I was making a convoluted flight from Paris to Toronto through Copenhagen and Washington (Dulles), travelling on a Canadian passport. In Paris SAS asked me for a US address. I said that I was transitting through the US to Canada, and indeed they were in the process of checking me through to Canada (SAS to Washington & UA to Toronto), but they said I needed a US address. I said that I did not have one. They insisted that I needed one. So I was left with the choice of inventing one out of the blue (that would not have checked out at all had someone bothered to verify it) or giving that of a relative (which would have checked out only to the extent that street number, city name, and postal code would not have been in contradiction with one another).

What is going on? Does SAS have the right to ask for such? What if I had insisted that I had no address to give (which was in fact the truth)? What if the address I had given had been checked out by someone and found wanting? Isn't this more than a little Kafkaesque (i.e. damned if you do and damned if you don't)?