Three months ago, in an effort to tighten up what seemed to be an already water-tight check-in process, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) advised that on August 15th, 2009, they would begin implementing their so-called Secure Flight Program. The program would be a method for identifying passengers departing US airports by making sure their issued tickets matched their government issued identification (eg, their driver's license or passport).

The new ID requirements state that the passenger's full name, date of birth and gender must match their ID before boarding their flights or else be subject to further screening.

According to their website: 

Secure Flight is a behind the scenes program that streamlines the watch list matching process. It will improve the travel experience for all passengers, including those who have been misidentified in the past... Passengers shouldn't be concerned if particular airlines don't ask them to provide the additional information right away; it should not impact their travel. Each airline will request this information as their capability to capture it is integrated into their individual systems.

The plan, set to into effect this Saturday, will take some time to have the kinks worked out as most travelers will have bought their tickets long before they knew about the new requirement. Hence, TSA should be pretty lenient about enforcing the rule, at least for the time being.

Read more about this on TSA's website and also in a previous post by AirTreks here.