Originally Posted by
mom_rules
Unfortunately he has no middle name.
Make one up.
The desk agent at Air Canada told us his name was on the no fly list.
There are many misunderstandings about the "no fly list" business. At least in the US, there are two lists: a no-fly list, and a second list. I forget what the second list is officially called, so let me just call it a watch list right here. As I understand it, the no-fly list is for people who aren't allowed to fly at all, and is considerably smaller than the watch list. The watch list is for people who are allowed to fly only after extra scrutiny. In popular jargon, they often both get called the no-fly list, but strictly speaking that's not accurate. I'm not too sure about the details, so I hope I got this right. Others here can probably correct me if I've gotten any of this wrong.
Would you know if this list is airline specific? We've flown 4 different
airlines but this is the first time this year on Air Canada-domestic flight
no less.
I wouldn't think so, but maybe the Air Canada employee was sloppy with their language. Maybe your flying partner just came up as SSSS (selectee), and wasn't on the no-fly/watch list, but the Air Canada employee made a mistaken assumption (or tried to explain in language that he/she thought a random member of the public would understand). The average member of the public, and perhaps even the average airline employee, has various misunderstandings/misconceptions about this topic.