I'm on a watchlist...

[toowongman]

Starting to fly a lot more again, so back to VA for a short domestic trip on the triangle. The machine for printing out the BP and tag says it can't do anything and to make myself known to a VA person. OK, I do that and they send me to the bag drop counter to check in.
I'm a friendly person so am on my best manners and suddenly the check in agent is glaring quite hard. Then another agent appears. Then another agent. They ask me fifty questions about my luggage and carry-on, the flight details, etc., then all run off for ten minutes. They come back, one of them smashes the keyboard for a bit, they all run off again, then come back five minutes later.
Finally my bag is loaded into the system and I'm handed my licence and BP. "it seems you're on a watchlist, you should check-in a good while earlier for your return trip".
I haven't flown VA since 2020, and that flight was in J after I came out from three weeks in hospital, I was super polite and slept most of the way.
WTF is going on? I'm still away so won't ask VA about this until after the return trip, but it's all a bit... curious to disturbing.
Has anyone else been through this? I've booked with my velocity number on the ticket, so they can't have me mixed up with someone else... can they?

 

[sudoer]

WTF is going on? I'm still away so won't ask VA about this until after the return trip, but it's all a bit... curious to disturbing.

Flown any other airlines recently? Wonder if it's an AFP thing rather than a VA thing...

 

[TheInsider]

Couldn't see it being a police thing where a check-in agent would see something. Maybe a credit card fraud prevention thing?

 

[VPS]

Do you have a common name. Maybe Google it with court appearances

 

[toowongman]

Wonder if it's an AFP thing rather than a VA thing

No idea. Flew JQ last month, both flights were flawless.

Do you have a common name. Maybe Google it with court appearances

Not really, but will have a search around on the weekend.

 

[Saab34]

I know virgin threatened to ban people and close FF accounts if they went ahead with chargebacks during the bankruptcy.

AFP/ASIO won’t make it public information if you are on a watch list. On many occasions you are being watched by coverts.

Have you ever had a disagreement with Virgin staff over any matter at any time that would make you flagged?

 

[toowongman]

I know virgin threatened to ban people and close FF accounts if they went ahead with chargebacks during the bankruptcy.

AFP/ASIO won’t make it public information if you are on a watch list. On many occasions you are being watched by coverts.

Have you ever had a disagreement with Virgin staff over any matter at any time that would make you flagged?

No charge backs... never had an issue with VA staff...

 

[Saab34]

Unlink your velocity FF account and see if you have issues next time.

 

[moa999]

Did you ask what watchlist?
See what happens on the return.

 

[Bajar]

It's happened with me once - turned out someone had tried to use a fraudulent passport with all my details on it. I had to go to the AFP to get it sorted.

 

[JohnK]

New Caledonia?

This watch list makes no sense?

 

[Gold Member]

Now you know how Joe Aston feels flying Qantas.

 

[toowongman]

No idea at the moment. Will fly again in the next week and will then let you all know how it goes.

New Caledonia?

Nothing to do with that. But thanks for reminding me to write the TR.

 

[Rich]

It happened to me with Virgin and QF for 6 to 12 months years ago. I asked an agent once and was told that someone with the same name did something bad but I left it that. No one was unpleasant to me or anything.
That same name caused a bunch of police to turn up at my place one evening to arrest me, including several plain clothes jumping the fence to check I wasn't escaping. It was at a different time but probably the same person. (I wasn't home and poor wife who was sleeping due to a migraine was horrified, wondering who she married.)

 

[JohnnyA]

Do you have a common name. Maybe Google it with court appearances

I recommend this. My BIL has an uncommon name but just so happens to be shared with a nutter that’s abused flight staff and on a no-fly list. He can’t use self check in but fortunately the story is the first bunch of stories that comes up when googled so now he just has to show that to the staff or get them to Google it. Before this he would be held up 20 minutes or so each time.
I don’t think they have anything more than the name, as the nutter is double my BILs age but doesn’t make a difference to him getting flagged.

 

[Saab34]

That same name caused a bunch of police to turn up at my place one evening to arrest me, including several plain clothes jumping the fence to check I wasn't escaping. It was at a different time but probably the same person. (I wasn't home and poor wife who was sleeping due to a migraine was horrified, wondering who she married.)

Wow that’s pretty average investigative work by the behind the scene police teams. Some nations you would sue for millions for that!

 

[Daver6]

There's a pesky Chechen terrorist who has many aliases, with one western name. That one is mine. It's caused me issues with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control. I've had mail from the US returned to sender as well as once a work expense (I work for a US company) blocked from payment because of this.

First time it happened I was stumped. Took quite some digging to get to the bottom of it. Now when something happens at least I know why. Only happened three times.

 

[Rich]

Wow that’s pretty average investigative work by the behind the scene police teams. Some nations you would sue for millions for that!

My wife called a friend on the night (before I got home) who is a Senior Detective and it seems they had incorrectly linked me to this crook based on an unrelated police report I had lodged. He made sure that it was fixed.
I was required to go to the police station to prove I wasn't the person in question (as they had a photo). I was pretty annoyed at the policewoman there who just said "you have friends in high places" and seemed p*ssed off. The uniform Sargent on duty stayed on after his shift to apologise to me. Had I been home and wrongly arrested I might have taken it further. I kind of wish I had just for the experience.
The airline issues were probably 5 years later.

 

[drron]

You call those watchlists.
I was on a real one back in my radical youth. I was on an ASIO watchlist.
My father was a senior public servant going for a promotion and was told his son was a communist and was being watched by ASIO.
Now I was a bit radical but the truth was that I once took out the daughter of a senior member of the Australian Communist Party.