I'm on a watchlist...

[VPS]

That’s a bit rough! I can get whacking the leader, but taking out the daughter seems like a low blow

Maybe that should be in the grammar thread

 

[toowongman]

Check in today took twenty one minutes (I timed it from placing my bag on the belt). Chap at the check in counter couldn't run away from me fast enough. Sort of amusing in a way. Oh well, guess I'm writing a good old-fashioned letter to them next week to get to the bottom of all this.

 

[AIRwin]

Check in today took twenty one minutes (I timed it from placing my bag on the belt).

Heard there was also a Sabre outage?

 

[jastel]

Did actually happen to my sister in the USA, not on Qantas flying in but AA DOM flights in the US, as a Platinum she got it fixed after a couple of flights...probably the accent helped, and that she wasnt black like the other person...

The other person was turfed off a plane and was on their NO FLY list.

 

[toowongman]

Well, like most things in life - the simplest answer is the correct one. VA's reply was that there's someone else out there with my name on their list. Let's see what happens next time.

 

[markis10]

Well, like most things in life - the simplest answer is the correct one. VA's reply was that there's someone else out there with my name on their list. Let's see what happens next time.

Your last name is not Corby is it , no need to reply

 

[Saab34]

Perhaps contact the Virgin privacy team, even a slight legal threat, I’ve found privacy teams in the past go to significant lengths to sort out issues.

Mentioning legal or media threat can often get a fix same day. I had a blue with one company, advised the local paper is running a story on it, I had the Head of Communications on the phone to me within a few hours. Regardless, I think a few media outlets would actually pick up this story anyway.

How to get in touch with our Privacy Officer​

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or any other questions or concerns about how we’ve handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer by writing to us.

[email protected]

Privacy Officer
PO Box 1034
Spring Hill QLD 4004

 

[moa999]

At the very least have a note added to your FF number so if you book a flight under your name with your FF number, then it's clear that you are not said person.

 

[DC3]

Oh, mistaken identity?

 

[Saab34]

At the very least have a note added to your FF number so if you book a flight under your name with your FF number, then it's clear that you are not said person.

I’d be interested to know what the legal consequences of this are, this is clearly a breach and negligence on Virgin’s end. The process also behind how the intended persons name came about, and how the system of today is processing that, clearly it’s not doing the correct job.

I think this is a serious beach on VAs end and id probably push hard on this one. Go nuts with the legal and media threats, you will be surprised how quick it will be sorted.

 

[Justinf]

I travelled to the US with my now departed dad a while back to see my sister who was living there.
He had barely been out of the state (other than driving trucks) let alone the country.
When we got to LAX and immigration, I was told to ‘follow me’ where I placed in a holding room. They took my passport.
My dad had no idea what was happening. I had to beg them to let me see him so he could get our bags and I could explain to him. I swear he thought I was a drug mule.
The sight of him standing there absolutely having no idea what was going on was heartbreaking.
I even had to be escorted to the bathroom.
After four hours…yes, four hours, one of the staff literally, and I mean literally, threw my passport at me and said ‘you can go’.
To this day I have no idea what happened.

 

[AIRwin]

I travelled to the US with my now departed dad a while back to see my sister who was living there.
He had barely been out of the state (other than driving trucks) let alone the country.
When we got to LAX and immigration, I was told to ‘follow me’ where I placed in a holding room. They took my passport.
My dad had no idea what was happening. I had to beg them to let me see him so he could get our bags and I could explain to him.
The sight of him standing there absolutely having no idea what was going on was heartbreaking.
I even had to beg escorted to the bathroom.
After four hours…yes, four hours, one of the staff literally, and I mean literally, throw my passport at me and said ‘you can go’.
To this day I have no idea what happened.

Have you been back since?

 

[Justinf]

Have you been back since?

Quite a few times. No problem at all.

 

[Daver6]

I’d be interested to know what the legal consequences of this are, this is clearly a breach and negligence on Virgin’s end. The process also behind how the intended persons name came about, and how the system of today is processing that, clearly it’s not doing the correct job.

I think this is a serious beach on VAs end and id probably push hard on this one. Go nuts with the legal and media threats, you will be surprised how quick it will be sorted.

I must be missing something here. A breach of what exactly? How has VA been negligent?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

I must be missing something here. A breach of what exactly? How has VA been negligent?

Same, they have delayed the check-in while confirming they are not a person of interest and that's about it? It's a bit of an inconvenience for sure but that's about it

 

[Dmac59]

I travelled to the US with my now departed dad a while back to see my sister who was living there.
He had barely been out of the state (other than driving trucks) let alone the country.
When we got to LAX and immigration, I was told to ‘follow me’ where I placed in a holding room. They took my passport.
My dad had no idea what was happening. I had to beg them to let me see him so he could get our bags and I could explain to him. I swear he thought I was a drug mule.
The sight of him standing there absolutely having no idea what was going on was heartbreaking.
I even had to be escorted to the bathroom.
After four hours…yes, four hours, one of the staff literally, and I mean literally, threw my passport at me and said ‘you can go’.
To this day I have no idea what happened.

This is one reason, not to mention the FXR, that I avoid travelling to the US.

 

[JohnM]

FXR

What is that, please?

 

[Dmac59]

What is that, please?

Foreign Exchange Rate

 

[kerfuffle]

Perhaps contact the Virgin privacy team, even a slight legal threat, I’ve found privacy teams in the past go to significant lengths to sort out issues.

Mentioning legal or media threat can often get a fix same day. I had a blue with one company, advised the local paper is running a story on it, I had the Head of Communications on the phone to me within a few hours. Regardless, I think a few media outlets would actually pick up this story anyway.

How to get in touch with our Privacy Officer​

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or any other questions or concerns about how we’ve handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer by writing to us.

[email protected]

Privacy Officer
PO Box 1034
Spring Hill QLD 4004

They also read these forums. I ended up with someone else's booking in my profile and got the time to check in e-mail. Someone from Virgin saw the thread and promptly asked me to contact privacy.

 

[RooFlyer]

I’d be interested to know what the legal consequences of this are, this is clearly a breach and negligence on Virgin’s end. The process also behind how the intended persons name came about, and how the system of today is processing that, clearly it’s not doing the correct job.

I think this is a serious beach on VAs end and id probably push hard on this one. Go nuts with the legal and media threats, you will be surprised how quick it will be sorted.

i’m also wondering what the negligence or the 'breach' on VA's part is?

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

But it wasn’t made public information wasn’t? For all we know the check-in agent's screen might just come up with something like 'Warning # 25. Do this, this, this is to verify the passenger, else contact AFP for advice'.

People are put on 'watchlists' for various reasons and by various authorities. I imagine the airlines are required to cross reference the names of nasties (and I imagine there are degrees of nasty history from terrorism to threats to obnoxious behaviour) with everyone that flies with them, and if there’s a match then check it out to make sure it’s not the real nasty that’s about to board a plane.

By sound of it the agents might have been a bit more diplomatic about it but who knows, there might’ve been a red hot crime alert for a person with the same name issued that day and they might’ve thought the one in front of them was a genuine very bad person. Hopefully it doesn’t happen very often.