Big Brother getting a bit too big??

[inspcalahan]

Story time to give you something to ponder....

About a week ago, I fly down to the Phoenix area on American Airlines to visit family. I took down a few firearms in checked baggage as well. About a week later, I go to the airport to check in for my return flight. Before getting to the counter to declare the firearms in my luggage, I'm directed to the computer kiosk to start the process. I slide in my credit card to use to "identify" me and search for the reservations. Other options were swiping a passport or scanning a printed e-reservation if you had them.

Before anything else pops up on the screen about my reservations, a screen shows up saying "please see the attendant to declare your firearm". Simply from my credit card swipe.

Now I get that I'm on the second leg of a round trip flight reservation. I lawfully and correctly declared them on the first leg. Prior to getting the chance on the return leg, this occurred. Is it an "assumption" that I must have the firearms on the return flight also??? Is it linked to my credit card? Or just because it's my ID info? What if I had left my firearms there? Is this a way to track where firearms are ending up??

Not that big of a deal since I'm playing by the rules anyway, but it just seemed to kind of get my goat a bit.

Anyone else had this happen?? I fly quite frequently with declared firearms in my luggage, but this was the first time I've seen this happen.

 

[Philadelphia Patriot]

When you walked through the airport entrance, they scanned your brain and read your thoughts regarding having firearms. This is how they knew about them.

However, if you wore your tinfoil hat like all of us here are supposed to, then they wouldn't have known you had firearms on you.

 

[Erich]

I've not had that happen. Honestly, I could look at it as sort of a service: since one doesn't generally travel one-way with firearms from one's home, it's a pretty solid assumption and the reminder might help an absent-minded person avoid a hassle by forgetting to do the "I have a special circumstance to declare" dance to get to fill out the magic card when checking his luggage. (I know that would be really unlikely for most of us, but I understand it does happen.)

 

[Marine Corps Air]

I believe that you may have "solved the mystery" yourself.

About a week later, I go to the airport to check in for my return flight. Before getting to the counter to declare the firearms in my luggage, I'm directed to the computer kiosk to start the process. I slide in my credit card to use to "identify" me and search for the reservations. Other options were swiping a passport or scanning a printed e-reservation if you had them. .

Your credit card (just like a DL or passport) identified you in the AA reservation system. Based on your flight down from AK, with a stopover in AZ, AA concluded that based on your reservation you must be on your return leg back to AK.

I believe that it's an excellent attribute for the airline systems. I'm not going to go down the "I'm just human and I forgot that I that I have a Model 29-2 in my carry on baggage...." path, but we have a lot of nitwits who try to go through Atlanta-Hartsfield with this lame excuse:

Hartsfield-Jackson No. 1 for gun seizures | www.ajc.com

I don't even believe that my own personal excuse - "I'm old and can't remember stuff" would work anymore, especially in this day and age.

Just one old shooters opinion........

 

[Faulkner]

Big Brother has been too big for about 20 years.

 

[30-30remchester]

Big brother really got to me the other day. Seems the Center for Disease Control is now and has been tracking cells for ownership. Seems they have been doing this for about a decade. Determining who has land lines and who has cell phones. I can not imagine why the CDC needs this information.

 

[Aticus]

Big Brother has been too big for about 20 years.

Twenty years? Where have you been?

 

[Aticus]

Big brother really got to me the other day. Seems the Center for Disease Control is now and has been tracking cells for ownership. Seems they have been doing this for about a decade. Determining who has land lines and who has cell phones. I can not imagine why the CDC needs this information.

That's easy. They're tracking the cancer causing devices to keep us from injuring ourselves!

 

[madmikeb]

I fly to AZ every spring and take a firearm. On my return trip this spring when I tried to check in and print my boarding passes online 24 hours ahead of time I couldn't. I had to check in at the ticket counter just before the flight. The agent said it was due to my having a firearm on the way out.

It was the first time this had happened so it must be something new.

 

[BC38]

I'm sure declaring a firearm sets a flag on your reservation record, which triggered the message at the kiosk. It IDs you by your credit card from the payment info on the reservation. If you had been trying to make a reservation going somewhere else or had used a different credit card I'd be willing to bet it wouldn't have "flagged" you.

While they can extract all kinds of info from databases, most of them - even one as sophisticated as the air reservations database - don't have enough "smarts" to make those kinds of connection on their own. It takes someone searching the database to "mine" that kind of data.

 

[islamoradamark]

i bet this happens only to honest Americans

 

[Beemerguy53]

Guys, this is 2015...there is so much information about us all on various computer databases that we shouldn't be surprised by it anymore.

When I visit, for example, the ABC Widget Company's website, the next time I open my Facebook page, there will be -- surprise! -- an ad for ABC Widgets. I drive to New York City to visit friends every couple of months. On the way, when I call New Jersey's automated 511 traffic information system, it recognizes my phone, and asks if I once again want information on the New Jersey Turnpike.

What happened to the OP doesn't surprise me in the slightest, and there isn't anything sinister about it. In fact, I view it as the airline going the extra mile to keep its passengers on the right side of the law and in compliance with various air travel regulations.

 

[The Big D]

I'll bite...

Since I have never, ever, in multiple hundreds of
of flights seen a reference to 'see the attendant' for ANYTHING let alone a firearm declaration, I am a bit suspicious of the accuracy of the OP. That said, having regularly flown with a firearm in my baggage, I have never, ever used a kiosk KNOWING that a firearm must be declared with an airline agent.

Be safe.

Story time to give you something to ponder....

About a week ago, I fly down to the Phoenix area on American Airlines to visit family. I took down a few firearms in checked baggage as well. About a week later, I go to the airport to check in for my return flight. Before getting to the counter to declare the firearms in my luggage, I'm directed to the computer kiosk to start the process. I slide in my credit card to use to "identify" me and search for the reservations. Other options were swiping a passport or scanning a printed e-reservation if you had them.

Before anything else pops up on the screen about my reservations, a screen shows up saying "please see the attendant to declare your firearm". Simply from my credit card swipe.

Now I get that I'm on the second leg of a round trip flight reservation. I lawfully and correctly declared them on the first leg. Prior to getting the chance on the return leg, this occurred. Is it an "assumption" that I must have the firearms on the return flight also??? Is it linked to my credit card? Or just because it's my ID info? What if I had left my firearms there? Is this a way to track where firearms are ending up??

Not that big of a deal since I'm playing by the rules anyway, but it just seemed to kind of get my goat a bit.

Anyone else had this happen?? I fly quite frequently with declared firearms in my luggage, but this was the first time I've seen this happen.

 

[Fishslayer]

When I visit, for example, the ABC Widget Company's website, the next time I open my Facebook page, there will be -- surprise! -- an ad for ABC Widgets.

Not just FB but the S&W forum as well. OK. I "get" widget this & widget that... but where the Sam Hill have I been that The Gorilla is tryin' to sell me Asian & Russian brides and some tres chic stripper shoes?

Seriously, this really started on Sept 12, 2001. Anybody who thinks one side is less interested than the other in controlling them hasn't been paying attention. They just use different tragedies...

 

[kenv1950]

And how many here has sent their DNA to Ancestry places?
That makes me wonder

 

[inspcalahan]

Since I have never, ever, in multiple hundreds of
of flights seen a reference to 'see the attendant' for ANYTHING let alone a firearm declaration, I am a bit suspicious of the accuracy of the OP. That said, having regularly flown with a firearm in my baggage, I have never, ever used a kiosk KNOWING that a firearm must be declared with an airline agent.

Be safe.

Well, when I walked into the roped off lane with a silver 4 1/2' aluminum gun case in one hand, I was met by an airline employee who greeted me. I stated I had firearms to declare. Seeing my gun case, hearing what I said (I assume), he then said "start your check in process at the kiosk"....so that's what I did.

What do I know about my accuracy......it's not like I was actually there or anything....

It's interesting to read the opinions - they are appreciated! I do see the benefit of an airline doing this to make sure you don't "accidentally" forget to declare a gun, yet I'm still not sure that's the actual intent.

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts!

 

[finesse_r]

I doubt that it had anything to do with that NRA cap you were wearing, or the camo pants and jacket. Might have a little to do with the black full hood mask you were wearing however.

 

[Jack Flash]

Well, at least we know that if you were a terrorist, they couldn't look at your FaceBook posts, because that would be too intrusive.

 

[handejector]

I think it was just a coincidence.

I do fly with tinfoil earplugs, though. They have stuff at airports to read minds through the ear canal. If your ears suddenly feel warm at the airport, they're doin it.

and now, a little music -
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs&list=RDOMOGaugKpzs#t=8[/ame]

 

[Protected One]

I had the same experience at the Phoenix airport while returning home over the Thanksgiving Holiday. I presume they figured if I took it with me it was coming home with me too. A slight twist though: On my outbound flight in Detroit a TSA agent unlocked the case and inspected the gun and under the foam cushions in the case. But on the return trip from Phoenix they only put the case under some kind of scanner which they said could detect residue if it were recently fired. They never opened the case! Go figure. Didn't bother me as I had nothing to hid and had followed all their little rules.