EliteNewbie

I was told by SAA customer service (among other things) that new FAA? rules state that passengers must use full names FIRST, LAST, MIDDLE and that middle initial is no longer acceptable. My passport has all three names, but my MP account uses middle initial...is this an issue to miles not posting, or will this be an issue in the future?

THANKS!

SEA1K4EVR

It's not true. Within your reservation there is a place to store the "secure flight information"..and in there you're supposed to list your full name as it appears on your passport. But the traveler name on the ticket can just have a middle initial (or none at all even). I imagine this may be different for someone whose name matches someone on the do not fly list..but for the vast majority if people you can just use middle initial as normal.

fastair

SEA1K4EVR is right. 1st, it isn't the FAA, but the TSA, and 2nd, it is name as it appears on govt issued ID that will be used for travel. If your travel will require use of a passport, than use the name on the passport. If flying domesticly, and you wish to use a DL instead of a passport, make it be that name.

Here is a link for you: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/layers/secureflight/

mickeydfly13

Thought he meant South African Airways!

GUWonder

SAA customer service is clueless but who can blame people spoonfed generalities by airline management hoping to "play it safe" vis-a-vis government(s).

Even if you don't provide them a full middle name, you can still travel to/from the US on SAA and receive UA miles with your name either way in line with UA's rules for crediting flights operated by the carrier(s) to be flown. People feed the TSA incorrect birthdate information all of the time and it still generally doesn't result in a problem and sometimes it even helps avoid problems; and much the same goes for using middle initials where there are middle names (or vice versa) or for using middle initials and or middle name where there is no middle initial nor middle name.

Thousands of people travel to the US with middle initials on tickets even as their passports have full middle names.

Even providing incorrect information to the TSA and/or the airline does not invalidate the possibility of the airline transmitting the passport information to the US and/or of traveling on the ticket.

A lot of airline employees are clueless about the workings of the US government and yet try to railroad customers into doing what they believe is required by the government even when the "requirement" is not a necessary condition for travel to occur without substantive incidence.

bocastephen

FWIW, my middle name is on my DL and both my passports. I've never added it to a ticket for either domestic or international travel and never had a problem.

Likewise I never put my real birthdate in the INSecureFlight info either, and never had a problem.

BubbaLoop

I initially worried about the middle name nonsense when secure flight came out but later found it to be irrelevant at the checkpoint. At least half of my boarding passes do not have my middle name and no one seems to care.

Not that it mattered anyways.

EliteNewbie

Thanks everyone for the responses! Gotta love the FT community!^