Somehow, American Airlines issued a duplicate boarding pass in my name to a young Mormon elder who checked in at the Salt Lake City airport 30 minutes after I checked in. Furthermore, it appears that he checked in two pieces of luggage—also in my name –as there were two luggage stickers affixed to his (my) boarding pass with my name printed on them (I didn’t check any bags at all). That alone is almost unbelievable but then it struck me that the young man seemingly went through the entire TSA screening process using a boarding pass that was issued in my name. He made it all the way on to the plane, and only realized that something was amiss when he approached me and asked if I was sitting in his seat. We quickly realized that he had a boarding pass in my name. How does something like this not get discovered somewhere in the process?—particularly by the TSA who must match the boarding pass with the traveler’s ID. I can’t blame the young kid because this was his first time flying and I am certain he didn’t know what was happening until he boarded the plane. By the way, he was heading to Tulsa and I was heading to Louisville.
Personally, I believe this shows that some TSA agents are susceptible to profiling (but in a much different manner than typically encountered). The young elder was dressed in typical Mormon dress attire with his nametag pinned to his suit coat. I doubt very much that a Salt Lake City TSA agent was paying very much attention to his ID and escorted him through the line with minimal security concern.
Well, I hope he and his luggage make it to Tulsa.
Airport security and the TSA…reassuring, isn’t it?
Honestly, is it really worth the taxpayer’s dollars?
