TSA Wants Your Date of Birth and Gender
The new Secure Flight rule will require that airlines (and therefore travel agencies) provide to the TSA prior to the flight, the full legal name, gender and birth date of each traveler. The DHS Transportation Security Administration will use the information to screen passengers against a watch list of potential terrorists, a function the airlines have been performing. TSA will retain passenger information for seven years, including travel itinerary, for anyone tentatively matched to a name on the watch list.
We do not have an effective date for when we need to begin providing this info with each reservation, but the TSA rule and press release indicate that it will begin requiring this information on domestic flights in early 2009. We have begun adding these fields to the traveler profiles, but will not be providing it to the airline until required.
To avoid the possibility of missing points, travelers with frequent flyer numbers should act now to ensure that the name on their frequent flyer accounts exactly matches the name on their driver's license or passport, which must be used on all airline tickets. Travelers with frequent flyer accounts in other variations of their name may find themselves "unrecognized" by the airline's computer systems and may not receive their point automatically. Name changes can be made visiting the frequent flyer program's website or calling the frequent flyer membership program number.
This is the info that we have at this time. Please watch our ETB (Electronic Travel Bulletin) for more updates.
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Two travelers are sitting on a plane waiting to pull away from the gate. Traveler #1's phone rings, he gets a text message and then closes his phone.