A couple of years ago this forum got be almost an addiction that I went cold turkey for about a year and log in. However, it is nice to know that I have a place to come back to when I have an issue.

I have always gone by my middle name, except for absolute legal documents such as passport, DL, title to the house. I even use my middle name and last name only for my tax return and dealings with CRA. My aeroplan has been my middle name and last name since 1990. Never a problem.

However, in the last couple of years I have run into an issue when flying either to or in the US as "the name on the boarding pass must match exactly the name on your government issued ID." About 50% of the time I would get held up at the gate as my boarding pass had my middle name and last name, while my passport or my DL showed my first name, middle name, and last name. I would get told that it wasn't a match, but then the GA would punch something into the computer and on board I went. Not a big issue, but it would slow things up at the gate and since I was usually near the front of the line it would typically hold things up for everyone else.

So in order to make sure that my flights were credited properly I decided to change my name on my aeroplan account to my legal first and last name. A phone call to aeroplan with a followup fax of my passport, and they added my first name to my account. Everything should be good - right - WRONG!

Booked my first flight (domestic) using my legal first name instead of my middle name and it worked until I went to check in online. Would not work. Got to the airport and tried a kiosk. Kiosk message that it could not find my record locator. Up to the exec class checkin and told the agent the problem. He needs my photo id and off he goes to make a phone call. Gives my full name and birthdate, waits a minute and then comes back and prints my board pass. Says it is because I have a common last name (look up the most common last name in NA and I am in the top 4.). Get my boarding pass and off I go.

Return flight and the same thing. Cannot check in online. Go to the human at the checkin desk as the kiosk hates me again. Same thing - ID, phone call, and print boarding pass. Ask what the problem is and agent says that it was a random check. Okay, so much for random as my next 3 flights the same thing happens all over again. I don't buy the random stuff after the 3rd time and so on the 4th time I ask the checkin agent which list my name is appearing on. He says that it is just an id check. When I asked why this is the 4th flight in a row that I have had to do this and it is the first time in 22 years of flying with AC, he says that he doesn't know.

It appears to me that my legal first name (which is less common than my middle name), plus my very very common last name, matches someone on either the AC security list or the Passenger Protect list. I suppose that elite status for the last 10 years and always booking with my aeroplan number does not help in the least.

Any ideas on how to solve this?