Tag Archives for no fly list.
No Fly Lists include people added by mistake (FBI agent checking the wrong box on a form or having a name similar to someone else) and even added maliciously (such as retaliation for refusing to cooperate in an investigation).
Using unreviewable, secret and often arbitrary Minority Report-style pre-crime profiling as a basis for denying any kind of right is a huge departure for our system of justice. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is considering whether someone placed on a No Fly List as retaliation for not becoming an FBI informant, when there’s no suggestion they’ve done anything wrong, is a clearly-enough established violation of rights to justify damages. The Biden administration Justice Department says it is not.
Violent passengers on planes should be addressed by prosecuting those passengers for their behavior and imposing punishments according to law, not by layering on administrative travel bans. Any punishment that encumbers an American’s right to travel should be subject to an appropriate level of judicial review and scrutiny.
CommuteAir, which operates Embraer ERJ-145s for United Airlines, left the entire U.S. federal No Fly List on a server that was easily hacked.
Delta’s CEO called for a national no fly list for unruly behavior, act poorly on one airline be unable to fly any airline. Highly problematic, with no standards for being placed on that list (each airline applies its own!) or opportunity for judicial review. That didn’t go anywhere though it’s something the Biden administration toyed with.
Now Dutch airlines KLM and Transavia want this as an international system, and will begin by sharing unruly passenger behavior which each other.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian as an op-ed in the Washington Post advocating for a federal No Fly List for ill-behaved passengers. What’s striking about the piece is how dismissive it seems to civil liberties concerns and the rule of law, and how little self-awareness there is over steps Delta itself has failed to take to address the problems their crew face in the air. The No Fly List probably won’t make much difference in any case.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
