Here's what happened leading up to the first incident:
- We decided to go to to Miami beach last minute to avoid turning into ice cubes in NYC (it was 9 degrees on Saturday).
- My girlfriend bought our American Airline plane tickets and she purchased mine under the name "Alan Lin".
The Problem
"Alan" is not my legal first name. I was born in China and my legal first name is "Peng". Peng Lin is my full name on pretty much on every piece of identification that I own. However, that's not the name I use to introduce myself to people. Everyone else knows me as Alan. My girlfriend knows this, but we were in a rush and I guess she just forgot. As far as any identification system is concerned, I am not "Alan". Immigrant problems.
Security Problems
Newark to Miami TSA
The guy sitting at the TSA checkpoint was comparing my drivers license with my boarding pass and then gave me a confused look. I didn't realize the mistake then so I was confused by his look of confusion. He pointed at my ticket and asked "Who's Alan?". Uh, bro that's me. He asked if I had alternative identification with the name "Alan" on it. No, I did not. He then told me he couldn't let me through with the documents I had and that the only way for me to go through was to get an IVCC (Identity Verification Call Center) check. Okay, just a phone call. Not the end of the world.
I had to fill out a form with my information (name and address) while he dialed the IVCC number. He told me that once he gets someone from the IVCC on the line, I may have to answer a few questions as quickly as possible and that if I took too long to answer any of them or got them wrong I would be denied my right to board. Oh shit. After about ten minutes he finally got someone on the line from the IVCC and read them the details of my reservation. Ten minutes later, he told me I could go. What? Awesome! I didn't get the quiz! I guess the check provided enough confidence for them to assume that I was indeed "Alan". I'm done now, right?
Nope.
The next step of the process was having my bags completely searched and my body molested (not really, just patted). After I got through the body scanners, they confiscated all of my bags and started wiping them with what looked like Kleenex wipes. I later learned that this was called "swabbing" and the purpose is to help detect traces of explosives. While this was happening, another agent approached me with a pair of gloves and told me to open my arms wide and stand with my feet apart. He lightly patted every part of my body (except my genitals so thanks bro) and once he was done I finally got the thumbs up. Phew.
Miami to Philadelphia TSA
Clearly the experience was not traumatizing enough because we didn't even consider the possibility of having this problem again until we were sitting in the Taxi leaving Miami beach to catch our flight back to NYC. I think it's because we were already inundated with a lot of other things. We were also running late, so I needed to get my name changed fast. Unfortunately, you can't change the name of the ticket online. What you can do, however, is add a middle name. Okay great, I thought, I'll just add "Alan" as my middle name. Well, turns out that the middle name isn't actually printed out on the ticket. D'oh!
Time was not on our side. We had a 6:30 boarding time and by the time we reached the checkpoint line it was 6:00. When I stepped up to show the agent my documents and the same goddamn exchange ensued: A look of confusion followed by a stern request for identification. Okay, what the hell. I try explaining to the guy again but to no avail. So I ask for an IVCC check. The guy gives me a blank stare like he had no idea what I just asked for (he did) and told me he couldn't do it. Instead, he told me I had to go back to the American airline customer support desk and have them change my name. This didn't make sense to me for a couple of reasons:
1. How is changing my name through AA going to happen if I don't have identification for "Alan"?
2. Assuming that AA can indeed change my name without identification ... how the hell is that any more secure?
It was also maddening because I knew he could do it. So I asked him, "are you sure?" and he replied "Yes" without even looking up. Okay, fine, I'll give it a shot because I trust that you're not trying to screw me over.
Now bear in mind it probably takes about five minutes of sprinting to get to the customer support desk because it's at the opposite end of the building. So I'm running and running and by the time I see the main desk I also see a pretty long line. Shit. Luckily, the line moved pretty fast (I think I also saw a guy skip the whole line by doing a military crawl across line dividers ... risky but mad props for the hustle).
When it was my turn I did my best to muster a look of utter desperation in hopes that the lady behind the counter would take pity on my plight. Straight up denied. She could not change my name because I had no identification with the name "Alan". Okay, no surprise there really. So it's 6:20 at that point and I was certain I wasn't going to make it. I had no choice but to get the IVCC check. While I was sprinting back my bag opened and everything spilled onto the floor. Yup, not going to make it. Just as I was about to pull out my phone to tell my girlfriend to board without me I get a text from her telling me that the flight has been delayed for about 45 minutes and the new boarding time is 7:15. Wow, is Jesus / Buddha / Mohammed on my side?
Once I got to the checkpoint again there was a huge line. Oh hell no I ain't waiting in line. I walked up to the lady at the priority line and she actually recognized me as the guy who had to trek to the damn entrance on the other side of airport so she let me through. God is not dead. I went up to the same guy who turned me away and told him that there was no way AA was changing my name, for the same reasons he wouldn't accept on the basis of faith that I'am indeed Alan Lin.
He asked me if I'm sure and I'm like yeah I wouldn't have run this far if I wasn't. Guess what he asked me to do next? He told me to go back to AA. At this point, I'm fuming because I knew he could do an IVCC check and there's no way I'm running back there again. I told him I wasn't going back and demanded an IVCC check. He finally relents, gets up and then walks over to a female TSA agent who seems to be on break. I see him exchange a few words with her while pointing at his own watch - it definitely looked like he was asking her to do him a favor because he needed to be somewhere else. Wow, I thought, I almost missed my damn flight because some guy didn't want to be the person doing an IVCC check.
I finally got my check and went through the exact same procedure. Form filling. Phone dialing. Bag and body searching. I was drenched in sweat at this point. So much sweat that I had two different agents ask me if it was raining outside. Nope just panic-induced perspiration. The whole process went much quicker than the one in Newark and I could tell they had sympathy for me because they were working as quickly as they could to get me through. I really, really appreciated that.
After I got past the checkpoint, it was like 7:15 and I ran as fast as I could. My girlfriend told me that the bridge would be open until 7:30. Okay, almost there. One more obstacle though - turns out I had to take a damn bus shuttle to the correct track. Luckily that went smoothly because the shuttle came and left quickly. Once I got off the bus, I ran into the airport, sprinted up the escalators and saw my wonderful girlfriend waiting for me with a minute left to spare.
I made it!
So that marked the end of my TSA problems, but here's the really scary detail that I left out about this ordeal: I actually got past the security checkpoint in Newark once with this error.
The first time I got stopped in Newark? That was actually our second day at Newark. Because of delays the previous day, we decided to stay in Newark. So as uncomfortable and stressful being stopped by the TSA was, the fact that a first name mismatch did not stop be from getting through security that first day is alarming. It's a pretty serious mistake that calls into question the effectiveness of airline security because if they can't even detect a major error like that, what else are they missing?
After we got back from our trip I did some research to better understand why things happened the way they did and lessons I could take away from this experience.
So why this have to happen to me?
In 2009, a program called Secure Flight was rolled out by the TSA in response to the 9/11 attacks. It's a passenger pre-screening program that required all airlines to require that passengers provide their first name, last name, date of birth, and gender upon registration. The TSA would then check the identity of a passenger against national security blacklists maintained by the TSC (Terrorist Screening Center) such as the No Fly list. They perform this check on the passenger 72 hours prior to his or her flight.
In other words, you absolutely need your first name and last name on your ticket to match what's on your ID. Period. It also means that your middle name is irrelevant because that's not required by Secure Flight - so yeah, adding a middle name does nothing and would not have helped even if it did show up on the ticket.
If this happens again, what are my options?
If you notice the error within 24 hours of purchase, you can call customer support and to take advantage of the 24 Hour Reservation policy and just repurchase the ticket under the new name.
You can also call them and request the name to be changed on the ticket. This is known as a name correction and there are policies dictating what corrections are acceptable. Basic rule of thumb? Changing either first or last is okay, both is not. Oh, and you also need identification for the updated name. In my case, this approach would have failed miserably.
As a last resort, you just have to deal with the IVCC check and prepare to have your butt patted a few times.
Main lesson? Don't fuck up your name if you don't want the TSA on your ass.
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