wahooflyer,

If their names are "on the list" for no-fly/watch purposes and it is a case of mistaken identity -- which is more frequent than not as some people are so blinded by "we must protect the homeland" mantra that they sometimes fail to note that a man is on the watchlist yet it is a woman flying with a different name -- then be prepared with the number for the in-area FBI field office (if the airline staff is not forthcoming with "the call"). The FBI has a few people, and then some, who are nearly full-time dealing with this nonsense of mistaken identity related to "the lists". It is my understanding that they will ask a few questions and some other info for about 10 to 15 minutes and then tell the airline staff to let you fly once they are comfortable and the airline staff is comfortable that they are "not it!".

The boarding pass issue is more probably than not just an indication that they are SSSSed.