SFO International Terminal - asking you to confirm your last name
Mar 30, 2011, 12:14 pm
#181
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
I fail to understand the whole system. Taking my Mother-in-law for example. She needs to apply for ESTA in Japan and provides all sort of info which supposedly is checked by the U.S. Government before they grant approval. Upon check-in the airline scans the passport and if I understand correctly the manifest is run by the U.S. Government as well. So they know she is on a particular flight and will arrive stateside. There CBP scans the passport again, types something into the record and asks silly questions. Upon leaving the U.S. she provides the airline with TSA required info, which is checked and her flight then approved. TSA at the airport checks her passport again, like they never knew she was flying and do their whole theater there. Does no one "talk" to each other? They should all know who she is, where she goes and when she goes. It's not really a secret, or? And for us Frequent Flyers, our flying patterns,
our status, our mileage balances are available at any time. Why is there a requirement for so much information when seemingly no information is used and certainly not shared? It's flabbergasting.
our status, our mileage balances are available at any time. Why is there a requirement for so much information when seemingly no information is used and certainly not shared? It's flabbergasting.
Mar 30, 2011, 4:31 pm
#182
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Greenville, SC
Programs: AA Gold, United Silver, SPG/Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 28
I had this same thing happen on Sunday just like everyone else in Terminal 1. Asked me to say my last name and that was that. The great thing is at the checkpoint right past the UAL desks, there were no WBIs in site and it took only five minutes to get through in the mid-afternoon unlike DIA. Now if they would just get their rental car trains sped up a bit.
Mar 30, 2011, 6:17 pm
#183
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: SE Asia
Posts: 647
What the TSA/Customs/BP don't realize/understand/care is that there's a reciprocity of abuse that can be, and is, applied to US citizens in reaction the treatment we give to international visitors.
I travel enough through Asia and Europe with other EU citizens to know that you are scrutinized more closely and treated differently by carrying a US passport.
Want a Chinese visa? Make no mistake that the US is charged more than any other country in retaliation to the cost we charge them. For example ESTA is perceived as just another nuisance/money grab and ultimately a barrier to tourism at a time where the US needs it most.
Want to see you hand luggage tossed around with gusto? Have your shoes scanned while others don't? Random "confiscations" of 'illegal' articles?
It's all benefit of our policies; and the perceptions of the countries that equally feel abused; or want to appear "tougher" than our beloved TSA/DHA handlers.
It's a sad state of affairs.
I travel enough through Asia and Europe with other EU citizens to know that you are scrutinized more closely and treated differently by carrying a US passport.
Want a Chinese visa? Make no mistake that the US is charged more than any other country in retaliation to the cost we charge them. For example ESTA is perceived as just another nuisance/money grab and ultimately a barrier to tourism at a time where the US needs it most.
Want to see you hand luggage tossed around with gusto? Have your shoes scanned while others don't? Random "confiscations" of 'illegal' articles?
It's all benefit of our policies; and the perceptions of the countries that equally feel abused; or want to appear "tougher" than our beloved TSA/DHA handlers.
It's a sad state of affairs.
Other than paying an exorbiant amount for a Chinese visa, and yes, it's a result of our treatment of Chinese citizens, I've never experienced more scrutiny or 'confiscation' in Asia coz of my US passport. Usually the opposite. Maybe coz I live here and travel around the region quite often...dont know..
but the ESTA is a travesty...the gooberment says it ain't a visa but it is...I would love to see the EU implement the same thing for US citizens but make the process slower....serves us right.
It is amazing that the official greeters, CPB agents, do so much harm to our image and our economy...nearly all of my furrener friends refuse to travel to the US anymore and 1 even decided to take his 100$ million investment elsewhere...why? because of the way he had been treated when entering the US (and he's an EU citizen)....100$ mill and jobs investment went to Asia...thank you, CBP
Mar 30, 2011, 6:44 pm
#184
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
Isn't the exorbitant cost of a Brazilian visa tied in with what the U.S. all of a sudden charged the Brazilians? Other South American countries followed as retribution.
It always strikes me that Japanese and European passport holders have less of a visa requirement and if a visa is needed it is either free or low cost. Thank heaven I carry two passports myself. The Americans, though, bleed through their nose for this.
Justly or not, after WWII, Americans made the world hate them due to a strong $ and the way U.S. businessman behaved. Those days are long gone, now the U.S. Government takes care of stirring up the hate.
This country and it's people is much better than that, but at this stage we are too much into the dirt. Someone needs to get us out of this and let the world know, we are nice people. Or do I see this wrongly?
It always strikes me that Japanese and European passport holders have less of a visa requirement and if a visa is needed it is either free or low cost. Thank heaven I carry two passports myself. The Americans, though, bleed through their nose for this.
Justly or not, after WWII, Americans made the world hate them due to a strong $ and the way U.S. businessman behaved. Those days are long gone, now the U.S. Government takes care of stirring up the hate.
This country and it's people is much better than that, but at this stage we are too much into the dirt. Someone needs to get us out of this and let the world know, we are nice people. Or do I see this wrongly?
Mar 30, 2011, 6:51 pm
#185
Moderator: Chase Ultimate Rewards
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As long as we can watch 1000 channels on giant TVs, nothing else seems to matter.
But maybe I'm wrong.
Mar 30, 2011, 7:07 pm
#186
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
Maybe you are not wrong. It's the old Roman philosophy. Give them bread, give them games ( bread and circus ) and they will have a happy populus, despite the evils haunting them. Hasn't changed in thousand of years. Sad, sad, sad. Too bad we don't have a smilie for tears.
Last edited by Exleftseat; Mar 30, 2011 at 7:08 pm Reason: clarification
Mar 31, 2011, 12:29 am
#187
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Vancouver, BC
Programs: AA EXP 3MM, FB Plat, AS Gold, Marriott Gold, Fairmont Plat, BA wannabe
Posts: 684
Those days are long gone, now the U.S. Government takes care of stirring up the hate.
This country and it's people is much better than that, but at this stage we are too much into the dirt. Someone needs to get us out of this and let the world know, we are nice people. Or do I see this wrongly?
I cringe when I'm told "I'm not a typical American" because I say "hello/goodbye", "please/thank-you" in the languages of the foreign countries I visit; and am patient with the idiosyncrasies that every culture has.
I'm also embarrassed that I've said "Je ne parle pas Anglais" when faced with the boorish behavior of my fellow citizens in France. It gets a knowing laugh from the French at least.
Mar 31, 2011, 6:43 am
#188
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SFO Elite Security Also Asking Last Name
ID checker asked this am and I said:Smith. Woman says it's not. I say that's how I pronounce it. She gets a sup. He says my name pretty well (it has a bunch of consonants together) so I say Smith. I tell him my name is foreign and not all letters have the same sounds in every language. I ask if he's a linguist. After second time he tells me no. He says he's going to get a behavior analyst. I say good. He disappears, returns after a few minutes, runs my boarding pass again and tells me to go. I figure I'll get pulled for 'random' secondary, but I'm not. Don't give into this. I ask what they do if folks are mute. Of course, sup doesn't answer.
Mar 31, 2011, 7:39 am
#190
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ID checker asked this am and I said:Smith. Woman says it's not. I say that's how I pronounce it. She gets a sup. He says my name pretty well (it has a bunch of consonants together) so I say Smith. I tell him my name is foreign and not all letters have the same sounds in every language. I ask if he's a linguist. After second time he tells me no. He says he's going to get a behavior analyst. I say good. He disappears, returns after a few minutes, runs my boarding pass again and tells me to go. I figure I'll get pulled for 'random' secondary, but I'm not. Don't give into this. I ask what they do if folks are mute. Of course, sup doesn't answer.
We had a healthy discussion upstream about using the "Smith" approach, asserting that one has the right to pronounce one's name however one desires. It was interesting that he was going to summon a SPOTNik for an interrogation. You would have revealed all those microexpressions that said "Jones" rather than "Smith."
Now, is it "Smith" or "Smyth?"
It boggles the mind that the SFO contractor clerks take this seriously.
Mar 31, 2011, 9:59 am
#191
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,967
In that instance they were over interpreting the rule, just as they appear to do at SFO with names.
Mar 31, 2011, 11:21 am
#192
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ID checker asked this am and I said:Smith. Woman says it's not. I say that's how I pronounce it. She gets a sup. He says my name pretty well (it has a bunch of consonants together) so I say Smith. I tell him my name is foreign and not all letters have the same sounds in every language. I ask if he's a linguist. After second time he tells me no. He says he's going to get a behavior analyst. I say good. He disappears, returns after a few minutes, runs my boarding pass again and tells me to go. I figure I'll get pulled for 'random' secondary, but I'm not. Don't give into this. I ask what they do if folks are mute. Of course, sup doesn't answer.
^^ <applause>
Mar 31, 2011, 11:46 am
#195
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ID checker asked this am and I said:Smith. Woman says it's not. I say that's how I pronounce it. She gets a sup. He says my name pretty well (it has a bunch of consonants together) so I say Smith. I tell him my name is foreign and not all letters have the same sounds in every language. I ask if he's a linguist. After second time he tells me no. He says he's going to get a behavior analyst. I say good. He disappears, returns after a few minutes, runs my boarding pass again and tells me to go. I figure I'll get pulled for 'random' secondary, but I'm not. Don't give into this. I ask what they do if folks are mute. Of course, sup doesn't answer.
w! G
d shw!If they knew that the name wasn't Smith then why did they b
ther asking so many times?