If you want proof that this is never going to work, do a search for "HSPD-6 terrorism nexus criteria." There are so many fingers in the pot that this program can't possibly function properly.

From the FBI, a bunch of hogwash:

"TSC (Terrorist Screening Center) is leading significant improvements in counterterrorism information sharing among federal, state, local, and international agencies by distributing information about encounters with known or suspected terrorists reported to its 24/7 call center."

"The TSC has no authority to conduct intelligence collection or other operations. The TSC does not collect intelligence, but only receives identity information collected by other governmental entities authorized by law to do so, with their own policies and procedures to protect privacy rights and civil liberties. The TSC maintains information on known or appropriately suspected terrorists only; it does not maintain information on persons who have no nexus to terrorism."

If it's the same TA as our corporate travel fools, they transmit that and a lot more. For example, for a flight on UA yesterday, the transmitted not only my UA FF number, but also AA, CO, DL and B6. They were inserted into some odd field by the UA site and showed up on the check-in screen.

Be very, very careful what you put in the TA site, else stuff like your DL or PP number will be transmitted to the airline for every reservation. TAs take as many steps to protect your privacy as my kitchen strainer holds water.

How about
Name on ID: Robert Thomas Jones
Name on BP: Thomas Jones

?

I think this will be one of those 'up to the Smurf' deals. If you've been making it through the checkpoint this way up to now, I don't see anything changing.

Well I'm not American, although I travel to and within the US a lot. In the country where I was born and which issued my passport, there is no connection whatsoever between first and given names. In fact, almost everybody is called by their second or third forename. Whilst official records keep track of our given names, passports do not specify them, but they do list all our forenames in full. In my case, my given name is my third forename. I have absolutely no desire to be called by my first name, which I don't consider mine at all, but my grandfather's. I have always travelled under my third and given name without any problems, apart from one or two INS morons who took it upon themselves to cross out my given name on the visa waiver form and replace it with my first name. Is Secure Flight likely to create any problems for me travelling under my actual, third name, carrying a passport which lists all my forenames?

Unless your third name and the other name(s) in which you get your ticket issued is the same name of a person on the government blacklists, the (In)Secure Flight engine shouldn't give you any problem.

DHS employees -- such as TSA's Kafkaesque ID clerks -- don't routinely make an issue of such things at the airport but that's no guarantee that some zealot won't be on the war path.

Many thanks, that's reassuring

Well if that actually happens, it'll be me they're after - I'm one of a kind :D

I'm less scared of them than of the immigration nazis. It's never happened yet, but if it does, and if I have time, I might entertain myself by playing the ethnic discrimination card ;)

A variety of people with roots in various parts of Europe and huge parts of Asia or Africa would have a good claim to make about ethnic discrimination if this were to be made an issue by the TSA.

As you are aware, the traditional naming convention that is most prevalent in the US and Europe is not the traditional naming convention for every culture around the world. In some parts of the world, application of the most prevalent US and European naming convention to persons of cultures with their own naming conventions would be considered a violation of traditional cultural norms or even an insult.

Sorry, me again. I flew to the US (on United) using my third = given name as usual just before Christmas without any issues. However, the other day, when checking in at Heathrow, I was given a strong talking to by the UA check-in agent who said that continued use of my given and actual forename would no longer be acceptable when traveling to the US. Fortunately, this flight was LHR-BRU, but it made me feel a bit apprehensive about the risk of United (or another airline) refusing me boarding even if the TSA doesn't. Has anybody had any recent experiences with this?

I must the the possibility of being forced to travel under a name that neither I nor anybody else knows me by fills me with trepidation. Obviously, all my frequent traveller accounts, credit cards, and work ID and other documents are issued in my actual name.

Sorry to keep trying to resurrect this one, but I'm about to book a number of flights to the US and getting increasingly anxious. My attempt to ask the question in the UA forum led to immediate thread closure without appeal. I tried to ask the question to the TSA using their web form - their response was an e-mail without a word, enclosing a traveler redress program form (how could I be so naive to expect anything less moronic?). So, again, if anybody has continued to travel to the US in recent months using their given (but not first) forename, with or without problems, on UA or any other airline, I would be immensely grateful if you could share your experiences. I did see a rather desperate thread on the CO forum back in December (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...-ueseless.html), but it fizzled out after a day without any update about how it ended.

I've been flying with people last month and this month on UA flights from Europe to the US who were traveling in a situation akin to yours and they had no problems other than the old issue related to the frequent flyer program and/or the agents being able to pull up the reservation with a swipe of the passport. UA is more than capable to pull up a reservation without swiping a passport, and Ua is also capable of forwarding over the passport-related details the way the government wants it regardless of the name on the ticket.

Don't take the data matching too seriously - I've booked and flown 3 trips, albeit domestic, using my name (without the middle name which appears on my ID), and using a slightly different date of birth each time. No issues.

Agree. The OP is making too big a deal of this. The tickets will be honored, in my opinion.

Me, too. I haven't made up birthdates; I just haven't added mine to any reservation. I've flown a bunch of domestic flights on a couple of carriers this year. I always get the red warning flag that my required Secure Flight data is incomplete. I've ignored the warnings since Day 1 and printed my BP anyway. My name shows up the way it always has -- MI rather than full middle name that's on my brown passport.

People of any age who can't get off the list by a number of proven techniques have to go through what amounts to a security clearance background check for the privilege of maybe being allowed to buy a plane ticket. Ugh -- don't get me going...

With regard to some passengers who had never before to deal with their name being blacklisted when such passengers were not supplying DOB and gender info for "Secure Flight", their providing accurate date-of-birth and gender info for "Secure Flight" processing is nowadays resulting in blacklisted person treatment.

InSecureFlight has solved nothing.

Some people may be better off indeed by providing these clowns with incorrect information.