TSA wants to know who’s flying 72 hours beforehand
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For those who, for whatever bizarre reason, don’t make the time in their busy days to regularly peruse the Federal Register, looking for newly proposed regulations by various branches of the U.S. government, you’ll be pleased to know that the British tech journal The Register has been doing the perusing for you. And what they found, albeit several months after it was proposed, is bound to get your hackles up.
Our beloved TSA has proposed a rule (pdf) whereby “all airline passengers would need advance permission before flying into, through, or over the United States regardless of citizenship or the airline’s national origin.” The timeframe for receiving that permission: 72 hours.
The No-fly list and other lists restricting passengers from getting on planes are already in effect, and the TSA argues that it needs more time to compare the names on the expected passenger manifests to the lists of people deemed too dangerous to allow to fly.
The no-fly list concept has always bewildered me. If someone is a threat to security, arrest them, charge them, and try a case against them. Otherwise, screen them, scan their stuff thoroughly, frisk them aplenty if you want, and then let them travel. Anything else — like the ID check at the entrance to security — is theater.
As a sidebar: A recent PBS documentary with the title “Security Theater” tears American airport security to shreds. Enjoy.
In any case, the TSA’s proposal is highly unlikely to go anywhere. No airline wants to close its ticket sales window at the 72 hour mark, since that’s some high-priced revenue. The last-minute travel industry must be up in arms, too. And business travelers who have to travel at the drop of a hat will decry the government’s intervention into their livelihoods. Perhaps most importantly, members of Congress want to be able to travel when they want to, including at the last minute.
No, the point isn’t that we need to watch out for another stupid rule. Rather, this is yet another indicator of the misplaced priorities and bureaucratic, anti-consumer mindset of the TSA.
Travelers don’t need more reasons to mock the agency. We have plenty already. But somehow, we keep getting fresh ones.
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October 31st, 2007 at 10:36 pm |
A-freakin-men!!!
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:27 pm |
Did you actually read the proposal? It says nothing about passengers “requiring permission” 72 hours in advance of a flight. If I’m not mistaken, what it’s saying is that the TSA requests that airlines transmit what information they have for a given flight 72 hours in advance, and send any last-minute changes before the cabin doors are closed. There’s nothing in there to suggest that there will be any restrictions on the timing of reservation and ticket sales.
This is not to say that I approve of what they’re doing, of course; I have serious doubts about the effectiveness and value of any system that’s based on a “watch list” that relies on easily falsified information.
November 4th, 2007 at 9:03 am |
You’re right, Larry, there is technically nothing in there that prohibits ticket sales within the 72 hour window.
The TSA is effectively guaranteeing, though, that the airlines won’t need to worry about having their flights diverted to Bangor, Maine, if the passenger list gets sent to TSA 72 hours in advance. Less than that timeframe, there’s a risk of being diverted. A disincentive to selling tickets within 72 hours, or an incentive to raise last-minute fares? Maybe. A stretch, but maybe.
But for any and all travelers, the de facto effect of running all names through the “no-fly” list is that we (or the airlines, in our stead) are requesting the TSA’s permission to travel.
And note also that these proposed rules require that all passengers must have a government-issued ID in order to travel, and that these IDs must be shown to any government, airport, or airline employee. That’s a big change from the earlier policy, that allowed you to travel without ID, as long as you were subjected to a supplemental screening. (See “How to cut to the front of the security line” toward the end of this roundup: http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/10/16/short-hops-october-16-2007-golden-ages-sweet-spots-and-the-shortcut-to-the-front-of-the-tsa-line/ )
November 4th, 2007 at 9:04 am |
Bonus:
See Ed Hasbrouck’s Congressional testimony against this policy change here:
http://www.hasbrouck.org/articles/SecureFlight-20SEP2007.pdf
November 7th, 2007 at 6:34 am |
[…] now but the spontaneity of travel is going to probably be a thing of the past with the TSA’s wish list of items including “all airline passengers would need advance permission before flying into, […]