There has been a previous thread on this; however, this just arrived from United which pretty well delineates the requirements. I suspect it speaks for all airlines.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced the implementation of the Secure Flight program. This program is intended to enhance the security of domestic and international air travel for all passengers through the use of improved TSA watch-list matching, as well as reduce the instances of passenger misidentification. In accordance with this new policy, United® will be making changes to its reservation process that you, as a valued member of Mileage Plus®, should become familiar with.

How will Secure Flight affect you? In the coming months, United will begin to request the following information from all customers when making a reservation: * Full name (first and last, as it appears on the non-expired, government-issued photo ID you will present at the airport) * Date of birth * Gender * Redress number (if one exists)*

If you use a travel agency or an online booking agent to purchase a ticket, you may be asked to provide all of the above information; including your full legal name, as it appears on your non-expired, government-issued photo ID. Please note the importance of the name on your ticket matching exactly the name on the ID you will present at the airport.

Ensure your flights continue to credit to your account automatically The advent of the Secure Flight program may result in your having to change how you ticket your flights. You should check the name on your Mileage Plus account prior to making your reservation. Flights will credit to your account automatically only if the name on the account matches the name on the ticket. To check the name on your account, you can access your account online at united.com and review the "Mileage Plus member information" section. You will also find directions on how to change your name, if that should be necessary.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you would like to learn more about these changes, visit Secure Flight program today.

Those who have been repeatedly identified for additional screening during the check-in process are invited to apply for Redress to help prevent watch list misidentifications in the future.

One consideration is: Will the date of birth need to be according to the international standard, with date before month? One hopes the airline Web sites will have pull-down menus where the month is spelled out (that field only going to 12 may not be enough). Then we'll need to see if ID checkers will have it straight that the date will be formatted differently than it appears on American drivers' licenses.

My son just flew here from Calfornia, and back. His name on drivers license is his full, legal, hyphenated last name--like "Josh Smith-Jones" but his ticket and his FF numbers are just "Josh Smith". No questions asked on either flight.

At some point he will either have to change his name or his ticketing habits but it's working so far.

jan

What's a full name? It says first and last just like on government ID. Hmm. Both my Calif ID and my passport have three names, first, middle, and last. Are two enough for the TSA/airlines?

Yrs, Robert

quote:

Originally posted by Robert Santa Monica:
What's a full name? It says first and last just like on government ID. Hmm. Both my Calif ID and my passport have three names, first, middle, and last. Are two enough for the TSA/airlines?

Yrs, Robert

I don't believe so. You will need to change your ticketed name to agree with your ID name and also change your FF name.

This is what the above says:

quote:

Full name (first and last, as it appears on the non-expired, government-issued photo ID you will present at the airport) *

The key words are "as it appears on the non-expired, government-issued photo ID you will present..."

United has a link to do that. There's a line for First/Middle Name and then a line for last name.

Jan, it isn't being enforced yet. We have changed all of our info now to avoid any hassles in the future.

Here is the page from the TSA on the matter. Note:

quote:

You should ensure that the name provided when booking your travel matches the government ID that you will use when traveling. However, TSA has built some flexibility into the processes regarding passenger name accuracy. For the near future, small differences between the passenger�s ID and the passenger�s reservation information, such as the use of a middle initial instead of a full middle name or no middle name/initial at all, should not cause a problem for the passenger. Over time, passengers should strive to obtain consistency between the name on their ID and their travel information.

So there's the "For the near future" qualifier, but the statement that middle initial or name won't make a problem. Here is a Flyertalk discussion on the matter; as often happens there it offers more heat than light, but they quote airline reservation agents as saying only first and last names need to match, which pretty much agrees with what Jane quotes (just saying "First and last.") Also this with a timeline for implementing it. For myself, I'll wait for the airline sites to have a middle name field.

Even under the "old rules" I ran into US TSA checkers who had a problem with my passport date, which I usually use for ID even domestically; and the date format was the problem.

Since it was issued in Paris, the day-month-year format was used causing the TSA people to claim it had expired, whereupon after losing my argument over the date, I had to "dig" to find my drivers license. This happened twice in Dallas and once in Tampa.

Now I've gotta harmonize all of these various ID's and cards, since the passport also has a misspelling of my middle name (Jeffery, instead of Jeffrey). Between the date, and the name rules, I'll bet it's gonna take TSA awhile to get it's staff up to speed; and with as little discretion as they are allowed, discretion will not be the better part of valor - and we can expect slower lines for awhile.

Update on this from the New York Times

Gawd...these things really make me want to scream!

I am just going to make sure all of my FF accounts and airline reservations match my passport/DL names EXACTLY (including middle name). Hopefully that will be good enough for the gov't.