May 05, 2005

Safer Skies?

I like flying, and normally when I travel, I fly...but why is it that I feel more and more like I'm in a herd of cattle when I fly?

From News 2:

Buying a plane ticket is about to get a whole lot more personal. With America on Alert, the government plans to begin collecting your full name and date of birth in the latest move to screen passengers.

Many flyers use electronic ticketing to speed up air travel. Only a last name and first initial are required. But over the next few months all airlines, travel agencies and online systems will be required to ask for full names and birth dates. In a few weeks, the Transportation Safety Administration will notify airlines and travel agents of the new requirements. This comes as the government gets ready to takeover background checks from the airlines.

I'm sure that next up they will require the reasons as to why you are traveling to your destination. After all, they need to know why you're traveling to make sure you aren't on a terrorist mission.

In relation to this, today, a friend went as far to wonder what would stop them from eventually setting up roadblocks between cities asking for your papers and reasoning for entering a city or traveling to another. That seems a little far-fetched, but is that where we are heading? I'm hoping that Americans will wake up before that happens...but you never know. We could just be frogs being slowly boiled in a pot of water.

Comments:

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I travel usually about once a week (no typo). The cattle car or 'Greyhound with wings' are appropriate comparisons.

Usually its domestic flights, but I've got a few international flights coming soon. In all honesty, I'm not sure I see a clear benefit nor a detraction from this move. I have to present ID when I pass through security now, its just not recorded but merely a visual check. AFAIK, this new move will allow those who's names are closely, but innocently being matched against the no-travel list to be more carefully screened. With more data, those who do get pulled to the side frequently may be spared as the search narrows. The downside to that is that its still very easy to travel using fake ID (which would likely explain the push for the 'Real ID' act which I strongly disagree with).

Lets face it, we haven't been able to fly anonomously since at least the 70's. I don't expect that to ever return. You can't rent a car without ID and we've learned that airline travel too has certain liabilities to deal with. Big Brother is watching - and when it comes to air travel, I'm in favor of a bit of extra scrutiny for travellers. I would draw the line at having to pass through security at each connection, declare reasons for travel and/or continual presentation of 'papers', but a more detailed pre-screening of passangers in requiring a legal name and birth date is about as far as I'm willing to go.

Posted by: DocB at May 6, 2005 06:44 AM

I traveled internationally twice last year. Had to go through Frankfurt, Germany both times. I had to show ID (passport) and a ticket twice in the same terminal just to get to my get. Happened on both visits so I think it must be SOP there. I caught the end of a movie from the 50's on TCM the other night with my 13 year old. Scene was at an airport where a wife walks her husband to the gate and on the tarmac before kissing him goodbye. The 13 year old looks at me and says, "How fake is that?" Sigh.

Posted by: Mike at May 6, 2005 08:42 AM

There's this antiquated idea known as "the right to travel freely". Kind of like why we have "states" instead of 50 separate countries. How Norm Mineta has a job I will never know. Since he refuses to be "unfair" and profile people by their nationality he's decided that he will just be unfair to everybody - a very common government reaction.

The question is "how much intrusion are people willing to take?" My threshold has already been reached. I will only fly if I have to leave the country or I need to be back in 24 to 48 hours. Other people do not have that luxury. These are issues some smart politician will exploit one day and it's going to be to the detriment of Republicans.

Picture a politician giving a speech. Talking about "what happened to this country - are we so terrified that we have to worry about being strip searched when we go home for the holidays or on vacation? This is not what I think of when I think of 'America'".

Posted by: smantix at May 6, 2005 09:31 AM