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American Airlines Information Gathering

Posted by samzenpus on from the can-you-use-fake-names dept.

matt-fu writes "Cory Doctorow posted a story on boingboing.net this morning describing a recent hassle while flying American Airlines. It seems that since he was traveling from the UK to the US with a Canadian passport, he was actually asked to give out the names and addresses of everyone he would be staying with in the US! He has written an open letter to AA in response. Has anyone else had something like this happen to them?"

4 of 719 comments (clear)

  1. It's a precaution by Kohath · · Score: 4, Funny

    They need to followup with the families to make sure none of them get mad cow disease.

  2. Re:Boohoo by Kenja · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Trying being a diabetic with an insulin pump. The security people aren't big fans of people with tubes coming out of them strapped to little computers."

    Wait a second, if the letter 'n' where the letter 'm' and you moved all the other letters around 'insulin' becomes 'i muslium'.

    YOUR ONE OF THEM AREN'T YOU!

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  3. Re:Boohoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    muslium? Is this some sort of new metal? Is it radioactive?

  4. For the informed traveller by Safety+Cap · · Score: 4, Funny
    When travelling to a Police State, such as the US:
    1. Always have the name, address and telephone number of someone you "are staying with" on hand. Note that in the states, a phone number that contains "xxx-555-yyyy" is bogus (used only in the movies).
    2. When asked how you know the person, use something vague and unverifiable, such as "We met on holiday in Canada," "we went to school together," etc.
    3. When they ask you for your driver's license number or other identifying number from a card that you don't have a reason to carry, simply state "I don't remember." DO NOT SMILE WHEN YOU SAY THAT!
    4. Never crack jokes. Police State Officials who have a sense of humour are usually sent to "reeducation centre" to have it removed.
    5. Playing dumb always works.
    --
    Yeah, right.