Thom Hartmann: Ralph Nader's Solutions for Saving the Future

[SheilaT]

15. Not really. Not entirely anonymously.

There still needed to be a name on the ticket, and while no one was checking ID on every passenger, we did pay attention to the names on the tickets, and we matched the tickets with the Passenger Name List on every flight. If, for instance, the ticket you presented said Ralph Nader on it, and I could tell by looking at you that you weren't the Ralph Nader I already knew, I'd ask you for ID, and it better match the name on the ticket.

If you'd made a series of flight reservations, and missed one of them along the way without bothering to let us know, we'd automatically cancel all of the rest of the reservations in that series. The assumption was, if you didn't get on the flight to Albany today, you probably weren't going to be in Albany two days from now to catch the flight to Chicago.

Also, by 1971, if you bought a one way ticket and paid cash, you'd be subject to a little extra scrutiny going through security.