American Airlines Information Gathering 719
matt-fu writes "Cory Doctorow posted a story on boingboing.net this morning describing a recent hassle while flying American Airlines. It seems that since he was traveling from the UK to the US with a Canadian passport, he was actually asked to give out the names and addresses of everyone he would be staying with in the US! He has written an open letter to AA in response. Has anyone else had something like this happen to them?"
Boohoo (Score:5, Informative)
This is probably an automated check on anyone with a 3rd country passport.
Re:Boohoo (Score:5, Funny)
Wait a second, if the letter 'n' where the letter 'm' and you moved all the other letters around 'insulin' becomes 'i muslium'.
YOUR ONE OF THEM AREN'T YOU!
Re:Boohoo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Boohoo (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Boohoo (Score:4, Funny)
Passport (Score:3, Funny)
I guess Micro$oft does not run all of the world.
And if my parents and the banks like M$ maybe it is only 1% evil.
System V rules the world!
Peace.
Re:Boohoo (Score:5, Informative)
Same quality of control, no needles twisting in your side every time you shift. And, no hassles at airports.
Diabetes and Airlines (Score:5, Interesting)
I have two stories here.
The first one was when I was checking in for a flight. Diabetic needleheads in my bag (these are sealed thumb-sized packages that you fit onto the end of an insulin pen). The attendant asked, probably for the umpteenth hundredth time, the boilerplate question "Do you have any sharp metal objects, etc, etc?". My nonchalant answer was "yes". After getting a few hundred "no"'s in a row, followed by my calm response of "yes", the look on her face was priceless. After leaving her in a state of confusion for a few moments I explained to her that I was diabetic, what they were for, and gave her a doctors letter confirming it. She seemed strangely relieved.
The not-so-happy second story was on a domestic return trip back home to Adelaide (Australia). After having traveled to a different state, on the way back the jerkoff checking my stuff (which I politely and properly declared), obviously looking for a power trip decided to give me a hard time for having too many needleheads (I had three). Never mind I can't eat food without getting sick without insulin. Sometimes needleheads break and warp, especially when you are trying to jab yourself with a pen between two other passengers on a cramped airline seat. I had a letter from my GP explaining I was diabetic, a medic-alert bracelet, etc, anticipating the whole post-9/11 paranoia. And I wanted to get home. I'm hoping karma comes back and bites that jerk in the ass.
I can't imagine what it would be like with an insulin pump. I put off looking into one for a while because I made too many flights post-9/11 and didn't want someone trying to yank the thing...
He will get bitten (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Diabetes and Airlines (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the part I love best. I'm sure that (1) they verified that the name on the letter was that of a genuine doctor, and that even if it was that (2) that they contacted the doctor on the phone to verify that you didn't simply write up the letter yourself, and that even if it was written by a doctor they (3) did a full background check to ensure it was not a terrorist doctor handing out such letters for all his terrorists friends.
I know it's a big hassle actua
Re:Boohoo (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that just about says it all.
Re:Boohoo (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Boohoo (Score:3, Interesting)
With that in mind, I will simply state that there is no benefit to having a card, X-ray, or note from a physician. If there was, a bad guy would simple get a note too. I don't have to travel w
No, but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No, but... (Score:2)
We're screwed. (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, small planes buzz the Statue of Liberty without even being warned away, I know of all kinds of people who accidentally carry potentially lethal weapons (hatpins, mace, etc) through "security", and no one has attacked the US. This whole "security" culture is a total sham, costing billions and our liberty to prop up corporations and the government with unchecked power. Goddamn bin Laden and his Republican soulmates, and the pussy Democrats who help them get away with it.
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:5, Insightful)
-One More Concerned American.
Re:Jerk (Score:3, Insightful)
Pipeline and reasons for it are real I'm afraid (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not a myth [bbc.co.uk]. Or is it that you can't bring yourself to question your worldview that perhaps the US government isn't as benevolent as you'd hoped? As it stands today, the US is unable to support itself with domestic oil alone. That means that in order to support its war machine, it needs foreign oil and gas to keep functioning. Do you think it's coincidence that Pakistan enjoys impunity over its KNOWN nuclear black market while Iran is vilified for even ATTEMPTING to gain nuclear know how?
Wake up and re
Re:Jerk (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Jerk (Score:5, Interesting)
Funny how no U.S. rightist militias were rounded up and sent to "processing" in Cuba for the rest of their lives, just-in-case and to keep-us-safe. No roundups of crew-cut guvmint haters. No searches of all pickup trucks and rental vans until the end of time. No permanent military surveillance of interstate rest stops, which is where McVeigh practically lived. No color coded "alerts". Could it be that they vote? That they're white? Could it be that all this "security" would have been as nonsensical then as it is now? Is it because Americans really, really think they are Christ's army in the war against a false god, or at least against dark people far away, and no torture, no suspension of the constitution is too much if we kill some more?
Sigh. Try finding the BBC Documentary "The Power of Nightmare". Lokitorrent has it at the moment. I've come to agree with the premise: there really was no such organization as "Al Qaeda", that it was the construction of a prosecutor that Bush used as a blueprint, that the attack was the last gasp of a desperate and failing jihadist movement, and that we have been taken to a near-dictatorship on nothing but the power to create a constant state of fear by extremely ruthless and self-deluded men who've methodically eliminated all contention of their assertions in the military, the intelligence community and the media. Even to question the simplest of their premises gets you branded a loon. We need to wake up. But I don't see how. Malignant egophrenia, aka "mad emperor's disease", has taken complete hold of the U.S. We've gone nuts, and we're taking everyone down with us.
Re:No, but... (Score:2)
I can say from experience that an activist groups with 3-4 committed members, and 20+ occasional supporters can appear to be a larger group, and can make an impact in legislation and public opinion. for example, a handful of activists groups here in Texas got horse slaughter outlawed, among a slew of other laws. And the esperanto so
Re:No, but... (Score:3)
Every forum is suitable for that if it has equal "transmitting" rights for all participants, many of them participating, from diverse social backgrounds, not too predetermined, curious and living all around the globe. If Slashdot doesn't fit these criteria, I don't know what does.
"Doing something" always involves talking to and
Re:Yes I have ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Alas, the summary left out the important point. This was not a customs or INS form. He was not asked to do this by INS agents. This was at the American Airlines security counter, on a BLANK piece of paper, administered by an American Airlines rent-a-cop. This is very different.
Normally, you provide your details to the INS or Customs. He was asked to provide them to AA.
It's a precaution (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's a precaution (Score:2)
Did they really think he was visiting cannibals? On purpose?
happened to me (Score:3, Funny)
Re:happened to me (Score:3, Funny)
I have been attempting contact to you for many months now. I'm sorry to inform you of the passing of Prince Nanawobob Jones, who was my own dear father.
Please understand he had no desire to cause you inconvenienced grief.
He has left me with all information pertaining to the large sum of money just before his death. I would like to engage a business transaction with you to retrieve these large sums of cash, and assure you that this time you will not le
This kind of thing... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This kind of thing... (Score:5, Interesting)
So it's a US thing? Please explain, then, why I had to fill out a form saying where I would be staying when I flew into London from the US?
Dinivin
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This kind of thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
-
So it's a US thing? Please explain, then, why I had to fill out a form saying where I would be staying when I flew into London from the US?
Yes other countries require this information, I had to provide it when I went to Japan a few years ago as well. People are missing a couple of key differences though:- Countries that require this have a form that you fill this information out on. This gentleman was handed a blank sheet of paper. This alone should set off alarm bells.
- This "requirement" suddenly dissapeared when they found out he was a platinum club member. This either suggests that they believe no terrorist would bother becoming a platinum club member or they just harass people who aren't.
I suspect if he'd been given a form to fill this info out on the whole thing wouldn't have bothered him, or not nearly as much. I'd be rather suspicious of being told to write this info down on a blank sheet of paper. How do I know the security guard just doesn't like me and is going to go hunt down my friends to kill them? Silly thought? Maybe, but then again I truly would have no way of knowing if that was the case or not, and their seemed to be no official form to back up his claim that it was required.Re:This kind of thing... (Score:4, Insightful)
To reach Platinum you have to have flown 50,000 miles in the previous ( or current ) year. Unless you have used cash for all these flights they already have LOTS of information on you, where you go, how long you stay. If you use a credit card they know where your bills go, maybe even where the tickets are sent.
It's very reasonable that they wouldn't ask you as many questions if they already knew most of the answers. For the majority of Platinum level flyers they already know lots about you.
This doesn't mean it's resonable to ask all the questions they do from everyone else, just that it makes sense they'd back off for platinum card holders.
Re:This kind of thing... (Score:3, Insightful)
But that's not as much fun as blaming an evil corporation and the new Evil Empire.
I'm not saying I wouldn't have been a little skittish at something like that - I'd just probably have made something up and went on with my life.
If it was truly a TSA regulation the official that let him go on without providing th
Re:This kind of thing... (Score:3, Informative)
It is obviously neither, since the airline waived it and admitted him once it became known to them that he was an AAdvantage Platinum member, and other airlines have made no such requests to him under similar circumstances. Read the article?
If Doctorow refused to complete such a form, he would be reponsible for the consequences (e.g., being refused entry).
And given Doctorow's status as a civil rights crusader, it's plausible that he would balk
Was Every Passenger Asked the Same Question? (Score:3, Informative)
Being asked by an airline to list the friends you'll be seeing is a different matter. If it this is, in fact, a TSA requirement, the TSA should acknowledge it.
And, if it is, was every other passenger on that flight asked the same question?
Re:This kind of thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
-possible apprehension on little or no grounds, suspicion being enough
-possibly followed by lifelong interment and/or torture without court orders, attorney, notification of relatives and embassies,
in short: I'm not taking any risks of sudden and permanent "disappearing". No matter how big this risk may be for non-Arab-looking people, I won't take chances. I feel it is a shame for American ideals and values and I'm sure I couldn't hold back my opinion while in country, what places me at a higher risk than average.
I just wonder how military personell, sworn in on bible and constitution can be such a disgrace for their corps, their uniform and their country to torture anybody and follow orders to put them into jail forever without a court hearing. No matter how they present it, it is disgusting. That doesn't mean all terror suspects should be freed, terrorists should roam freely or whatever - but there absolutely needs to be a distinction between the Mob and the government. Not needing warrants, judges and courts to indefinetly put someone to jail makes this moot.
In the face of the camps at Guantanamo Bay, every respect fades, for the United States as a whole and the United States military in particular. Every soldier that stays on duty in Guantanamo Bay betrays his uniform and anything that it stands for, including the constitution and the most basic human dignity.
As long as there are officers on duty in the United States of America, that are able and willing to follow immoral and unconstitutional orders, I will refrain from coming closer than several thousand miles of US borders, neither on transit nor on business obligation.
Re:This kind of thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Reasonable) people around the world are not complaining that the U.S. is detaining people that are possibly very dangerous and despicable terrorists; they are complaining that the U.S. reserves the right to deny any foreign national the same right to due process that the U.S. demands for it's citizens in those same countries. While this would be bad enough coming from any country, it's even worse coming from the self-proclaimed leader of the Free World.
I am *much* more afraid of a government that can detain me indefinately, without giving me any way to defend myself, than I am of the possibility of being killed by some Islamist nutjob.
Re:This kind of thing... (Score:3, Informative)
What is really insulting is when European hotels "hold" my passport for me. That really pisses me off...
There's an easy workaround to this: in most European countries it is mandatory to carry an ID _at all times_ (given you are 18 years or older). Simply explain that the passport is your only legally valid document, and leave a (library card|old badge|credit card) with the hotel.
Also, why did a casino in Monico need a copy of my passport?
For the same reason that elsewhere your ID can get scanned and st
Airline Privacy (Score:2, Informative)
British Air. I can't say this kind of information request is polite, but I have always thought it rather common.
Re:Airline Privacy (Score:2)
Routine for rental cars (Score:2, Informative)
It should be noted that I've declined that request when renting cars in the past and haven't encountered any problems larger than the manager's irritation.
This isn't new. (Score:3, Insightful)
Having said that, those were not airline forms, but Immigration Departments'. Of course, the way things are in the US right now, maybe this is a new govt' measure ?
Re:This isn't new. (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, in the US it's only royalty and illegal Mexican immgrants that are allowed police protection. [rolls eyes]
The poster might give you the impression that the state of California offers all sorts of special benefits that accrue to illegal aliens. As far as I know, that's not the case; it's just that many government programs help out all people rather than checking to see whether you're a citizen or not.
Personally, as a Cali taxpayer, I'm glad of that. Humanitarian considerations aside, society pays a heavy cost if illegal immigrants are afraid to report crime, or if their children are forced to be sick, malnourished, and ignorant. Whether we should let them come is one question, but as long as they are here to stay we might as well make sure they make it.
I don't know if it has to do with AA (Score:3, Informative)
Stupid Crazy (Score:3, Informative)
I can't wait to hear what AA's response to Doctorow is.
Where is the rest of the article (Score:2)
Re:Where is the rest of the article (Score:2, Informative)
My American Airlines experience (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:My American Airlines experience (Score:3, Insightful)
My most recent experience:
Last August I, my girlfriend, and two other (male) friends went on holiday to Mexico. We booked it in June, to travel in August.
The flight was from London to Cancun, changing in Houston - with the Houston->Cancun flight leaving 1hr 40 minutes after we landed.
One of the co-travellers has a Malaysian passport, (although he had "indefinite leave to remain" in the UK, and is now a full British Citizen) so he had to apply for a tourist visa to enter the US. As he's a male age
Re:American Airlines Planes where hijacked. (Score:2)
Boston - LA
Washington - LA
Newark - SF
So, what good does this policy do?
Re:My American Airlines experience (Score:4, Funny)
Can they verify? (Score:3, Insightful)
Are they going to verify with the hotel to see if you are going to be there for the duration of your stay?
Or what if you gave an address which exists but where you will not be staying?
The question is, when they are going to be as intrusive as this, how truthful do you have to be?
Re:Can they verify? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why on earth should I have to tell the airline anything at all about what I do for a living or where I'm staying? it's none of their business.
Re:It IS my business. (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't. As far as I'm concerned, the "free" in "it's a free country" applies to citizens and visitors alike. Your ideas are way too draconian for my tastes.
Re:Can they verify? (Score:2)
I've had this happen (Score:2)
Where are you staying?
With whom?
Let me see your return ticket.
Not so unusual.
Foreign Visitor Information Gathering (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:Foreign Visitor Information Gathering (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, but: normally, the information is collected by the customs officials of the country you're entering. Usually, the airlines gives you the customs forms near the end of the ride, so you don't waste a lot of time in the airport.
What Doctorow is describing is nothing like that: it sounds as if AA had a goon dressed as a security guard trying to collect marketing information. Since they were doing it in England, and not on U.S. Customs forms, it's pretty h
Re:Foreign Visitor Information Gathering (Score:5, Interesting)
Your destination country has the right to refuse you a visa if you don't give them the information they request, but they also probably have privacy laws saying that they won't be selling said information. He asked what AA's data-retention policy was and whose policy it was to collect this information (TSA or AA) and they couldn't answer him sufficiently.
His letter asks AA for the information he's entilted to under UK law: the company's data-retention policies on this information.
On another note, I've found that it's completely normal for airline agents to tell you that anything the company has told them to do is a federal policy, whether it actually is or not. For instance, bags can't be checked through from Love Field in Dallas to airports in non-adjacent states due to a local law meant to send out-of-state traffic through DFW, but if you ask the airline agents they'll adamantly claim it's FAA policy.
What if you have no destination? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What if you have no destination? (Score:4, Informative)
For the informed traveller (Score:5, Funny)
Re:For the informed traveller (Score:3, Insightful)
El Al is the airline that started the quiz trick to detect hijackers, because -- in theory -- hijackers don't have names of friends they're going to visit hand
Re:What if you have no destination? (Score:2)
Re:What if you have no destination? (Score:5, Informative)
I was sent to Jamaica by my previous employer two years ago. Due to the fact that my former company claimed that it took seven months to get a work visa, I was to tell them that my colleagues and I were there on vacation. I wasn't happy about this, but went along with it.
When it turned out that we had to overstay our trip by several days, we went to the local immigration office in downtown Montego Bay to get our stays extended, they stated to ask my team leader who was with me (I was the head honcho on this trip - scary thought there!) and myself about our trip, where we stayed, etc. Something made them hinky (to this day I'm not sure what) and we got passed along from officer to officer, higher and higher up the chain, and in increasingly darker and more isolated rooms. Finally we had the head of the local office interrogating uys on every aspect of our trip - what we had done, who we knew in country, what our daily schedule was, etc. He finally said "What if I were to tell you that we have undeniable proof that you have been working illegally at location *****". Faced with this, we admitted our guilt and promptly flipped into panic mode. (Jamaica is a very friendly place, but imagine that you are a foreigner anywhere and admitting to a alien government offical that you are lying to them and are in their country under false pretenses wheee!)
Very fortunate for us, the people we were working with were very wealthy islanders who did a lot for the local Mo'Bay economy. As so often happens, money greases the skids of both business and government. Once they learned who we were working for, a quick phone call to that party got us the extension we sought and a swift kick out the door. Any other slob without this (unbeknownest to us) safety net would have found themselves in trouble quick.
My advice is threefold:
1) Make sure you pad your imigration form for extra time - you can always go back sooner.
2) Don't work for shithead companies who don't care if you are left to hang out to dry or not.
3) If an immigration offical asks you a question, don't lie and run the risk of pissing them off - it IS their country
Re:What if you have no destination? (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure, the airlines hand out customs forms on the flight, but how can they "collect" it as you claim is required when you never give those forms to them ?
The forms are standardised and haven't changed in years - they ask for a single address you will be staying at. No-one I know has a problem with this.
The author of the article was asked for a complete list of places and names of people with whom he was staying, to be written on a blank piece of paper, by a security guard at Gatwick airport - this is in the UK, btw. I would have baulked as well.
I've been travelling to the US from the UK every year for the last 10 (three times this year), in varying classes, and I've never been asked for anything like this.
Simon.
Re:I was asked that in Canada (Score:3, Interesting)
This is standard procedure (Score:2, Redundant)
Actually the story is pretty funny, she didn't have my in-laws' address with her, and she had to get the help of the customs agents to make some phone calls to find it.
What is the big deal anyway? As a foreign national on a tourist/temporary visit visa,
That's not new (Score:5, Informative)
There's the usual "I will not commit terrorist acts" but also a section where you list who you will be staying with.
In 2002, I didn't have my cousin's then NY address handy, so I made one up. Good thing they didn't check up on it.
Funny story: On one trip, I had a present with me for a wedding, and had to take a national connecting flight from Boston to Baltimore. They had these things where they check for various trace chemicals that would indicate explosives. It of course went off five times on my suitcase, so the guy had it opened and went through it, item by item.
Finally he got to the present, a bottle of Gammel Dansk (a bitter alcohol), which was wrapped. He asked me what was in it, I told him. He then asked me if I had spent time near or on a farm previous to my flight, all the questions that would explain why I had trace chemicals on my luggage, but there was no apparent reason. He eventually let me go, when I started commentingthat I had to catch the connecting flight.
During the carry-on check, I realized I had a box-cutter in my pencil-case. There were also a couple of blades that were just floating around in there along with the pencils & pens. As the guy was rummaging through literally everything, including the pencil-case, I gotta admit I got a bit nervous that he would cut himself. He didn't find it, though. So much for thoroughness, heh.
My aunt was less lucky. She had her knitting pins confiscated and they almost ruined the cake she was bringing for the wedding.
Another reason for the questions (Score:2)
"Who are you staying with?"
"ummmm....."
[ratchet up the questions to the next level]
Re: (Score:2)
It's certainly not American Airlines' fault (Score:3, Interesting)
That being said, I had that experience entering the US from Canada on a US passport in about 1996. Missed my flight in Pearson airport (Toronto) while I was going through the interminable questions ---
Q. Where are you going?
A. North Carolina
Q. Why are you going there?
A. I live there.
Q. What do you plan to do there?
A. I'm a computer consultant.
Q. Do you have work when you arrive?
A. Yes. That's why I live there.
Q. How long do you plan to be in the US?
A. Until I leave again. I live there.
Q. Where do you plan to stay?
A. At my home. The one where it says "Home Address." In Durhan NC.
The demand that I speak with a supervisor broke the log jam; they let me through.
My grandfather, many years ago when I was eight or nine --- which is to say many years ago --- asked me this question: "Do you know why a dog will lie on a sunny porch licking his own balls?"
The answer, of course, is "because he can."
Good luck on checking... (Score:2)
"Let's see... in the morning, I'll be staying with my pal I.P.Frehley in Hoboken,NY. Then, I'm going to have lunch with Seymour Butts in Seattle. And then I'll be bedding down at Mike Hunt's place in Miami. Now, can I get on the plane, please?".
If anyone hasn't figured it out yet... (Score:2)
Rather the purpose of most of these rediculous security measures is to convince people that someone is doing something. Nothing more.
It's not just the US that does this (Score:2)
She got through it eventually, but they gave her quite a hard time.
Budget Car Rental, Las Vegas (Score:5, Insightful)
So one day I'm at the Budget Car Rental desk, and the lady at the counter starts asking me questions, like "who are you staying with?" She wanted adressess and phone numbers, etc.
Now, I was so taken aback by all of this, that I confronted her, trying to understand what the point of the questioning was -- because it seemed to me that my credit card, insurance, drivers license, and the fact that I have very frequently made this same rental, weren't sufficient to get me past the counter.
She simply asserted that "the information was necessary before she could rent me a car." "Very well", I said, "you will not be renting me a car today. Please cancel my reservation."
I then went to the National shuttle, showed my National Emerald Card to the shuttle driver, went to the lot, picked out a car, and the shuttle driver even put my bags in the trunk for me. I had to show my card and my license at the doghouse gate, and that was that. The rate turned out to be cheaper than Budget would have been anyway.
Needless to say, I don't bother with Budget anymore.
BOZO ALERT! BOZO ALERT! (Score:2)
Missing the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
The author, Cory Doctorow, was directed to an AA 'security counter' before checking in at the AA counter in Gatwick airport, not on arrival in the U.S., was interogated by an AA security officer and was asked to provide personal information on A BLANK PIECE OF PAPER. If I was Cory I would have been as upset as he was and I believe he asked the security officer some reasonable questions. The entire process was bizarre to my thinking.
Many have pointed out that you are asked for an address in your destination country, but by an INS offical not an airline employee, on an official customs form and certainly not before you board your flight. The only country that I know of that has customs pre-clearance to the U.S. is Canada, where the customs and immigration process is handled in Canada by American INS agents before you board your plane to the U.S. Upon arrival, you step off the plane and into the airport, no customs.
That's just US Spin Control (Score:3, Funny)
That is how we spin things like "Sadam tells Bin Laden 'hell no, I won't give you money'" into "a real and palpable connection between Iraq and Al Queda".
And once every random idea is automatically presumed to be a federal policy, we are hoping that nobody will notice when we come to take all your toys in the name of that policy.
It is The _New_ Carte Blanche, so I guess not every french idea is a b
Missing the point... (Score:5, Insightful)
EFF founder John Gilmore has been fighting these so-called rules for some time now. Check out Gilmore vs Ashcroft [cryptome.org] regarding these rules.
Wired magazing wrote:
Our consituttion provides for redress of grieveances against the government. But how can you address something when you aren't even allowed to know it's number, title, or content?I've heard of worse (Score:5, Interesting)
NOT a gov't thing, it's an AA thing (Score:3, Informative)
I had the same question - why is American Airlines asking me all these retarded questions, and to what end - and all I got was the same stock 9/11 non-answer.
After several trips to Colombia, neither the US government or any other airline has ever asked me barely a single question about my trip. Hell, at US customs, the people usually don't even look at my form - I had one guy glance at my name, read it out loud in a bored voice, and say "buh-bye!" and wave me off.
It's only American Airlines that's this obnoxious. I'd like to know why, too.
Address in Chicago (Score:3, Funny)
1060 W. Addison
Chicago, IL 60613
(It worked for Jake and Elwood)
Re:Address in Chicago (Score:3, Interesting)
Incidentally, *years* ago, an older cousin of mine was drafted for Viet Nam. At his induction (or whatever they call it) he wrote in the address of his favorite bar. Defends himself now by saying 'well, I didn't have a permanent address and I pretty much lived there...' Due to his lingering hangover or wh
Bah, it's silly (Score:5, Insightful)
You're Missing Something (Score:3, Insightful)
You're missing this line from the letter:
Several more minutes passed, and then the supervisor appeared. He
had looked over my documents and said, "Sir, I'm sorry, you are a
Platinum AAdvantage member and shouldn't have been asked this
question."
Generally, compliance with customs laws applies whether or not you're a Platinum AAdvantage member. Therefore, it seems that one of two things, both alarming, is going on:
a.) American Airlines totally lied, and this was not a TSA policy at all, or
b.) American Airlines completely ignores TSA policies for its more 'valuable' customers.
Something's not right here.
UN APIS requirements (Score:5, Informative)
The U.S. Customs Department is in the process of moving towards what they call "U.N. APIS" (Advanced Passenger Information System). Details can be found at here [customs.gov] in the Word document US Passenger List; UN EDIFACT Message Set [customs.gov].
The U.S. APIS system which has been used for some time does not require destination address information. The U.N. format does. See the linked document pages 60-63 for more details. Eventually this will be required when flying any major airline coming into the U.S., not just American Airlines.
Thanks. One worrisome sentence... (Score:3, Interesting)
I can just see Mr. Tuttle at customs... "Your *passport* is Canadian, so why did you claim to be Czech? You say the *airline* made a mistake? Hmmmm-- please
same treatment as the hoi polloi? (Score:3, Insightful)
This kind of treatment when travelling is an accepted part of the life of me, my family, and my friends. It amuses me when the upper classes (I will make this assumption seeing as the author of the article holds a high level frequent flyer card) get so outraged at being treated in the same way as the Hoi Polloi.
There are many points to be derived from this article, but perhaps the most powerful (and unintentional) is how some people expect to exempt from suspicion of being a terrorist under any circumstances. I really hope that it is not the policy of airlines to exempt frequent business travellers from security checks.
Re:Standard (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Standard (Score:5, Interesting)
I do, however, have a weirder story. A friend of mine (also a Canadian citizen) attended a Muslim wedding in Canada. On his return to his residence in the USA, the border guard asked him about the Muslim wedding that he attended! My friend had not disclosed that information, but the border people new about it and questioned him on it.
Re:probable not AA fault. (Score:2, Funny)
probable -> probably
fillign -> filling
costums -> customs
dont' -> don't
coudl -> could
yoru -> your
Re:probable not AA fault. (Score:2)
that's just wrong. when they give you the boarding pass, they also give you some tags that you would use when finding where your bags are if you lost it. also that is the main purpose of the airline tags you put on your bag with your address/phone#
it's definitely not new, but also definitely not for luggage purposes.
Re:probable not AA fault. (Score:2)
much more crappy is the credit card number shit... which has nothing to do with anything really(except forcing foreign airlines to break local laws of other countries. you know, countries where we're supposed to have some kind of privacy still).
RTFA, dammit! (Score:4, Informative)
This probable isn't american airlines fault, but more due to government regulation.
Did you RTFA? The person in question was never asked those questions when flying on USAir, and when American Airlines discovered he was an AAdvantage Platinum member, they immediately changed their tune and told him they no longer needed to ask those questions.
If it's a government regulation, then why didn't he have to comply with it when he flew USAir? Why didn't he have to comply with it because he had Platinum status in American's frequent flyer program?
Oh, and when an airline loses your luggage, you generally have a good idea they've done that before you leave the baggage claim at your destination airport. You have to file a claim for your missing bag (description, etc.) and they collect contact information at that time. There's no need to collect that up front.
Re:probable not AA fault. (Score:3, Insightful)
then why did they wave the request when they noticed that he had their loyalty card?
Re:probable not AA fault. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Bright Side (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
(begin_foil_mode)
Platinum AAdvantage Card holders have had GPS/RFID chip implants.
(end_foil_mode)