Like a fair number of people, I use my middle name instead of my first. My parents determined that, and it's fine with me. But it may not be fine with the TSA, right?

Now WN and AA are after me for a precise legal name, citing "Secure Flight," as United was some time ago (I travel internationally with them).

But I have no intention of changing my middle name + last name combination with credit card companies, hotels, etc. And therein might lie a problem, perhaps, when it comes time to charge a purchase with an airline, or transfer points to/from a hotel program? I think some programs require that names match exactly.

Who has had a problem in this regard?

And is it really necessary to use your first name instead of your middle name in the "Secure Flight" program?

With secure flight you need to provide your name as it appears on the ID you will be using at the airport when you take your flight.

My passport has my full name, so I need to provide my full name, as it appears on my passport, when I travel abroad or use the passport for ID.

My drivers license is LASTNAME, FIRST, MI .. so for domestic flights I just provide my first and last names as it appears on my drivers license.

The bottom line - what does your drivers license and passport have? Name will need to match the document you use for the secure flight information submission.

Edit to add:

I've also found TSO's are starting to get strict matching the name as it appears on your ticket to your ID. The ticket name field is different entry than the secure flight field - but I'd suggest your first and last names match your ID to prevent any problems.

Secure Flight is crap...don't pay it any attention...and you don't need to do the 'registration' with your airline unless they force it to complete the registration.

There is no checking of your secure flight inputs against your PNR at the checkpoint - just make sure your boarding pass name matches your ID name, although the absence or inclusion of a middle name on one or the other is not an issue. The screener has absolutely no way of knowing what information you gave SF - for all they know, you could have named yourself 'Baba Ganouch' on their system.

My DL has my middle name...my BP does not. No issues. I have not 'registered' for SF with my airline. No issues.

I've stopped providing my data too as it does not appear to be mandatory at this point.

In fact, I just used online check-in for flights tomorrow morning where I didn't submit the Secure Flight data. Are any booking outlets making it mandatory yet?

Best thing for the OP is to make sure the ticket name matches the ID name. I've seen the TSA get shirty over differences like Bill vs William, Steve vs Steven vs Stephen, etc.

My DL is LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, MI .. I just provide first and last names for my tickets.

My company's travel agents made us do this. We were going to get in trouble with our management if we didn't put full name, db, and gender in the TA's website. I dragged my feet, but since I don't have another job lined up I did comply. I haven't updated anything else though and i'm not sure what their booking site does with the info.

Funny how the TSA spends so much time and money on this, yet they leave a huge loop-hole ... nobody verifies the secure fright data against your ID.

Don't want to give them any ideas though .. TSA is bad enough as it is.

It appears a number of airlines have started to collect the Secure Flight data, but it is not mandatory yet.

After you book a ticket on delta.com, for example, the purchase thank you screen appears and there is link to provide your secure flight data .. but they don't force you to provide it.

I've given it a couple of times until I realized it isn't mandatory at this point.

Well it's good to know that registration isn't required at this point. But, assuming it is someday, is there something wrong with just using my middle and last names? Both those names are on my drivers license and passport. But those documents also have my first name, which doesn't appear on much else. Any problems?

But this is just my corporate TA. I have no clue if their system is actually transmitting anything. I don't even think it's mandatory to have filled in on their site, but if the agency tells my manager it's not filled in I get in trouble even though it's not mandatory with TSA

An extra (or missing) middle name isn't a problem - but an extra (or missing) first name could be...depends on the ID Smurf

I have refused to enter my data on AA's website sine they started asking for it. I will make up data if they begin to require me to enter it.

I'm not going for this crap, the TSA can go stick it.

According to a 16 Dec 08 TSA document, first initial is ok:

Secure Flight allows first initial only; however, may cause a higher occurrence of Inhibited responses.
Alphabetic, no numeric or special characters, except dash ( - ) and single quote ( � )
Do not include honorifics.
Truncate names longer than 35 characters to 35 characters."

(Lower part of Page 1.)

They should just forget about "Secure Flight", it makes nothing "secure".

(In)Secure Flight should be scrapped. It's a system that depends on multiple myths becoming true and the goodwill of criminals.

Secure Flight is an expensive joke - but it's not there to make anything more secure, it's there to undo some of the havoc caused by the completely botched and mismanaged watch/no-fly list which of course doesn't actually contain the names of any known terrorists

Think of it as a Jedi mind trick you're playing on the TSA - by registering, you're basically saying "I'm not the Bob Smith you're looking for. Move along"

So - this generally means that you should register if you have NFL/watch list issues as it will help you - otherwise, either don't bother registering or you can put in phony data if you choose to. Just hope the phony data doesn't accidently match someone ON the NFL

The name is a silly marketing spin - make it appear to 'secure' or improve aviation security so it encourages compliance. TSA nonsense at its best (worst).

The name match (ID to BP) could be an issue under the following circumstances (depending on the Smurf in question), as it pertains to the OP:

Name on ID: Robert T Jones
Name on BP: Thomas Jones (bad)
Name on BP: R Thomas Jones (not so bad, but could still be a problem)