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This month
I am dedicating the entire Bits n Bytes
newsletter to a very important topic --
The new TSA Secure Flight rules that are
being enforced beginning November 1,
2010.
 Terry Keeling, CTA, MCC
AWA Travel
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Please read and
understand this important new measure.
Beginning November 1, 2010,
ticketed passenger reservations without
full SFPD will be subject to sanctions
by the airlines.
The following Secure Flight
Passenger Data (SFPD) requires every
airline to report the following
information for each passenger 72 hours
prior to each flight:
-
Complete
Name (as it appears on the
passenger's ID for the flight)
-
Date of
Birth
-
Gender
-
Redress
number, if available*
PLEASE NOTE:
Complete Name includes the middle name
exactly as it appears on the ID. For
example my passport and my Minnesota
Driver's License both have Terry Wade
Keeling as my name. Terry W Keeling will
no longer be accepted, and my name must
appear as Terry Wade Keeling in any
reservation. Depending on the airline
this might end up looking like "Keeling/Terrywade"
or "Keeling/Terry.Wade" in the
reservation. Both formats are
acceptable.
For several
months the TSA has been turning
passengers back at Security if their name
does not match their ID and asking the
airline to reissue the boarding pass.
The TSA also has been loosely allowing some
domestic passengers to go through security with
initials, rather than full names,
particularly with the middle name. This
will end on November 1, 2010.
Beginning
November 1, 2010, the airlines will be required
to report a full manifest for each
flight 72 hours prior to the flight. If
the SFPD information is not complete in the
reservation, it will be cancelled by the
airline. Some airlines have already
begun to cancel reservations. The
airlines are also putting in checks in
their system that will prohibit future
reservations from being made in the
first place. These are not in place,
yet, but are coming.
If you get
to the airport and are turned back by
the TSA because any of the information
is not accurate, the airlines will
impose fines directly to the passenger.
These will be different by airline. Additionally, the
airlines will charge travel agents fines for
incorrectly booking the reservation whether it is an
online booking service or traditional
travel agency. These fines will most
assuredly be charged back to the
passenger. Airlines have already begun
to cancel reservations that were made
that do not include the SFPD
information.
What is AWA Travel doing?
At AWA
Travel/Carrousel Travel American Express
we have been collecting the SFPD information
since August 2009 for any clients who
have made reservations. Knowing that the
sanctions were coming, but not know
exactly when, we decided over a year ago that
we would not make any reservation that
did not include the SFPD information.
We have
modified both our procedures and our
software to ensure that this information
is included prior to making any air
reservation.
The
developers of our main reservation
system is building in steps to warn us
when the information is not complete.
We have
searched our reservations for incomplete
or missing information and corrected it.
Our vendors
have sent us any reservation that was
made without full SFPD information and
they have been updated.
So far, we
believe that every reservation now made
through AWA Travel complies with the new TSA rules.
We are doing
everything we possibly can to make sure
that your trip is not disrupted by
incorrect or incomplete passenger data.
However, the information depends on the
accuracy of the information that is
given to us. If the information was not
correct as given to us and it results in
a fine, we will charge the fine back to
the passenger, plus a handling fee. We
hope we never
need to do this and that a year
from now we can proudly boast that we
have not had one fee from these new
rules. Therefore, it is important to you
review each and every reservation for
accuracy within 24 hours of it being
made.
Why all of
this Mess?
The
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
has a long Do Not Fly list and there
have many false positives resulting in
passengers being detained or denied
boarding. These measures are to avoid
false positives. It is also to help
bolster security, as well as track known
terrorists and criminals.
Will insurance cover me if I am denied
boarding or get fines?
No. This
situation is not covered by any travel
insurance and is expressly excluded from
many policies.
What happens to the manifest lists
reported by the airlines?
The DHS and
TSA have said that they don't have the
storage to keep these long term and will
be deleting the lists from their files
after about two weeks.
*
What is a Redress Number?
This is a
number that any traveler can apply for
that pre-clears their name on the
manifest list. If any traveler has been
detained or denied at the airport,
train, or border crossing; or are
constantly subjected to secondary
screening, then this is the route to
take to avoid this in the future. You
can get more information about the
Redress number at
www.TSA.gov
and type "Redress" in the search box at
the top of the page. If you obtain a
Redress number, please be sure to inform
us of it.
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