What’s in a name?: Have you updated your online records to match your ID?

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What's in a name?: Have you updated your online records to match your ID?

Joe Sharkey reminds us that the Secure Flight program requires travelers to, from, or within the United States to ensure that the spelling of their name on their passport or government-issued identification must match precisely the spelling of their name on their boarding passes.

So if you use your driver's license and it says John T. Smith, your ticket must also say John T. Smith — not John Thomas Smith, not Jack Smith, or any other name variant.

Let's put aside for a moment the counterargument that names and identity do not, in and of themselves, create a security risk for anyone. Unless you start flicking driver's licenses at passengers like Chinese stars…

Yes, in case you forgot, the terrorists won. Big time. But I digress.

The reality of travel in this great land is that your ID has to match your boarding pass. And you'll have to give them your gender and date of birth, too, to distinguish you from similarly-named people who might be on a no-fly list.

And that means you'll want (well, need) to update your customer profiles with the companies with whom you book flights.

Though the program is already implemented, the timeline for mandating 100% compliance isn't clear:

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.

The ease of actually changing your profile varies by company. American Airlines makes it easy to add/change your middle name/initial for Secure Flight compliance on their website. United requires that you e-mail them. Orbitz reprimands me to "re-enter a unique name and date of birth for each traveler," but their site doesn't actually include a field to actually enter a date of birth anywhere.

And don't forget that your passport may not list your name the same way as your driver's license or other government-issued ID. Be sure the ticket matches the identification you actually carry for a given trip.

I've made the changes with some, but not all, of the companies I book with, whether airlines or agencies. If I've been able to do it online, I've done it. Luckil...

~david

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