Airlines Have to Ask Permission to Fly 72 Hours Early

twitter wrote to mention that the TSA (Transport Security Administration) has released a new set of proposed rules that is raising quite a stir among groups ranging from the ACLU to the American Society of Travel Agents. Under the new rules airlines would be required to submit a passenger manifest (including full name, sex, date of birth, and redress number) for all flights departing, arriving, or flying over the United States at least 72 hours prior to departure. Boarding passes will only be issued to those passengers that have been cleared. "Hasbrouck submitted that requiring clearance in order to travel violates the US First Amendment right of assembly, the central claim in John Gilmore's case against the US government over the requirement to show photo ID for domestic travel. [...] ACLU's Barry Steinhardt quoted press reports of 500,000 to 750,000 people on the watch list (of which the no-fly list is a subset). 'If there are that many terrorists in the US, we'd all be dead.' TSA representative Kip Hawley noted that the list has been carefully investigated and halved over the last year. 'Half of grossly bloated is still bloated,' Steinhardt replied."

Comments

Re:Faster to drive

[pthisis]

Anchorage, AK is not in the "continental US" even though it is on the same continent as 48 other states. The term is (nonsensically) a synonym for "lower 48" or "contiguous states."

I've always heard "contiguous 48" to include all the states (plus DC) other than Alaska and Hawaii, while "continental US" includes Alaska. But upon some googling, both definitions have traction. Wikipedia notes that both definitions are widely used, that your definition is more common while including Alaska is more correct.

FWIW to put it in context I googled a few airlines; of the 7 largest airlines in the country, United, US Airways, and American include Alaska in their definitions of the continental US. Delta and Northwest exclude Alaska. Continental and Southwest I didn't find anything for.

Because of the ambiguity in definitions (and the existence of the unambiguous "contiguous" usage), I'd personally avoid using the term "continental US" if I was trying to specify the contiguous US.

(Wikipedia also notes that technically "lower 48" would exclude Minnesota and include Hawaii but that in practice is well-understood; I wouldn't have a problem using that term since I'm confident whoever I'm talking to would know what's meant).