I was thinking about this, and wondering if SecureFlight will really work for enforcing the NFL. Bear with me and assume that, for the sake of argument, the NFL actually protects us against threats and actual people on the NFL can't fly (or on the SSSS list can't fly without SSSS) for our safety. Perhaps I should start a different thread to discuss this-- in fact I think I will.

Let's follow a story of one of Those Who Would Do Us Harm(TM) buying an airline ticket and traveling:

Assume the name "Jihad M. Terrorist" and variations thereof are on the NFL in addition to his DOB and gender.

1. Jihad M. Terrorist buys a ticket to fly from, say, JFK-LAX.
2. He adds his SecureFlight information when he buys the ticket.
3. The SecureFlight computer matches his name, gender and DOB with the data on the NFL and it is a positive hit.
4. Mr. Terrorist cannot check in online or at the airport kiosk, so he tries to check in at the counter with an airline agent.
5. The airline agent informs Mr. Terrorist that he is a positive match on the NFL and cannot be issued a boarding pass.
6. Mr. Terrorist goes home; he is not allowed to fly.

Now Mr. Terrorist learns his lesson.

1. Jihad M. Terrorist buys another ticket to fly the next week.
2. He adds his SecureFlight information, but this time he uses a fake DOB and gender.
3. The SecureFlight computer matches his name, but his gender and DOB don't match the information on the NFL so it is not recorded as a positive hit.
4. Mr. Terrorist checks in online and is issued an online boarding pass.
5. He gets on the plane and explodes his underwear 20 minutes out of LAX.

So even under the theory the TSA is propagating, SecureFlight would be ineffective. Is it possible they know this loophole and they ignore the SecureFlight data for now and make anyone with a positive name match check in with an agent so that the DOB and gender on the ID can be verified irrespective of whether the DOB/gender provided is a positive hit or not? In other words, is the TSA waiting until DOB and gender show up on boarding passes before they actually use SecureFlight for its intended purpose? Otherwise, there is no one to make sure that the DOB/gender provided for SecureFlight matches the DOB/gender on the ID. This would explain why SecureFlight hasn't helped anyone check in online even though the data they provide isn't a match; I haven't seen a single report that it has worked for anyone yet.

If the DOB/gender were on the boarding pass, the TSA TDC could verify that it matches the ID before someone enters the security checkpoint, but we aren't there yet. What do you guys think?