What airline passengers need to know about TSA's Secure Flight program

If you're a regular reader of The New York Times, you may be a bit concerned about flying. More specifically, about being able to get on an airplane once the new federal initiative called Secure Flight kicks in.

According to Joe Sharkey, blogging in The Times, Secure Flight "requires that the name on the ID you use at the airport security checkpoint precisely match the name on your airline ticket." (Emphasis my own.) If they don't, you don't fly, implies the blog.

Au contraire.

Paul Leyh, director of the Transportation Security Administration's Secure Flight program tells FederalNewsRadio, "we're going to be able to clear more than 99% of the travellers given the information that we ask for."

According to Leyh, when you book your flight, you will be asked for your name, date of birth, gender, and a "redress number" if you have been issued one in the past through the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program. "That clears you from misidentification," said Leyh.

According to the Secure Flight website:

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.

What TSA suggests, said Leyh, "is that the name that you provide when making your reservation is the name that you're going to be using, and is going to match that information on the government issued ID (drivers license, passport, etc.) that you're travelling with."

The information is then used "behind the scenes" to match against the No-Fly list. "It's a behind the scenes process" said Leyh. "If you get to the airport and you have your boarding pass, the Secure Flight part of it, and the watch list matching part of it, is over. It's done with."

Now the hard part is fitting everything in the overhead bins.