Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Wrong passport goes unnoticed!

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Wrong passport goes unnoticed!

In a letter yesterday to the editor of the San Jose Mercury News, a mother wrote that on Sept. 11 her daughter left Interlaken by train for Milan where she took a plane to Munich and then on to San Francisco. When she arrived home the daughter realized she had been given the wrong passport at her hostel in Switzerland and no one, even customs at SFO, ever noticed. Mind-boggling in these days of supposed increased security!

Something like that happened to me a few years ago. After checking in together at the airline counter in Narita, my colleague and I were given each other's passports by mistake. We then proceeded through immigration without anyone noticing. Fortunately, as we sat in the departure lounge, WE noticed the exchange. I say fortunately because we were actually boarding different planes and going on to separate destinations. Lord knows what would have happened on arrival if we hadn't noticed the switch! Surprising, too, for Japan, where things are usually done quite thoroughly and efficiently.

Of course, all you people look alike to us.

Guess what, yoshi? My colleage is Chinese-American and I am Caucasian. She was sometimes taken for Japanese when there, so your (tongue-in-cheek, I assume?) theory goes out the window.

On a previous passport, my name was misspelled--Elziabeth instead of Elizabeth. I hadn't even noticed until I returned from Europe and the customs officer at SFO picked up on it. Had a few anxious moments because she looked worried and unsure as to what to do. She finally waved me on through. I sent the passport in and the spelling was corrected. Pictured myself in some Federal detention facility until it could be straightened out!

I wish the powers-that-be would collectively wake up and realize this is now the 21st century where we have both the necessity and know-how to have biometric IDs. I use one daily at work to gain access to secure areas -- why aren't these methods used to protect our country? I'm talking about handprint, fingerprint and iris recognition technology. As things stand now, it's totally up to the inspector's sensory expertise to flag problems -- we all know they are only human and prone to mistakes.

Lan, Do you really want your biometrics to be registered in some database somewhere? Also, that could only apply to citizens in your country (at best...or more exactly at worst...they could regiter the biometrics of foreign people only when they enter the country for the first time). So, I'm not sure what would be the point. Apart from finding out people using stolen american passport and trying to pose as americans. I don't like this concept, anyway....

It's Ian, not Lan. The USA is often, not always, a leader in instituting new ideas - a few discussions and a few years later, our friends and others seem to jump aboard. I'm all for making it voluntary -- those who have nothing to hide will be rushed through airports, etc., while those unregistered will be subject to intense scrutiny. That's fine with me.

I have the "wrong" passport every time I travel (which is about once every other month, internationally), and it is only spotted once out of every 20 check-in/security checks. My passport is issued in my maiden name, Andrea Smith. My tickets are always issued in my married name, Andrea Phillips. Every check-in, every security check, they look at the tickets and look at the passport, and only 1 out of 20 times does someone raise an eyebrow or ask why the name on the tickets doesn't match the name on my passport. I find it very, very rediculous given the ludicrous other "security" measures they take. Making EVERY passenger take out and turn on their laptops, making my husband go back to PURCHASE batteries to turn on his MP3 player, making people take of their shoes (hint to security: If someone is smart enough to hide some sort of bomb or weapon in a laptop or MP3 player, don't you think they could figure out how to fake an LCD screen "proving" it turned on??). But it galls me that they miss something so SIMPLE. It's such a BASIC safety measure to check that the person whose name is on the ticket is the person who has shown up for the flight, and they NEVER check! My passport has an official stamp on the last page certifying the change to my married name, but as I said, I've only been asked about it a handful of times. I sometimes feel like I should send a letter to the person in charge of security of every airport I pass through that doesn't ask.

Perhaps the people who don't ASK about your name change have already had the sense to check your passport for the official stamp? Since your picture and first name do match, this would be the logical action for any person experienced enough to know that's how the passport people handle name changes. There have been plenty of tales on this board of people denied boarding becuase of simple name differences, like middle initials, misspelled first names, or tickets issued with a nickname. One gal had to consult with several security people before she found one who knew that Peg is a nickname for Margaret!

No, the security people don't look at the official change. The official change is typewritten on the inside second-to-last page (so I can easily tell that they haven't seen it - there is nothing on the picture page to indicate that there is a name change). The people normally just open it up to the picture page, look at the picture & name ("Andrea Smith"), then look at the ticket ("Andrea Phillips"), and then apparently think: "Well, close enough!" Obviously, I don't particularly relish the idea of getting questioned at every security check, but it still really irritates me that fewer than 1 in 20 people even NOTICE the different name when they do so many other ridiculous "security" measures.

"no one, even customs at SFO, ever noticed" Why does this surprise you? US airports generally have the worst security.

Ian, for your information Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is currently doing a test with a few thousand frequent travellers on Iris recognition instead of passport control. http://www.schiphol.nl/schiphol/privium/privium_home.jsp?bmLocale=en&guidenr=00&guidemode= vac&entry=90&bmUID=1033235364259

Quick border passage with iris scan A world first: border passage with identification by means of a state-of-the-art biometric system that uses iris recognition! Safe and considerably quicker than manual passport control. For the time being, the one-year pilot project, which is being run by the Ministry of Justice as the first large-scale application of biometric identification, is to continue until October 2002. The technology used for the iris scan is based on the recognition of the specific characteristics of the iris. Compared to other forms of biometric identification - such as finger tip or hand palm recognition, the iris scan is the most reliable and quickest form. This is because the iris does not change and is a part of the body that is hardly ever damaged. Even a small wound on the finger or the palm of the hand could hamper biometric recognition. When you join Privium, scans are made of both your eyes. Reading in the iris information does not irritate the eyes and does not involve any health risks. When you cross the border, iris recognition is not hampered by glasses, contact lenses or coloured lenses. However, the iris scan does not function when you wear sunglasses. After the scan, the iris information is only stored in the chip of the Privium card and not in a database. When you cross the border, the information in the chip is compared with the information of the actual eye. The information is then removed immediately from the equipment. The iris recognition process at Schiphol does not use existing equipment. The iris scan was developed by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in accordance with its own specifications. The required software was developed in close co-operation with the Immigration and Naturalisation Department (IND) and the Koninklijke Marechaussee Schiphol (Airport Police).