<Big Sigh> Why are you being so difficult? :tongue: