A common name just won't fly

When Chris Moore flies, he can't use a skycap or an e-ticket — he has to get cleared from an airline representative to get a boarding pass.

When he travels with a group of coworkers, they all go to the airport lounge for a drink, while Moore waits in lines. His crime? A very common name, which happens to be on the government's no-fly list.

"I wonder, do they actually get on the phone and ask security, 'I have this six-foot-one white guy.' 'Oh no, we're looking for a guy who's five feet tall wearing a turban and answers to the name of Chris Moore," said Moore, who travels to Orlando, San Diego and Salt Lake City regularly to set up tradeshow booths for companies who make surf fashion.

Moore's troubles amount to a lot of inconvenience. But if the Department of Homeland Security makes good on a promise to launch a system that would correct such mistakes, he might at least be able to complain about it.

A new DHS Web site, DHS Trip (www.dhs.gov/trip), is slated to go live on February 20. (It's not up yet, I just checked today.) TRIP stands for traveler redress inquiry program. The program will allow travelers who think they have been unfairly put on the no-fly list — or are simply victims of mistaken identity — to fill out a form online to plead their case and then track its progress. The site can also handle foreigners who believe they were incorrectly denied a U.S. travel visa or others being pulled aside for secondary screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to U.S. News & World Report.

If TRIP doesn't work, fliers can resort to a more graphic form of protest, as one German tourist recently did at the Manila airport. Hans Jurgen Oskar von Naguschewski, 66, took off his pants after being asked to go through security twice. "Authorities were not amused," the Associated Press reported. Instead of boarding his flight to Frankfurt, he was detained by police and faces between six months and six years in jail.

Write to: Barbara Correa at bboydstoncorrea@yahoo.com